Film Courage: What steps can a writer take to make a three-dimensional character?
Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): Oh good!
I think you’ve got to start thinking about who they are physically, emotionally, socially.
You’ve got to figure out what their vulnerabilities are, what their flaws are, what they’re
good at, what they’re not good at, what their insecurities are because we’re all
motivated by that.
We’re motivated by our insecurities.
People do things because they are trying to feed whatever hole is on the inside of them.
I do a whole trauma and stress lesson during my No Writer’s Block course.
Because everyone of us has a trauma even if your trauma may seem small to me and my trauma
may seem small to you.
We each have a trauma and on some level that trauma created our insecurities and our insecurity
is what feeds us, that’s our motivation.
I always give the example of the characters in the Wizard of Oz.
Because the lion is cowardly he says “If I can get Dorothy to Oz the I am NOT a coward
because what I have to go through makes me brave.”
It’s not because he really cares about Dorothy, he really wants to take her to Oz, you know
what I mean?
It’s because he’s a coward and so at some point he has to decide “Okay, in order to
be brave and get rid of the cowardly stuff and I’ve got to go through something that
gets me there.”
So that’s the thing that motivates him to actually do the external thing so that internal
thing is really the motivator for the external thing.
I feel like that is true for people and if we realize that about people then we realize
that about characters and that’s how they get depth and become more believable.
Film Courage: If we go back to Harry Potter, what are some of his wounds that show up?
Shannan: His biggest wound is identity.
He is not being raised by his parents so that is in and of itself going to be a trauma whether
you knew it…he knew…he always knew that these were not his parents.
That is something that has always been inside of him all of the time.
Some people don’t find that information out until later and then the trauma starts,
right?
But for him he always knew “These are not my people.”
On top of that the people who were raising him were raising him were mistreating him
and abusing him so that is a second trauma.
On top of that, he’s a weirdo who can hear snakes talking and sometimes makes things
disappear and so all he is thinking is “I’m this other that no one loves.”
I think that is one of the reasons he has a Hero Complex that he has to save other people
and always be looking…that is why his friends are so important to him and why he has to
save people because of that hole of identity of Who Am I?
Who Loves Me?
Who Do I Love Back?
And Where Do I Belong?
Film Courage: How do we get a viewer to care about a character?
Shannan: I think it goes back to that same stuff like if I can understand why you’re
doing what you’re doing, then that is going to be far more relatable because almost all
of us are working from that same kind of place.
For example if I am always seeing a person being lazy, it’s easy for me to just assume
that they’re lazy but if I understand that really they’re overwhelmed and they don’t
know where to start and they want to be able to ask questions but they don’t know what
question to ask so they are really frozen in that spot and not being lazy that I can
understand.
Now I’ve been in a place where it’s like I need some information but I don’t even
know where to begin.
For whatever reason I’ve been equipped to then figure it out.
Maybe this person hasn’t.
Maybe I now have a different perspective of who that person is that understanding that
they’re just frozen in time because they don’t know which way to go because they
don’t have those kinds of skills to do so.
Now they’re not lazy, they’re overwhelmed.
I think all of us can relate an overwhelmed person more so than a lazy person.
Film Courage: It seems like there are so many films with a great production value (especially
now) but sometimes there’s a disconnect with the character so this goes back to how
come we’re not always caring about these characters but the [story] world looks great,
there is just something missing in our emotional connection?
Shannan: Yes, if that kind of thing happens then I would definitely say it’s something
that happened in the writing.
It’s probably something that is not on the page to attach that emotional journey to the
physical journey and so we’re missing out on it.
Sometimes that happens purposefully because they were more excited about the world and
they were more excited about the production value and that is what they wanted to give
you and they figured that part would be the thing that makes you excited about it and
sometimes that happens.
Sometimes people depending upon what they’re making, who is making it, why they are making
it, who has the money to throw at it.
It may just be “I want to tell this big fantasy story," and that’s the part that
matters so that’s what you get.
It just really depends going back to those executives who have now decided to purchase
this script and take it into development, if they care about the characters then it’s
going to get pulled out.
If they don’t, it might not.
If the brand of the place is you want to make a big slasher films that you don’t care
about the people, the people just go, then you’re not going to spend time on trying
to make people like them.
They’re going to give you one or two things that you know that this is the good guy and
you know the slasher is the bad guy and they’re just going to make a movie.
So it really depends on what they’re trying to get across when they’re doing it but
definitely if you’re not able to emotionally connect, then something happened in the writing.
The question is - Why was it allowed?