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Characters: Creating Characters | ||
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Catch-phrasesSherlock Holmes is known by the phrase "elementary my dear Watson" (though in fact he never actually says this in any story). It sums up his character of being condescending. Bugs Bunny says "What's up Doc?", and presents himself as friendly and open to other persons problems. The phrase "Another fine mess you've got us into Stanley" shows the resigned attitude of Oliver Hardy to Stan Laurel. The phrases themselves will immediately bring up images of the characters. It is not easy to come up with a catch-phrase, but the starting point is to think of an opening or closing phrase to a conversation that somehow sums up the person attitude. It helps to act out your characters or get someone to act them out for you to get a feeling for how they will perform. This includes the sort of facial expressions they make. List ideas about the character and describe them as you might describe someone you know very well. Use a tape recorder to record ideas as they come into your head. Think of phrases they might often use that could become identified with them. Make up random situations and think how they might act in them. Get someone to question you about the character as though you knew them well. The endpoint of this approach will be to sort out the 'definitely right from the definitely wrong' aspects of the character. This can be refined later. Your characters should appear act in a spontaneous way. That is what you should aim for with a character. |
How do we see people?We see people first as Gender, secondly as a Role, and thirdly as a Personality: Gender: When we walk down the street we look at the opposite sex who appear to be attractive, and make a mental assessment of their potential in the sense of saying "I wouldn't mind knowing him/her". We are all the time assessing others, and being assessed by others. Our awareness or regard for this affects how we dress, act, and present ourselves. Role: The role of the person gives us further information. If we can see what they do by their dress or actions, it enables us to assess them further. A pretty girl working as a cashier in a supermarket might well be assessed differently from the same girl working as a production assistant on a film. Men are even more aware of how 'rank' comes into the assessment of themselves. The fact that they have a more limited range of appearances than women requires them to take on more defined attitudes of assertiveness. Personality: The personality of a person does not come across so quickly. We need to know the person to some extent. When we first meet someone and wish to impress them we tend to exaggerate our personality traits, and 'volunteer' information about ourselves that we would not do to those we are not attracted to. In return, the other person will react by a positive or negative response. This will be done by leaving 'openings' that allow further demonstrations of who we are, or by blocking off the conversation, or directing it away from self-presentation. It is worth studying the scripts of plays to see how characters introduce themselves to the audience via the situations that present their personalities. |
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Email: stan@makemovies.co.uk. Page last updated:
© 2002-2009 Stan Hayward. All rights reserved.