Rate Your Screenplay Character, ScreenwritingU!

Written by Hal Croasmun on August 3, 2010.

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In the first five pages of your screenplay, we should see an extremely interesting lead character. Great lead characters make great screenplays.
People are always asking me how you know when a script is ready and it is an important question.  In reality, I have a series of tests that tell me that a script is in the right neighborhood.
Here's one of them -- Characters that are astounding.
Think of the best character you've read in a screenplay.  There was something about them that was so interesting and entertaining that they carried the movie by themselves.
Today's quiz will give you a chance to see if you have a character that performs at that level of quality.  I've listed five essential parts of a screenplay character below.  With each one, rate your lead characters 1 - 10 according to my scale for each topic.

Let's Rate the Lead Character of Your Screenplay

1.  Unique in some substantial way, yet familiar

You need a blend of familiar and unique.  If a character is too unique, no audience will be able to relate to that character. On the other hand, too much familiar and the character becomes boring.  The key is to have characters where the familiar feels right for the story and the unique part adds something really special.
Rate your characters:

(1) My characters either have very little familiar part or no unique part.

(4) My characters have a blend, but don't really stand out.

(10) My characters are the perfect blend and their unique parts give amazing contributions to the story.

2.  Multi-dimensional without being confusing

Characters should feel like real people who have a variety of different things going on in their lives.  At the same time, a screenplay isn't big enough to encompass all of the internal activity a real person might have. So you need to bring each character down to three or four major traits that fully express who they are.

Rate your characters:

(1) Most characters sound the same.

(4) Some of my characters have unique dialogue.

(10) All of my lead characters have a variety of interesting traits and fully express them in dialogue and action.

3.  Flaw that is important to the story

When a character flaw is well chosen, it can add so much to a story.  It gets in the way at just the right moment.  It increases our concern for the character and gives them something to overcome. But it also has significant meaning within the story, not just to the character.
Rate your characters:

(1) The lead characters have no flaws.

(3) My characters have flaws, but they aren't important to the story.

(10) My character's flaws are a vital part of the story.

4.  External goal, internal need

Your protagonist needs to have an external goal that they are going for and an internal need they must resolve in order to become more fully who they want to be in life.  Both motivate the protag to take action.
The external goal gives a reason for the action in the story. The internal need is usually in opposition with the external goal and means the protag will need to find some way to align the two or give up one by the end of the story.

Rate your characters:

(1) My lead characters are missing either an external goal or internal need.

(4) My lead characters have both, but they aren't in conflict.

(10) My lead characters have both and they add so much to the story.

5.  Subtext/hidden world

I don't know a single human being that doesn't have an inner world they aren't fully expressing. Sometimes, that shows up as a secret they are hiding.  Other times, it shows as an emotion they aren't expressing.  But it could also be a covert agenda that is a major part of their daily activity, yet is unknown to most people.
Be careful here.  You don't want to have your characters telling their inner world.  That is for novel writing. In a screenplay, the inner world needs to be delivered through subtext and well selected actions.

Rate your characters:

(1) My lead characters don't have much of an inner world.

(3) My lead characters do have an inner world, but it is either not expressed well or doesn't have much to do with the story.

(10) My lead characters have subtext that brings as much to the script as the surface story.

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WHAT TO DO?

In most screenplays, I can tell where a character fits within a few pages. Either they are showing up with these five components or they aren't. Most of the time, it just points toward the one or two things that need to be expanded or improved.
Reconsidering your characters will take you one step closer to seeing your stories up on the screen.  I encourage you to do your very best to bring amazing character and dialogue to your screenplay.

The Inciting Incident

by, Jacob Krueger

  100 Rules and How To Break Them

 

Rule #4 THE INCITING INCIDENT

Check out 100 Rules And How To Break Them for more tips.
This installment of the 100 Rules series grows directly out of a question from a former student:

I have a question and thought I needed a fresh perspective from someone outside UCLA… I’m sort of getting in a fight with the teacher of my workshop about my inciting event. In my naturally rebellious style, I don’t think there is a rule that the inciting event has to nail us early in the script. I think it can actually be before anything is ever done on screen.  I’m being told that [an event that happens before the movie starts] can’t be my inciting incident... I’m just wondering your opinion.  – Dom C.

 

Opening The Door To Change

The inciting incident is just a fancy name writing teachers like to give to the moment that opens the door for change for a character.  And you’re absolutely right.  It’s often the case in movies that inciting incidents happen before the movie starts.
For example, in Thelma and Louise, the main characters have already decided to go on their road trip before the movie begins (though Thelma still hasn’t told her hubby).  Or, in Little Miss Sunshine, Uncle Frank has already decided to kill himself before the movie starts.

 

Getting Your Movie Moving

Having an inciting incident happen before your movie begins can often be a good thing, because it keeps the “normal world” of your script from becoming a “boring world” by starting the movie moving and your characters changing from page 1.
When this happens though, there’s usually a second inciting incident on page 10 – 12, that shocks us out of the “new normal” world set up by that original inciting incident, and opens the door to change.
For Thelma and Louise, it’s the moment Thelma flirts with the creepy guy at the truck stop who will later try to rape her.  In Little Miss Sunshine it’s the moment Olive hears the voicemail saying that she’s going to get to compete in the beauty pageant.

 

Is This A Rule You Can Break?

You are absolutely right that there are no rules in screenwriting.  God did not come down and proclaim that the inciting incident must happen by page 12 (that was Syd Field).
Many screenplays have pushed the inciting incident pretty deep down into the story and still worked brilliantly.  But if you have commercial aspirations for your script, it’s also worth noting that having a strong inciting incident early in your script will help lock an audience into your story, and help get you past the coverage readers that guard the kingdom.
Besides, if you don’t have an inciting incident where producers are expecting it, almost certainly at some point, some producer is going to create one for you.
You’re not going to like what they create.  So usually you’re better off giving them one yourself.

 

No Rigid Formulas

 

If your professor doesn’t believe an inciting incident can happen late in a movie, tell him to watch There Will Be Blood.  PT Anderson starts the movie with about 20 minutes of silent filmmaking before we ever get to the inciting incident.
However, when you read the script for There Will Be Blood, there’s the inciting incident, right where it’s supposed to be.  By page 6, Daniel’s friend has died, and Daniel is already stuck with the boy.  And just in case anyone was concerned that this was too early, there’s another inciting incident right where Syd Field says it should appear: on page 12, when Paul Sunday shows up to tell Daniel about the oil.
Anderson knows he’s not going to shoot it that way.  But he also knows if he doesn’t write it that way, executives are going to get nervous.
Similarly, Michael Clayton moves the end of the movie to the beginning, to create the sense of an exciting inciting incident before one has actually occurred.
Great writers know that that inciting incident is not a rule to which we must conform.  It’s a game we play in later drafts, in order to help us capture the attention of our audiences.

 

Discovering Your Inciting Incident

There are very few things more damaging to a young writer than obsessing over page count.  Great scripts come from stepping into a character, and taking them on a profound journey.  And it’s impossible to do this if you’re looking in on your script from the outside, and editing every word before your story even makes it onto the page.
The page 12 inciting incident is not where you start as a writer.  It’s where you end up.
It might take you 50 pages of writing to discover the amazing moment that ultimately becomes your inciting incident.  And if you’re so worried about hitting some magic number that you don’t allow yourself those 50 pages, you’re never going to discover the good stuff.
In which case, it’s not going to matter where your inciting incident happens, because nobody’s going to want to watch your movie.

 

Almost every scene has an inciting incident.

Though inciting incident is usually used as structural concept to discuss the moment that starts the engine on the entire film, the truth of the matter is that almost every scene in your movie is going to contain an inciting incident.
Another way to think of inciting incident is simply as the moment where things shift for your character:  the event that happens– within the scene, the act, or the entire movie– that interrupts whatever has become the normal world for the character, and changes your character or the world around him so that things can no longer be exactly the same as they were before.
This is why it’s often the little inciting incidents within each scene that are actually most important for you as a writer.  It’s these moments that keep your movie moving, and propel the force of your character’s journey.
If you are driving your story forward and forcing your character to change in little ways in each scene that you write, it’s inevitable that your character is going to go on a profound journey, and you’re going to discover those big turning points that producers are always so worried about.
Once you’ve allowed your character’s journey to play out to the greatest extent of your imagination and discovered those powerful scenes around which your movie turns, you can slice, dice, compress, revise or (if you’re like PT Anderson) downright cheat to make that moment feel producer friendly.
But until then, keep your focus where it belongs.  On your character.

Φωτογραφίες από Νεράιδες!!

 

 

 

A Donation for Oceans by LeoDiCaprio Foundation!

OCEANA ANNOUNCES $3 MILLION GRANT FROM LDF

Grant, from proceeds of 11th Hour Auction at Christie’s, to protect sharks, marine animals, habitat in Pacific and Arctic

Washington, DC – Oceana, the largest international advocacy group to work on behalf of the world’s oceans, announced a $3 million grant today from the Leonardo DiCaprio foundation aimed at protecting threatened ocean habitat and keystone marine species such as sharks. The foundation’s grant will also support Oceana’s work to advocate for responsible fishing measures, including the effort to ban California drift gillnets.

“The foundation and Leo’s support for campaigns like our efforts to ban the drift gillnets in California will help Oceana win more protections for countless sharks and other marine animals and for ocean habitats in the Pacific and Arctic – which include some of the most productive ocean places in the world,” said Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless. “The net impact will be a much more abundant and biodiverse ocean that has many millions more sharks and critical and amazing marine animals, wilder and more pristine ocean habitats and oceans that can feed over a billion people – many of them hungry – a healthy seafood meal each day.”

“Protecting our planet’s oceans and the marine species that call it home is one of the most pressing sustainability crises facing humanity today and a moral imperative that we must acknowledge,” DiCaprio said. “It’s my hope that this grant will help Oceana continue the tremendous work that they do daily on behalf of our oceans.”

Spread over a three-year period, the $3 million from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is the first marine conservation grant made following the foundation’s 11^th Hour Charity Auction hosted at Christie’s last year.  The grant to Oceana will support the organization’s work, from the south of Chile to the north of Alaska, to preserve ecologically important ocean areas and Oceana’s campaigns, including the campaign to ban drift gillnets off California, in order to protect dolphins, whales, turtles and other marine animals from being caught and killed as “bycatch.”

Gillnets targeting swordfish and thresher sharks are set off of Southern California and are typically a mile-long in diameter.  This indiscriminate gear catches and kills large numbers of non-targeted marine animals including sperm whales, gray whales, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, elephant seals, and sea lions. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Oceana recently received hundreds of photos of animals caught and killed by this destructive gear. 

“We are incredibly grateful to our friends at Christie’s who made last year’s 11^th Hour Auction for the foundation such a success, they made this grant to Oceana possible,” said Justin Winters, Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.  “We are excited to support Oceana’s efforts to win real policy change and protection for vital habitats and species throughout the Pacific and Arctic oceans.”

“Christie's is proud to support both the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and Oceana in their fundamental work to make our planet a better place” said Steven Murphy, Chief Executive Office of Christie’s. “It was an honor for Christie’s to host the Foundation’s 11th Hour Charity Auction and, as we were delighted with the result achieved, so we are thrilled that it could facilitate this grant to Oceana, funding such important endeavors to preserve our oceans.”

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