SOCIALLY CONDITIONED

Character behavior is measured by where it falls on a normal to abnormal scale.  Most of our lives are programmed.  Characters in stories either try to follow that program or deviate from it.  Our lives are marked with birthdays, graduations, marriages and other cornerstones.  We all celebrate holidays at that same time.  We mark when we first had sex, first drove a car, first traveled to a foreign country and when we had our first child.  Our careers usually center on finding one job and keeping it for life. 

All of these events are marked by set forms of behavior.  We are expected to act in a certain way. 

Tradition is based on believing a certain pathway is not only the right way, but the road to happiness.  This tradition can date back generations, even centuries.  It is passed on from parent to child, teacher to student, friend to friend.  There is an unwritten manual, such as the “American Dream,” that if followed to the letter, will ensure a life of prosperity, security and happiness. 

Since life expectancy is the same for everyone, all of these events happen according to a certain timeline.  Some stories are about deviating from this timeline.  We don’t anticipate death, disease or a terrorist attack, events that alter the course of our lives.  Unfortunate events, situations or conditions that happen as a result of fate are forgiven, but not necessarily tolerated.  Ultimately, character is revealed by how a person chooses to respond to such events

A person can fall into a life of crime or choose a life of crime.  The choices and decisions made determine how to end a life of crime.  Or, a life of crime is ended by force.  Still, a criminal adheres to the same timeline as anyone else:  birthdays, anniversaries, etc. 

And outside of criminal activity, criminals follow the same rules of behavior as anyone else.  They wait for stoplights to change.  They brush their teeth.  They have favorite TV shows and like to drink milk out of a carton.  They smile and say thank you at a checkout counter.  Criminals can fall in love, have families, vote in elections, plan for retirement.

Deviations from these socially constructed events and patterns of behavior produce conflict.  Kids are not expected to take drugs.  Parents are not expected to divorce.  No one is expected to murder anyone. 

Socially conditioned behavior does not necessarily mean right behavior.  What is normal in some cases ought not to be.  Some laws are unjust or antiquated.  The struggle for social change produces conflict.  We are all at odds in some way with the world around us.  We are socially conditioned to believe certain things and act certain ways.  We do so without question.  Conflict is created when we are forced to question our beliefs and ways of behaving. 

CHASE SCENE

A chase scene builds suspense.  It should never be filler.  It takes place within a time frame.  In Catch Me If You Can, the real life chase scene took years.  In the movie, the real life chase scene was condensed to less than 2 hours.  The story for any movie could be interpreted as one big chase scene.  Something happens and the chase begins. When the chase is over, the movie is over.

Chase can be metaphorical, as in chasing a dream.  What does the hero have to go through to make the dream come true and how long will it take?  The story might begin a few hours or days before the dream is about to come true.  Flashbacks might be used to reveal when the dream first began.  Or, the dream coming true could be told as a memory.  It could be the dreams of a pirate, the dreams of a general, or the average dreams of any ordinary person:  dreams of a home, a college degree, getting married, retiring. 

Physical chase scenes take the form of good guy chasing bad guy, either on foot, by car or other mode of transportation.  Other chase scenes include chasing or running from an alien, or a monster, or an act of Mother Nature.  Other chases include searching for a cure, finding love, and any form of discovery. 

We chase goals. 

We do not choose to be chased. 

Some characters are after something, others are trying to get away. 

Rarely in real life do we ever chase each other.  Husbands don’t chase their wives, employees don’t chase their bosses, certainly not in the physical sense of running after each other.  Turning such goals and desires into actual physical chases is a way to dramatize, and in a comedy, provide humorous situations. 

However, cops do chase criminals, spies chase spies, and governments chase terrorists.  Stalking is also a form of chase.  Hate groups hound their victims at every chance they can get.  Lobbyists relentlessly pursue elected officials.  Corporations endlessly pursue consumers.  Consumers forever want something more. 

Chase scenes usually end up disappointing.  They are designed as an obstacle to overcome and produce conflict and suspense.  Chases span across time and place.  A chase can take place around the galaxy, around the world or around the block.  It can take years, days or hours. 

BEYOND NORMAL

Who’s the toughest: eating rats, chewing nails, putting a cigarette out in the hand.  From the sandbox to the office to the battlefield:  who dominates, who controls, who wins. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood–all have built their careers on being the toughest guy around. 

Heroes must have equally tough adversaries:  Killers, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, and bosses. 

Protagonists and antagonists must be equally matched, even if it’s a story about a marriage.

Superheroes are obvious:  Superman, Batman, and Spiderman.  But again, villains must also possess super powers.

Although movies are seemingly about normal people caught in extraordinary circumstances, characters must overcome anonymity by being decisive, charismatic or any other of a number of traits that make them stand out from a crowd. 

It is the ability of a seemingly normal character to overcome a series of obstacles to reach a desired goal that “normal people”–the audience–identifies with. 

Writing is not the only tool to create a sense of heightened reality.  Actors and actresses must have magnanimous personalities or the kind of “charisma” that translates on screen.  Otherwise, it would be like filming normal people in everyday life, such as in a documentary. 

Dialog plays a key role in that dramatic dialog is not real dialog.  Like time, conversations are condensed or expanded to create drama and propel a story forward.  Words are chosen very carefully to reveal character and tell a story (revealing premise and theme), and it must be done within the time frame of a two-hour movie. 

Conversations in real life can go on four hours, which is undramatic.  Conversations can also happen too fast.  Inner thoughts of characters can be revealed visually–as in a facial expression–or through dialog (words that are normally unspoken). 

“REAL” BAD GUYS

Something that always left me empty about good guy/bad guy movies is that they were way to far from reality.  The good guys and bad guys in society are nearly impossible to see.  They don’t carry guns.  Good guys don’t dress in white and bad guys dress in black.  They dress in infinite shades of grey. 

Clint Eastwood, and other good guy/hero types, went after bad guys who did really bad things–things that were obviously crimes.  Bad guys killed, raped, robbed and pillaged.  These are external manifestations of bad met with the external resistance of good.  When a guy sticks a gun in your face, it’s bad. 

The outward expression of good/bad guy makes sense in movies, because movies are a visual medium.  Watching a guy shoot another guy is visceral.  You can see the fight.  But the struggle between an intimidating boss and a meek employee is fought with gestures, words and emotional interplay.   

Real life is exceedingly subtle.  People don’t shoot each other, but they hurt each other continuously, day after day, by the simplest of acts.  There’s no crime committed, unless of course, the courts can prove some kind of abuse–mental, emotional and/or sexual.  But this is hard–because there is no physical evidence.  In abuse cases where there is no physical evidence, it clearly becomes a battle of “your word against mine.” 

In the case of an abusive boss, for example, it would take nearly all the employees working under him/her to stop the abuse.  It would take consensus.  A superior, confronted with the issue of an abusive manager working under him, would have to appeal to democratic principles in any form of punishment.  It would have to be something he couldn’t argue with–like 50 employees all agreeing and complaining about the same abuse. 

The only suspicion that could be entertained would be a conspiracy of some kind.  He would then have to ask himself, “Why are these 50 individuals conspiring against this boss who works underneath me?”

Even if he concluded it was a conspiracy, what would these 50 individuals have to gain?  It would depend on their demands.  If they simply wanted the boss to be fired and a new boss hired, then conspiracy is unlikely.  But if they all wanted a raise–then greed enters the picture. 

Anyway, to visualize this kind of inter-relationship dynamic is extremely difficult to do without some kind of physical manifestation.  If the boss had physically abused a number of employees, then the wounds would serve as evidence.  But wounds heal–so it would have to be immediate.  This would be most difficult since it is highly unlikely the boss would physically abuse several individuals at once.  It seems more plausible he would do so one at a time.  One person is not a majority.  It would take a majority to rule–according to democratic principles. 

Movies are not meant to be documentaries in the study of human psychology. 

How we stop people from abusing us in real life is rarely accomplished by shooting them, that is, without breaking the law ourselves. 

The ability to see people shoot each other is really a phenomenon of movies.  We see people shoot each other because we can.  With F/X, we can hear the gun fire and see blood spurt.  This is not easy to do in theater, especially when a close-up of a dying man’s face can significantly increase dramatic tension. 

In some cases, a shooting or stabbing or rape can be portrayed on stage.  Even a war can be simulated–but much of it is done in the imagination of the audience.  In movies, the audience sits back and watches. 

How would a writer/filmmaker show the hate one person feels for another, a hate that’s lasted for years?  People hurt each other over long periods of time.  The long term affects are devastating.  But how do we see fear?  How do we see depression?  How do we see low self-esteem?  How do we go into someone’s house and see how people treat each other behind closed doors?

Poverty is easy to see.  Poverty begets crime.  Criminals are bad people.  We can see they’re bad by the crimes they committed.  But we don’t see why.  We don’t see why poverty exists.  We don’t see specific individuals turning their backs on the poverty issue.  Who do we blame?  Anyone who is rich?

How do we see loneliness?  How do we see loneliness caused by cruel people or a cruel society?  How do we show someone NOT caring?  How do we demonstrate mental and emotional cruelty?

In real life there are certainly criminals and terrorists.  But a real bad guy is the father who told his son at an early age he’d never amount to anything.  A bad guy is a guy so narcissistic he completely fails to see the needs of others.  A bad guy is a white guy who believes all Blacks should be exterminated, even though he never files a single bullet. 

CONFLICT

The main conflict in nearly all movies is protagonist vs. antagonist.  And of course, no two roles exemplify this conflict better than cop and criminal.  But characters don’t exist in a vacuum.  A conflict between two people or groups of people is generated from larger sources of conflict.  These larger sources can be the self, nature, society and fate.

Protagonist vs. antagonist takes on many different faces.  In addition to cop/criminal, government agent vs. terrorist is equally as popular.  Pitting these kinds of characters is usually more dramatic because the stakes are higher.  Someone can die or a nation’s security is at risk.  There is intrigue, suspense and mystery, where characters play elaborate games mostly not to get caught.  So, the underlying theme of protagonist/antagonist is cat and mouse. 

Other one-on-one characters at odds with each other can include:  Man against woman; Black against white; bully against weakling; employee and boss; doctor and patient; teacher and student, etc. 

We root for the underdog.  We want to see the weakling defeat the bully.  Man against woman is too general.  In a criminal context, it could be an abusive man or a rape victim out for revenge.  Mostly, man/woman stories are romantic stories about the quest for love, a quest inherently filled with conflict.  Stakes are also high because of the value we place on finding love and keeping it.  Love usually means forever.  Love is also the ultimate quest of humankind, or so we would believe. 

One-on-one conflicts exist within larger conflicts.  A protagonist and antagonist work out their conflict through situations.  For instance, it’s a murder that brings a homicide detective and killer face to face.  A terrorist blows up a bus and now threatens to blow up a city. 

Conflicts thematically are about the forces of good versus evil.  However, in a cat and mouse story, neither the cat nor the mouse is evil, per se.  We can make the cat evil and root for the mouse.  Or, we can make the mouse evil and hope the cat gets the mouse in the end.  But in nature, the pecking order is not an inherently evil thing. 

Of course, we can imbue anything with a good or evil quality.  Natural disasters can just happen or they can be acts of God.  In horror movies, everything from fog to insects gets personified as evil, where an inanimate object or non-human creature seems to have a mind of its own.

There are a 1000 ways to reveal the overriding conflict that pits two characters against each other.  For instance, in a cop/criminal story, the cop can discover along the way the precinct he is assigned to is full of corruption.  Hence, the larger conflict is the question of justice.  It taps into the very nature of what society deems right and wrong.  Going further, the conflicts generated in the debate over right and wrong are also part of a larger quest for truth. 

Therefore, the quest for truth naturally breeds conflict.  Finding truth is also a way to resolve the story. 

Conflict reveals character.  So it is understanding human nature that is the thing most at work in fiction driven by conflict.  A man who hates the water and can’t swim finds a way to overcome his fears to save his family after a rented sailboat is ripped apart in a storm.  The conflict looks like it’s between the man and nature, but it’s really a conflict with the self in overcoming fear and earning the respect of a family that had him pegged as a weakling. 

Character arcs are critical to storytelling.  Conflict propels a character forward, forcing the character to overcome obstacles to reach a desired goal.  A character starts out one way and ends up another, usually from weak to strong, bad to good, nobody to somebody. 

A story about a rebellious school teacher is a reflection on the education system.  There’s a message in the story.  That message is clearly a solution to a problem.  A problem is the cousin of conflict. 

Now, many crime stories are not a reflection of real life.  They exist solely for their entertainment value.  And from a negative perspective, they distort the real world of cops and criminals.  So, not all stories have messages.

The subject of conflict begs a larger question of movies as entertainment or movies as message.  Movies can be both and the best ones are.  When there is an identification of audience with character, situation and story outcome, the experience is much more satisfying.  The audience not only walks away entertained, but might have learned something about themselves, others or the world they live in. 

Philosophically, on the largest plane possible, life is a struggle.  We come into the world screaming and go out the same way.  Some people just try to get by.  Most people want to do better.  Most people want to grow and prosper.  To achieve those goals, there are obstacles.  Risks are taken.  Sacrifices are made.  Along the way to reaching those goals there is conflict. 

Having fun first appears to be conflict free.  But behind having fun is a larger picture.  We don’t have fun all the time.  Fun exists because of the things in life that are not fun.  Having fun is a way to maintain some semblance of sanity and happiness in a world full of turmoil and the endless struggle to survive day to day. 

Even the best comedies are conflict-driven.  Characters are thrown into a situation—a situation being an event or occurrence that requires a decision or choice—and how they handle the situation determines the outcome.  The outcome can be funny or tragic. 

Mostly, we like to see characters beat the odds and overcome their own inner struggles.  There are plenty of forces at work preventing us from being the best we can be.  We have voices inside our heads that beat us down or lift us up.  Personified, it’s the proverbial devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. 

All of us struggle everyday with right vs. wrong, physical and emotional handicaps, nature and God.  It’s impossible to calculate the number of choices and decisions we make every day.  But just trying to imagine how many is enough to reveal we are struggling every moment of our lives. 

In the movies, we want to identify with characters that overcome their faults and weaknesses.  We hope to be inspired that we can do the same in real life. 

We also want to escape.  But escapism is nothing more than the mere avoidance of conflict.  We drink, take drugs, go on thrill rides and watch movies, all with the desire to escape reality.  Well, that may not necessarily be a true statement.  It depends on perspective.  Writers can cater to the belief that people want to escape and be mindlessly entertained.  Or, they can a deeper human side to the struggle of work vs. play, pain vs. pleasure, or fear vs. peace.

And then, there’s fate.  Fate vs. God is enough conflict in itself.  The struggle against fate or God may very well be the same struggle we have with our inner selves.  But we also don’t exist in a vacuum.  We live in society.  And any inner struggle we face invariably affects those around us.  Is a person born unlucky?  Or, is it more dramatic to tell the story of a character who believes they were born unlucky, then discovers in takes hard work and dedication to change things or reach a goal?

It’s not being born lucky or unlucky that produces the conflict.  It’s how a character handles good luck and bad luck is where the struggle is.   

DECISION MAKING

 

Life is based on the decisions and choices we make and don’t make.  It’s an endless philosophical debate whether we are born or made.  Some of us are born under a bad sign.  Others are born with a silver spoon. 

One thing for sure, regardless of fate or destiny, shit happens.  Life is full of unforeseeable events.  We are forced to make choices and decisions we normally would not make. 

How we view the past, present and future affects the choices and decisions we make.  A life full of past failures, a present that’s dim, and a future with no prospects, can cripple our decision making process or challenge it.  How characters handle decisions and choices is not all that different than real life. 

Of course, we don’t battle alien beings in real life.  But what would we do if we had to?  We have to make choices and decisions we might not be prepared to make.  We identify with characters in similar situations, real or imagined.  We learn from them. 

Movies are very much voyeuristic journeys into watching others make choices and decisions we either have to make ourselves, are afraid to make, or thrilled we will never have to make. 

We have preferences.  We like things to be a certain way.  We get upset, angry, lost and confused when our usual order of things is thrown into chaos.  We react.  We respond.

It’s probably not possible to understand why someone would like apples and not oranges.  Of course, there could be a legitimate or even insane reason for such a choice.  Apples might represent the ultimate in sin.  Mom used to make fresh squeezed orange juice every morning before she was brutally murdered. 

Our lives demand priorities.  Stories about life-threatening situations eliminate the need for prioritizing.  There’s only one thing important in the moment and that’s surviving or saving the life of someone else. 

Movies that are about life-threatening situations reveal character through the choices and decisions a character makes to survive and defeat the enemy or resolve the conflict.  A life-threatening situation offers a condensed slice-of-life.  Instead of seeing a character develop over time as in real life, from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood, we see who the person is immediately in how they handle a life-threatening situation. 

A life-threatening situation is life changing.  A once shy person becomes a hero.  A bully gets his due.  An estranged dad learns to appreciate the things he loves. 

But not all movies are about life-threatening situations.  It’s the difference between action and melodrama.  Making certain choices and decisions determines if a family stays together during hard times.  Doing something outrageous and out of character might be the only way to bring about a desired result. 

Life is filled with endless choices.  Some call it, “Overchoice.”  We have 100s of cable channels.  Choosing a car or a house is a traumatic experience.  Some people have a hard time figuring out what to eat every day or what to wear they haven’t worn over and over again.  Eating cheesecake could break a diet.  Trying a drug could spell disaster.  Some people refuse to buy a cell phone.  One call could break a deal, enact a law, change corporate policy, ruin a relationship. 

We are the sum of the people we know, and in many ways, the people we don’t know. 

How we choose to spend our time, whether we stop to smell the roses, take things for granted, choose a college or major, choose a partner, or choose to be silent, can have a dramatic affect on future events and outcomes. 

Some choices determine if we are nice or mean.  Some choices determine if we save ourselves or save the world. 

Choices and decisions are emotionally charged.  Refusing to accept a cold hamburger served in a restaurant reveals character.  Wanting the Gold Medal more than anything else in life reveals character.  We make choices and decisions based on how much we love or hate a person or thing. 

Choices and decisions are not based purely on rational thought.  It’s unlikely an insane serial killer makes conscious decisions to kill people.  He is driven by other forces.  We also do things based on gut reaction.  We make choices intuitively.  We really can’t explain why, we just know it in our hearts or gut it’s the right thing to do.  We also get carried away emotionally.  We lose control and do stupid things.  These are not conscious decisions. 

We are all struggling for some kind of balance in our lives.  We want some kind of order.  We want things to make sense. 

There are many outside and/or external forces that guide or direct our choices and decisions.  Does the character believe in God?  Is the character a staunch Republican?  Will the character be ostracized by a group?  Is the character being forced to make a decision at the point of a gun? 

Choices are often based on this or that, or, this before that.  They are also made on the basis of how much of this or that. 

EXAMPLES OF CHARACTER ARCH

Examples:

·                    moth to butterfly

·                    learning new skills

·                    young to old

·                    sick to well

·                    single to married

·                    straight to gay

·                    republican to democrat

·                    bad attitude to good

·                    drunk to sober

·                    irresponsible to responsible

·                    poor to rich

·                    finding religion

·                    anonymous to fame

·                    loser to winner

·                    uncaring to caring

·                    introvert to extrovert

·                    loner to socialite

·                    ugly to beautiful

·                    mean to nice

·                    learning a new language

·                    stupid to smart

·                    becoming a parent

·                    finding love

·                    changed by national events

·                    changed by natural events

·                    moving to a new location

·                    a loved one dies

·                    making decisions

·                    finding a job

·                    discover strengths

·                    exposing weaknesses

·                    revealing secrets

·                    false into truth

·                    no longer a victim

·                    ending frustration

·                    hate to love

·                    becoming a killer

·                    competing

·                    bad luck to good luck

·                    meat eater to veggie

·                    quit a bad habit

·                    finding a friend

·                    earning respect

·                    becoming a hero

·                    losing weight

·                    overcoming a bully

·                    dark to light

·                    a tragedy

·                    solving a crime

CHARACTER AND CHARACTER TRAITS

·                    Throw a character into a situation or conflict

·                    Challenge a character

·                    Show a character’s growth; how a character changes (the character’s arch)

·                    A character experiences conflict and weaknesses/strengths determine how it is resolved

·                    What does the character want? 

·                    What are the obstacles? 

·                    How do they get what they want?

·                    How does a character react or respond to a situation, other character, decision?

·                    The difference between characterization and character:  Characterization is a list of traits.  Character is revealed through choices and decisions made in overcoming obstacles.

·                    What motivates a character?

·                    A character goes on a quest to reach a desired goal, overcomes obstacles, defeats an enemy, wins in the end. 

·                    Cause and effect:  Somebody does something or something happens forcing a character to react, respond, make a decision/choice, run or hide.

·                    Characters want something.  A character consists of a look, goals, desires, a job, a place in society, family, friends, inner turmoil, strengths/weaknesses, health, status, morality, religion, politics, money, make mistakes, love and hate.

 

What is the point of view? 

Life is boring.  Girls suck.  Life is a storm.  Life is about surviving the storm.  Life is war.  Nothing good ever happens to me.  No one notices me.  I’m a superstar about to fall from grace.  It’s a world full of evil.  Everything is beautiful.  Somebody’s out to get me.  I’m the next champion.  Nothing’s right.  Life is fun.  Life is a joke.  Life is erotic.  Life is short.  Women are inferior.  I take what I want.  There is hope.

How does the character see people and things, positively or negatively? 

What happens when positive turns negative or in reverse?  A straight person starts doing drugs.  A non-fighter kills the wrong person.  A recently divorced woman falls in love with another woman.  A loser hits the jackpot.  A scientist makes a discovery that ends up in the wrong hands.  A virus, meteor or alien comes out of nowhere.  A crime is committed.  An innocent person gets killed and the lover becomes the prime suspect.

 

Who is the character?

Loving or cruel?  Generous or selfish?  Strong or weak?  Truthful or a liar?  Courageous or cowardly?

We get to know a character by watching the choices/decisions he/she makes while overcoming obstacles to reach a desired goal.  Something must be at risk.  The stakes must be high and get higher as the character gets closer to the goal. 

Small things can reveal character:  chewing tobacco vs. chewing gum; won’t step on the cracks in a sidewalk; lights candles under stress; wears a sports cap but isn’t into sports; doesn’t wear underwear; drinks martinis shaken but not stirred. 

A character is honest or deceitful, good or bad, outgoing or shy, talkative or quiet, good looking or ugly, smart or stupid, winner or loser, one of the Haves or Have-Nots.

Situation reveals character

A doctor, lawyer, criminal, illegal immigrant, drunk, member of a hate group, will all respond differently to a car accident.  But a job, position, title or status alone will not reveal character.  A drunk can be courageous.  A doctor can be cowardly.  What kind of person is willing to give their life for a stranger?  Will the black man save the white man?  Will the Jew kill the German?  Will a gang member rat on another gang member?  Will a bored housewife finally succumb to an affair?

Conflict reveals character

We know nothing about a character until something happens.  When something happens, we then discover a housewife is really a former secret agent who lost her memory.  Something happens and a former gunfighter turned priest is forced to use the gun once again.  An ordinary guy sitting on a train reading a newspaper becomes a superhero when the train is suddenly taken hostage by an evil criminal. 

Character is tested and revealed through a series of conflicts.  Decisions and choices reveal character.  Conflict peals away the masks. 

As a series of event changes, character will change.  And, when a character changes, different things happen.  A change in character changes the story.  A change in the story changes the character.

Genre affects character

In action/adventure, character is simple.  Murder mysteries and coming of age stories have more complex characters.  Some characters are cardboard cutouts.  Some characters are based on film star personalities.  Other characters are of historical importance. 

CHARACTER TRAITS

Basic stats:  Name, rank, serial number, nickname, birth date, place of birth, employed, marital status, education, political and religious affiliation, criminal record, tattoos.

Personal Appearance:  Gorgeous, sexy, frail, tall, fat, balding, grey, injured, beard, plane Jane, jeans and t-shirt, cowboy hat, athletic, plastic surgery, stern, free spirited, scars, dyke, truck driver, pizza shop owner (many other stereotypes). 

Voice/Speech:  Is Sultry?  Deep and forboding?  Squeaky?  Stutter?  Articulate?  Loud?  Talk too fast?  Street lingo?  Scientific lingo?  Accent? 

Habits/Gestures:  Bite nails, curl a lip, wink, twitch, swears a lot, drinks, snorts cocaine, intimidates, slob, standoffish, drive fast, cuts through the shit, competitive, obsessive/compulsive, dismisses with the wave of a hand, meets the wrong girls.

Dress/Style:  Historical, collegiate, high fashion, working class, suburban, urban, country, sexy, dark, second hand, sloven, girl dresses like a boy, corporate, gypsy, jaded hippie, gothic, street gangsta.  Every decade has a look.  Every historical period has a look.  Every country has a look. 

Home life:  Supportive, nurturing or abusive?  Trailer or a mansion?  Homeless?  From an alien planet?  Cartoon character lives in a tree or under the ground?  Generation gap?  Big family, broken family, dysfunctional family?  Celebrate holidays?  Secrets?  Corruption?  Betrayal?

Education:  Highschool, college, graduate school, dropout, scholarship, misfit, private school, specialized, self-taught, speak foreign languages, can’t read or write, bad at science, got by on sports, looks or popularity, favorite subjects, learn as you go?

Job:  Career-driven, top of the game, trying to break in, menial labor, desk job, oil rig, space vehicle, scientist, artist, cop, lawyer, spy, soldier, make good money, hate the boss, talented, successful, respected, feared, responsible, criminal?

Handicaps:  Physical, mental, emotional?  How does a character deal with a handicap?

Hobbies:  Collect things, hunt and fish, build things, travel, play games, gamble, spare time, hang with friends, watch TV, productive or destructive? 

Pets:   Dog, cat, bird, fish, champion horse, snake, friends with wild animals, hate animals, allergic, vegetarian? 

Favorite things:  Color, movie, song, book, TV show, artwork, celebrity, hero, character from the Bible, old relics, souvineers, pictures, letters, clothing, things to do, treasures, keepsakes, quotes, food, a special drink, a chair, a child, parent or relative, place to live, natural scenery, city, country, period in history, fantasy.

Sense of Humor:  Witty, sarcastic, ironic, silly, slapstick, dumb, big laugh, serious, never smiles, laughs at pain, looking for a good time. 

Best friend:  From childhood?  Neighborhood?  High school?  Battlefield?  New best friend?  Best friend helps protagonist reach goals or gets in the way.  Sidekick goes everywhere with the hero.  Heroes have allies.  Best friends create conflict or help protagonist resolve conflict.

Enemy:  The antagonist.  The main obstacle in the way of a protagonist reaching a desired goal.  Every enemy has a friend; every friend has an enemy.  Why is someone trying to stop you from reaching your goals?  Why are they trying to harm you or kill you?  Do you deserve to have enemies or are you a victim? 

Goals:  To be the best?  To survive?  To defeat an enemy or monster?  To be loved?  Find a cure?  Save the planet?  Save a marriage?  Change history?  Right a wrong?  Kill someone?  Commit a crime?  Stop a crime?  Protect a country?  Conquer a country?  What’s at risk?  What are the stakes? 

Fears and Inhibitions:  Afraid to win?  Afraid to lose?  Afraid of monsters, demons, ghosts, aliens, the night?  Afraid of a neighbor, boss, relative, spouse or child?  Anxious, neurotic, shy, psychotic, paranoid, confused, thrown into chaos?  Afraid of girls, snakes, high places, guns, needles, driving, saying the wrong thing, falling down. Hiding something?  Afraid of the truth? 

Loves and hates:  Heroes and heroines?  Lovers, friends, relatives?  The world?  Other nationalities?  The way things are?  Little things?  Society?  Sunday mornings?  Saturday nights?  Dancing?  Art?  Job?  Boss?  Themselves?  A city? 

INCITING INCIDENT

 

Something happens.  What happens launches the film (or story).  It could be an explosion, a murder, a bet, an accident, an invasion, a strange occurrence, a mystery, two people meet, getting fired, getting hired, divorce, marriage, declaration of war, press conference, award ceremony, a race, a crime, a bust, an accusation, a threat, a natural disaster, a decision.

It is a life changing event.  Once the event occurs or a choice is made, the next important thing is what happens next.  The stakes are raised.  Something greater or worse is going to happen.  There is no going back.  The character(s) will change. 

The inciting incident sets the stage for the final climax.  Usually the final climax occurs when the protagonist is out of options, beaten down, or even near death.  This is a major turning point.  It’s when the hero gets or loses the desired goal.  The inciting incident placed the protagonist in conflict, the final climax resolves that conflict. 

The inciting incident creates tension, stress, anxiety, fear, or suspense.  The final climax brings resolution, usually a happy one:  boy wins girl n(race or war), world gets saved, monster is killed, killer is caught, mystery is solved, lost person is found.

OBSTACLES

 

Obstacles are:  impossible odds; loss of hope; failure; enemies; roadblocks; metaphorical roadblocks; mental roadblocks; administrative roadblocks; problem solving; puzzles; challenges.

Examples of obstacles:  getting out of prison; finding a killer; making a discovery; self-defense; defecting; getting home; finding love; finding a missing person; solving a crime; finding a cure; winning a game.

Obstacles are not random.  The obstacles a character overcomes must tell the story.

In overcoming obstacles there is growth:  weak to strong; hate to love; sad to happy; wrong to right; becoming a better person; lies into truth; evil into good; becoming a better father, worker, citizen, lover, statesman; follower into leader; gaining understanding.

Obstacles occur externally or internally.

External obstacles are based on the laws of physics:  an object acting on another object will create resistance.  A ball must fly through the air, fighting air and gravity.  A machine will run only as long as there is fuel or electricity, or until the parts wear out. 

In life there are things that move us forward and things that hold us back.  We embrace the things that move us forward–that get us from A to B.  We fight the things that hold us back. 

The very essence of film is based on movement.  And by all accounts, we are moving into the future.  The hands of a clock move forward. 

Twists on this are the turning of night into day or day into night, although it is also universally agreed that days are moving forward consecutively. 

Travels back in time must first overcome the obstacle of traveling into the past.  If the memory is the vehicle, then the story is a flashback.

Physical obstacles are usually harmful:  guns, diseases, accidents.  We never have to actually scale a wall to get where we’re going, unless that wall happens to be the Berlin or China wall.  We don’t scale buildings to get the job we want. 

Other physical obstacles include handicaps (blind, loss of limb, etc.).

Obstacles are more human than anything.  Someone is preventing us from reaching our goals, preventing us from being happy, or just otherwise trying to make our lives miserable–which is an affront to our happiness.

Bosses prevent us from climbing the ladder.  Lovers prevent us from doing things we want to do.  Parents are the ultimate determinants of do’s and don’ts. 

Something is stopping us from getting the things we want. 

Internal obstacles include morals that prevent us from getting what we want immorally.  Low self-esteem and other emotional handicaps prevent us from living more fulfilling lives. 

Conflicts are born out of what is considered right and wrong.  We want sex but religion forbids it.  We want a job but it means moving and spending less time with our loved ones.  Doctors and lawyers must finish school…and pay for it.

Politicians must overcome their own set of obstacles on the way to office.  They must balance opposing groups and views. 

Some obstacles are the problems we all face in ourselves and with others:  greed, selfishness, dominance.  These kinds of obstacles are not nearly as apparent as a gun in our face.  And, we have to deal with others who are facing the same challenges, driven by the same motivations and desires as we are. 

Two greedy people spell disaster.

Character building is essentially a line of good or evil.  We must overcome obstacles in ways that make us better persons.  Those are the protagonists.  Antagonists are not interested in being good people.  Antagonists are immoral or criminal.  However, antagonists do not necessarily have to be all evil.  They can be sympathetic characters.

So, morality is the shaping tool of good and bad.

Sometimes the lines of right and wrong are obscured.  Do the Arabs or Israeli’s have a right to the Gaza Strip?