Written by Hal Croasmun on August 3, 2010.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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