Creating Original Characters, Themes, and Visual Metaphors for Your Digital Short Film

This chapter is from the book 

"I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known."
—Walt Disney

Character, plot, and theme are the building blocks of a great short film. This chapter focuses on creating original characters, developing themes, and ways to create a unique visual, metaphorical, and symbolic language in your film.

Creating Powerfully Original Characters

The more you know about your characters, the easier it is to write your script. Assigning original sets of goals, traits, history, and other qualities creates characters with real emotional depth and personality. In this section, you will develop the main characters you chose for your final script idea in Chapter 1, "Generating Ideas for Digital Short Films."

Creating Active Characters

The strongest protagonists are usually active. Make sure your characters are not on a "magic carpet ride" type of journey through the story, just being carried along by a series of uncanny coincidences. When planning stories, keep in mind the three states of being for characters:

1. Passive. Lump: no goals, no plans, no energy to do anything. Part of the scenery, like colorful statues in a garden.

2. Reactive. Goal, plan, or pursuit; two out of three: Needs a little boost to get going, but heading toward goal.

3. Active. Goal, plan, and pursuit; fully engaged in quest to achieve goal.

Have your characters make active choices that make events happen. Force your characters to deal and learn from these choices as the story develops.

Watch your favorite films and see whether you can tell which state each character is in, in each scene, and how this state affects the conflict and audience interest in the story. You will discover that the active character state is much more engaging to watch.

Figure 2.1 This reclining Bigfoot is a passive character with no plans, goals, or energy. He just lies around all day. Notice how this character is not as interesting to watch as the one with a plan, goal, and motivation to make things happen.

Defining Characters

Short films do not have time to develop complex plots, so they often depend more on character. Plot is character personified in a sense. Characters are defined through their choices, actions, and reactions. Recognize that every character creates his or her own situations (plot) from the externalizations of his or her inner world (character).

What a character does is more important than what a character says.

Characters need action and behavior to show us who they are. Guidance is good to have bestowed upon your characters, but do not have them become puppets of outside forces. They must act for themselves to show us who they are and what they think is important enough to fight for against heavy opposition.

You can define character in three ways, listed here in order of importance:

1. Action. Observing how they react to situations by what they do.

2. Dialogue. Listening to what they say.

3. Third-party dialogue. Listening to what other characters say about them. You could establish a whole character before he even walks on the screen by what another character says about him. The power of third-person dialogue is that you tend to believe it more if someone else says something about someone, rather than if the actual character claims to be something. How would your character's parents describe him or her? What description would a best friend, lover, or worst enemy provide?

Figure 2.2 Big Granny tells her pet bobcat things about Ezzie when she's not around or is out of hearing range. How can you use third-party dialogue to help establish characters in interesting ways? What ways could you use digital tools to have characters talk to animated objects or animals, such as a conversing bobcat that gives advice?

What Does Your Character Want and Need?

Your protagonist should have two basic goals related to both plot (want) and theme (need).

Want is the worldly plot goal to save the princess, rob the bank, save the world, find the treasure, or win the race.

Need is usually the unconscious inner motivation that compels the character to act in irrational ways.

As characters attempt to get what they want, they often get what they need. Need may oppose want. Needs never change in a film, whereas wants often do. A character may want to die of a broken heart, when what he or she really needs is love. Need is something the audience often starts to see before the protagonist does, watching as the character learns throughout the story. Study yourself and other people. See what makes people tick underneath what they want and need to create believable characters.

Character want = Plot goal

Character need = Theme goal

Motivations = Why they made these decisions based on want/need

Figure 2.3 My main Bigfoot character Ezzie's plot goal is to pass her vision quest, so she can stay with her tribe and not be banished to wander alone in the forest forever. What she needs to learn is to trust her intuition in order to pass her vision quest and claim her rightful spot in the Bigfoot tribe as the daughter of a long line of powerful shamans and warriors. Ezzie is afraid of her Bigfoot psychic powers at the beginning of the story and learns to use them better during the vision quest. In this shot at the beginning of the story, she trips on a log in the forest on her way to steal the chocolate that gets her into so much trouble. A voice in the wind tells her to "go back," but the smell of the chocolate is stronger and she ignores her intuition. Later in the story, a similar voice will be heard, and she will listen to it this time to show how she is learning to trust her intuition.

Creating Theme Goals for Your Characters

Take the theme you chose in Chapter 1 and turn it into a theme goal for the protagonist. Theme goals tend to be underlying unconscious needs characters have to develop, ones that will usually help them with their plot goals and character growth. If your theme is that greed leads to corruption, as in the movie Wall Street, your protagonist may struggle between greed and corruption while going through the story. Maybe your characters struggle to determine who they want to be in a world ruled by this theme. Work with the plot goal you picked in Chapter 1 for the following exercise.

• Theme of film. Controlling idea, moral message, underlying essence, or deeper meaning of film.

• Character theme goal. How a character needs to grow to accomplish plot goal or show the film theme.

In the film Wall Street, Charlie Sheen's character is the protagonist, representing the theme of how greed leads to corruption. We watch as he struggles throughout the film to find a balance between the two extremes and still become a success. Michael Douglas's character is the antagonist, representing the anti-theme personifying intense greed and corruption. Charlie Sheen's character has the following goals he attempts to achieve within the overall film theme parameters:

• Theme of film. Greed leads to corruption.

• Protagonist plot goal. To become a successful businessman.

• Protagonist theme goal. Needs to redefine who he wants to be and his place in the business world amid greed and corruption.

Theme Goal Brainstorming Chart

To let go of past

To take responsibility for actions

To find happiness

To find inner peace

To let go of being a victim

To believe in something worthwhile

To define new version of self

To find a balance between extremes

To let go of self-destructive behaviors

To fit into new world

To find love

To change inner beliefs

To come of age

To see perfection in themselves and others

To let go of any fears and trust that everything is happening perfectly

To learn something

To change way of being in the world

To be honest with themselves or others

To resolve conflicting inner beliefs

To learn compassion for others

To see the world in a new way

To find one's own truth

To make peace with the past

To overcome past trauma

To gain self-confidence

To redefine self in world

To reach a new level of understanding

To overcome a fear of something

To find purpose in life

To realize something that changes perspective on life

To become a leader

To create life intentionally instead of being carried along by circumstances

To trust inner guidance rather than logic

Theme Goals Determine the Climax

Another way to think of theme goals, or character need, is to ask yourself what the character is learning, or how the character is growing during their journey through the film. Some characters are always in transition until the final fade out if they grow a great deal. The more a character grows inside, the more external challenges the character can handle. The bigger the external goals, the more internal change needs to occur.

The theme goal reaches its climax with the film's plot goal climax and is usually the reason the ending goes positively or negatively.

In the short film Last Supper, the protagonist thinks he has won the lottery at the climax, not knowing it's a trick played on him for fun by his wife. Believing he is suddenly rich, he now feels comfortable showing a more honest side of himself, by telling her he is leaving her and has been sleeping with her sister for the past eight months. He places the keys to his Jaguar, credit cards, and house keys on the table to leave them for his wife, which symbolic-ally states theme, too. The theme is how money changes relationships, and this decides the man's reaction at the climax. If money didn't matter in relationships for this film, he would have reacted differently to thinking he had won the lottery.

Figure 2.4 Ezzie falls into a deep pit of quicksand during the climax while on her Shamanic journey and starts to drown. Her initial urge is to fight her way to the surface, but then she hears her little voice that tells her to levitate out. If she ignores the voice of her intuition, she will die and not accomplish either plot or theme goal.

Creating Mutually Exclusive Plot and Theme Goals

Sometimes you may want to make the plot and theme goals mutually exclusive. In The Maltese Falcon, the main character wants to find the person who killed his partner and needs the perfect woman to love. When he finds out at the end that the perfect woman he now loves killed his partner, he has to decide which goal is more important to achieve. How could you create this conflict with your character to craft a great ending where the character must decide between his or her soul and the world?

Often, achieving plot goals means winning in the world. Theme goals usually involve winning on a soul level.

Figure 2.5 Ezzie has one quick chance to place her palm prints and carve her initials and sacred journey symbol on a special wall to prove her vision quest is complete at the end. Her intuition tells her to check out a sound coming from a deep hole, creating a situation with mutually exclusive plot and theme goals. As she falls into another series of caves, she finds a deeper hidden chamber where the heads of the tribe carve their symbols if they hear the special call. This elevates her standing in the tribe when she returns with a talisman from this special chamber.

Creating Character Identification

When an audience relates strongly to a film, they are identifying some aspect of themselves with the characters they see on the screen. Include as many of the following character identification techniques as possible when creating each of your characters. Don't use all of these techniques on just one character; it would be too confusing. Try to incorporate identification ideas that already fit your characters in some visual way. The trick is not to make these too obvious or sappy. Make sure they are original and artfully presented in a very subtle way. Several of the following character identification techniques are taken from Michael Hauge's wonderful book Writing Screenplays That Sell. Add to this list as you see qualities in characters that make you want to watch them and feel connected with them in some way.

1. Admirable. The character is really good at something we can admire, such as being an expert in their field, brilliant, wise, witty, beautiful, very talented, resourceful, or respected.

2. Similar opinions/desires. You relate to the character's view of the world and what the character wants.

3. Flaws. Imperfections—physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, or personality. Give your characters lots of neurotic tendencies to make them more interesting. Characters who are in conflict with themselves are interesting to watch. Try to make flaws symbolic to theme. In Finding Nemo, the theme is to not give up and "to keep swimming." Nemo has one fin that is smaller than the other, and his father is afraid of everything out in the ocean. Dorie cannot remember anything for very long, which is a very funny flaw that works well to keep reviewing the same story information. Add to these lists as you see films.

Writing Exercise 2.4

Write a few pages where you show how a character's theme goal decides the outcome of their plot goal.

Movie Note

In Life Lessons, Lionel the painter says he wants Paulette to stay, but what he really needs to inspire his painting is passionate turmoil in his relationships. He becomes both the protagonist and the antagonist as his own worst enemy, because his plot and theme goals are in such direct conflict. Lionel wins in the world with a successful art show at the end, although he loses another relationship on a soul level.

Types of Flaws

Physical	Emotional	Spiritual	Psychological	Personality
Missing limb	Mood swings	Religious/Spiritual zealot	Obsessive/compulsive	Arrogant
Scars	Cries easily	Cult fanatic	Schizophrenic	Rude
Ugly	Emotionally devoid	Evil tendencies	Manic depressive	Delusional
Bad teeth	Laughs at the wrong things	Terrified of killing anything	Narcoleptic	Self destructive
Obese	Uncontrollable anger	Believes the world is going to end soon	Multiple personalities	Mean spirited
Disfigured	Insecure	Believes the world is going to end soon	Going crazy	Ego-maniac
One leg shorter than the other	Afraid of everything	Extremely superstitious	Memory problems	Clumsy
		Always trying to convert other characters		Stupid
				No Integrity




4. Superhero qualities. The character can do something amazing such as breathe under water and talk to fish (Aqua Man). Must balance all superhero qualities with equal vulnerabilities, such as what kryptonite does to Superman. What original visual superhero qualities could you create that are perfect for animation and digital effects?

5. Visual appeal. Great actors have what is known as "screen presence," meaning that you cannot take your eyes off of them in the frame. When Elizabeth Taylor walks onto the screen, you watch her above all else. Visual appeal is often thought of as sexual appeal. Jack Nicholson may not be the most handsome man in the world, but he has great sex appeal. Animated characters need wonderfully original design, great personalities, and exaggerated movements to create strong visual appeal.

6. Introduce the main character ASAP. Make it clear who the main character is, and introduce him or her right away.

7. Sympathy. Your audience really feels where the character is at emotionally and empathizes. Your character is having a hard time, bad luck, or a bad day; is in pain; just lost everything; or is involved in an unjust situation.

8. Place in jeopardy. First you get the audience to care about and identify with your characters, and then you make them suffer by placing the characters in emotional, physical, or spiritually dangerous situations. The audience loves to worry about characters if they relate to them.

9. Familiar setting/situations. What types of places or situations can you put your characters in that are both universal and unique? A family dinner table, classroom, or job situation.

10. Eyes of the audience. The character goes through the story and learns surprising things at the same time the audience does.

11. Empowered. Active characters that make decisions to do something. Characters with no power to change their situations are hard to relate to, boring, and frustrating to watch.

12. Underdogs. Characters in ordinary lives who are called on to do great things against all odds of success. Give your characters normal boring jobs or place them in situations where they are underdogs.

13. Good sense of humor. The character is witty, funny, tells good jokes, is playful, does entertaining things, or is clever.

14. Helps others. The character goes out of the way to assist other people or animals. Avoid cliché helping actions.

15. Loves children/family/pets/self. Have your characters smile at kids, joke with old men in elevators, call their mothers, stop to pet dogs, and compliment themselves in the mirror.

16. Artistic. The character creates artwork or appreciates art.

17. On a mission or has a special calling. Show how your characters are completely inspired by some higher purpose, greater idea, or selfless mission. Maybe they want to accomplish something in your story for the good of others or to serve.

Figure 2.6 Character Flaws Add Personality. This flawed Bigfoot is missing a leg and has scars, bad teeth, torn ears, strange religious emblems on his necklace, and a crazy look in his eyes. All of these imperfections make him much more realistic and interesting than a so-called perfect Bigfoot. How many character flaws can you incorporate visually into your characters?

Superhero Qualities

Runs super fast

Can see through things

Can talk to beings on other stars for guidance

Ability to talk to plants

Shape shifter

Mind reader

Body parts turn into spaceship

Ability to sprout wings and fly

Can see 10 seconds into the future when looking into special stone

Has the ability to shift physical locations at will

A magical scorpion tail sprouts out of body and stings people

Ability to tunnel underground with head

Can move objects with mind

Has a magical lasso only they can use

Ability to make people do things by gently suggesting ideas

Figure 2.7 This Bigfoot carves redwood stumps with chainsaws he steals from the lumberjacks. Showing his artistic side will help the audience identify more with the character. As you write your script, remember that these types of character identification techniques are good to show. This character could be carving a symbolic object out of a redwood tree while talking to another character who is playing with a beloved pet.

Creating a Character History

You will have a hard time creating believable characters without thinking about their personal history. Find original ways to slowly reveal important and unique information about their pasts as it relates to the story.

Developing Psychological Profiles

Everything inside a character's head will affect how they see their world and how they act and react on screen. People identify with characters who have similar emotions, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs. True emotion is the real source of our connections to other people. Make sure that your characters have powerful desires and opinions to create compelling moments and events on the screen. Answer the following questions to get a sense of how your character thinks and feels about the world.

The emotional reactions of characters in a film are how we understand them visually.

1. What is the general emotional mood of your characters? Are they broken up inside or fresh and innocent? Are they cynical or positive?

2. How do your characters speak to themselves inside their own heads? Are they very critical and hard on themselves or do they think everything is wonderful and just better and better? Write three lines of inner dialogue to show general psychological character states, such as, "I never do anything right," "Nothing ever happens the way I want it to," or "I'm just not good enough." Or does the character think more along the lines of, "Oh great, another wonderful day!," "I can't wait to go to school," or "I just know something really good is going to happen."

3. How do they interpret external experiences internally? Do they think everything is their fault or do they never take responsibility for their behaviors?

4. Do they have any psychological problems or flaws, such as being neurotic, delusional, depressed, slightly nutty, forgetful, or obsessive? Do they suffer from uncontrollable outbursts of rage or overwhelming panic attack- type disorders?

5. What is your character's biggest secret insecurity? Are they afraid they are not good enough, not beautiful enough, or not smart enough? What might they think is terribly wrong with them that they do not want anyone else to know?

6. What strong opinions, attitudes, or beliefs does this character possess? Do they feel they have a clear purpose in their life or higher mission to accomplish? What are they willing to fight for under pressure?

7. What is your character's biggest emotional scar or shameful past event that they repress or hide from themselves or others?

8. What types of emotional weather did your character's family have when they were growing up? Was it a happy family or a stressed out one? How does this affect your character's mindset now?

9. Are there any original ways you could show some of these psychological states on screen, using your digital tools to help the audience better understand your character's inner world? A character who has a very negative inner dialogue with a cheerful outer attitude could be shown to be in conflict by using a separate, softer soundtrack for the inner voice on top of the normal dialogue at key moments.

Figure 2.8 My protagonist Ezzie is very dramatic emotionally and has big mood swings. Her biggest flaw is that she is overly optimistic about things and fails to see problems until it is too late. In this shot, she is at her lowest point in the cave, having a vision of her grandmother in the lines of the rocks, who reminds her of why she is on the vision quest. The two characters joke about how things are not going too well and use humor to help get her into a more positive mental state in order to continue.

What Is Your Character Afraid Of?

Fear is an emotion caused by the anticipation or awareness of danger or pain. This powerful state is generated in a character's subconscious mind based on negative thinking, past experiences, or current reality beliefs. Courage is the ability to take action in spite of fear, while thinking positively about future results. The more a character is afraid, the less likely they will take any action. The less fear a character has in their perceptions of reality, the more power and excitement they will have to accomplish their goals. Emotional states are like magnets, which attract situations that match the emotion being broadcast. A character who is really afraid of something will actually attract that thing into his world in order to resolve it. Audiences love to see characters wrestle with fears, since this is a universal emotional struggle for most people.

Not all characters are even aware of their fears. Unconscious fear drives a character's reactions, and you need to know what these are. Some characters may wear masks that hide their fears and often appear to be the opposite of the fear. If a character is terrified of people finding that the character is not as good as they appear, that character may act very snotty to cover up their insecurity. In Life Lessons, Lionel is afraid underneath all his flurry of actions that he will not be able to paint if his lover leaves. This causes him to react with extremely fearful freak-outs whenever his girlfriend threatens to leave. In Finding Nemo, Nemo's overprotective father is terrified of little Nemo getting eaten by another fish, since this is what happened to his wife and other children. One way to find fear in a developing character is to ask, "What would this character do if they knew they could not fail?"

After you know what your character is really afraid of, you know what they need to face.

Ways To Show Characters Overcoming Fears

If fear stops a character from taking action, you will need to show what motivates them enough to push through their fears in order to obtain their plot and theme goals. Below is a list to help you think of ways to show characters working through their fears, old wounds, or emotional blocks.

Types of Fears

• Fear of losing someone or something very precious to you

• Fear of not being good enough

• Fear of being ridiculed

• Fear of not being loved or wanted

• Fear of failure

• Fear of being vulnerable

• Fear of past trauma repeating itself

• Fear of snakes, spiders, viscious dogs, alligators, sharks, or killer bees

• Fear of getting hurt or injured

• Fear of things getting worse

• Fear of losing what you already have

• Fear of being alone

• Fear of not knowing how to do something

• Fear of being wrong

• Fear of physical pain

• Fear of illness

• Fear of being rejected

• Fear of being poor or homeless

• Fear of someone finding out a big secret or insecurity about you

• Fear of being caught for something you did in your past

• Fear of a particular person, thing, or situation that has been harmful in the past

Ways a Character Might Overcome a Fear

• Character faces fear and succeeds, gaining confidence.

• Hits bottom and asks for help or realizes there is nothing left to lose

• Character becomes so paralyzed by fear they become weak and close to some form of death which causes big realization

• Character takes a little step out of fear and meets with success, then takes another

• Character starts taking some form of action

• Character tries very hard to cover up fear and finally breaks down about truth or is exposed

• Character snaps from tension of fear and gets into more emotionally free state

• Character realizes fear is costing them too much and lets it go

• Character is motivated by the welfare of others to act and get out of fear

• Character relives past traumatic event in some way and works through fear

Figure 2.11 My main character Ezzie's biggest fear is getting bit by one of the poisonous snakes or spiders that live in the vision quest caves. She flashes on this fearful image in her mind when the witchdoctor tells her she must go into Rattlesnake Cavern, the most dangerous place of them all, for her vision quest.

Figure 2.12 Ezzie is sticking her arm down the body of a this giant rattlesnake to retrieve her lightening bug friend who accidentally flew into its mouth. Ezzie is first shown reacting with extreme terror to any snake, then getting more and more comfortable around them, since they are all over the vision quest cave. I use her reactions to snakes and spiders to show her character growth in the story. The more she masters her intuition, the less afraid she is of the creatures. What unique ways can you show your characters gradually overcoming their fears in your story?

Figure 2.13 The most important thing to this Bigfoot is looking really good. He is especially proud of his unusually long Bigfoot hair. His biggest fear is losing his hair or going bald, which seems to be happening a little more each day, causing him great stress. His unconscious fear is not being loveable if he loses his hair. How can you create different believable layers of fear for your characters that match the concerns of people you know?

Adding Universal and Unique Qualities

All characters have both universal and unique qualities. How is your character a universally generic archetype? Is your protagonist a rebel, saint, madman, hero, sinner, solider, mother, cowboy, detective, gangster, fortune-teller, outlaw, drunk, shopkeeper, or businessman? Is there something going on with this character we can all grab onto?

Then you need to make that archetypal character unique and stunningly original. What about a detective who can't remember anything (Memento) or an ant that wants to do things differently than the other ants (A Bug's Life)? A cowboy living in New York City (Midnight Cowboy)? A poor, single, mother-of-three fortune-teller living in the deep south (The Gift)? An orphan boy with unusually powerful wizard skills (Harry Potter)?

Figure 2.14 Bigfoot Scaredy Cat. This Bigfoot who is normally supposed to be huge and brave is instead afraid of every little critter in the forest because he got bit once on the foot as a youngster.

Incorporating Unique Qualities

What does your character do that might be described as an eccentricity, strange behavior, or unique way of doing things? Adding unique qualities to your characters make them seem more original and realistic. Do they listen to swing music while gardening in cocktail attire, drive around naked at night and shoot at mailboxes to relieve stress, put ketchup on their pizza, or have five little dogs with them at all times? Are they attracted to really fat people for relationships or blondes that drive old muscle cars? What do they do when they are sad? Do they eat chocolate chip cookies in a bubble bath? We need to see these things to feel like your characters are real. There are no vanilla people, so don't make characters without any special flavor or color.

Questions to Consider for Unique Qualities

When thinking of unique qualities, see how you can relate qualities to the plot, character history, and backstory.

1. What weird hobbies might they spend time doing? Fly fishing? Lawn bowling? What two weird hobbies could you combine for a new one?

2. Where do they like to shop? Thrift stores or Saks?

3. Strange musical tastes? Food? Movies? Entertainment?

4. Sexual quirks? Dating preferences? How do they show affection?

5. What strange thing or pet peeve really upsets your characters?

6. Do they have offbeat eating habits or order food in restaurants in an unusual way?

7. How and what do they drive?

8. Strange nonverbal mannerisms? Grind their teeth, blink uncontrollably, turn their heads around fast as if seeing something?

9. Do they have any unusual talents?

10. What types of far-out clothes do they wear?

11. How do they react to stress? Overeat? Beat up stuffed animals? Chop wood?

12. How do they practice their spirituality? Strange rituals or meditations? Do they go to an unusual church?

13. What is your character's idea of a unique dream vacation?

14. What is the weirdest thing about your character?

15. What are the strangest things people you know do that make them unique? How could you use these to spark original ideas?

Figure 2.15 Banana Slug Cravings? This Bigfoot has an unusual taste for fresh banana slugs. What unique food quirks does your character have that might make the audience squirm?

Creating a Backstory

The world your characters inhabit need to be as interesting and unique as the characters themselves. The backstory consists of past events in your film world that directly affect the protagonist's emotional involvement in the plot as the story unfolds. Characters need emotions and attributes to really come alive, and these are developed through the backstory and character history. You need to define the limits of your film world in the backstory. Audiences will inspect your fictional world to find limits. These limits also help set up the conflict.

Characters Making Tough Choices Visually

How can you place your characters in positions where they must make difficult choices? How can you show them making these choices and stretch them out over time to see them really struggle? Show how the characters may be in conflict emotionally inside themselves over the choice. What types of insights could you have your characters discover during their decision-making process? Positive interactions with the world produce positive attitudes, and negative ones produce negative characters. The best stories are about choices and commitment. The decision-making process needs to be shown as visual actions.

Figure 2.16 Bigfoot Boulder Tossing. This character makes decisions by tossing boulders off a cliff and seeing where they land.

Incorporate Character Contradictions

People act differently around different people. You probably act differently around your friends than you do around your mother, lover, or boss. Create your supporting characters to bring out contradictory sides of your protagonist. Maybe you have a super-ambitious protagonist who is riddled with guilt about the extremes he goes to, to achieve his goals. With Character B, your protagonist is a sharp, angry, and ruthless competitor. With Character C, your protagonist acts like a sad, soft, guilty child. With Character D, your protagonist is happy and carefree. Use this technique to show characters that are beautiful on the outside, but who may be a complete mess on the inside.

Creating Strong and Revealing Character Reactions

The events in your story reveal the characters by how the characters react to them. Plot is a collection of events or actions toward a resolution. Character is the action and reaction of individuals in the story to the plot. Often the underlying theme is what causes characters to make the decision to react in certain ways. If you were creating a film on the theme of the destruction of greed, for instance, your characters personifying greed would always choose to react with the greed mindset to each situation as they destroy themselves.

You must remember to give screen time for the reactions of the characters to each event in your film. This allows the emotional impact to sink in with the audience members.

Figure 2.17 Ezzie meets a lightening bug mentor in the vision quest cave who offers to be her guide. The bug is half blind and bumps into things but seems helpful. Later in the story we find out that the lightening bug works for Rugaro the witchdoctor and has been reporting back to him on Ezzie's progress. When the bug talks to Ezzie he seems scatterbrained, but when he reports into Rugaro we see that he is very cunning and sharp. This character contradiction makes the story more deep and interesting than just having the bug as a helpful character.

Figure 2.18 These two Bigfoots are having very different reactions to what they just saw. One reacts with horror, whereas the other laughs; these different reactions reveal character. What ways can you have your characters react differently to events in your story to help us understand how they see the world?

Character Traits

To create consistent and original characters, it helps to define their basic traits. By picking one unique character-trait set for each of your main characters, you will be able to keep track of who they are when imagining them in situations, writing dialogue, and planning actions.

A character trait is anything that determines the way the character sees the world and how the character thinks, speaks, and acts.

Relate your trait sets to the character history, film world environment, backstory, social standing, occupation, emotional state, psychological profile, appearance, and other exercises you have already done.

Cliché characters have combinations of character traits we have seen before onscreen.

"The Goldman Five" Character-Trait System

Michael Dougan developed this technique to construct characters by assigning them five simple trait combinations. This idea is based on some things William Goldman said in his wonderful book Adventures In The Screen Trade (Warner Books, 1983).

One best trait. The thing this character is better at doing than anyone else in the film world.

One worst trait. The biggest negative trait that prevents the character from achieving goals and may cause the downfall of the character if it is not overcome.

Three other traits. These other three traits are ones you add to make sure your character has an original combination of traits.

The big negative trait has to be a flaw or weakness that prevents the character from obtaining his or her goals. If your character's main plot goal is to drink himself to death (Leaving Las Vegas), being an alcoholic may be his best trait to accomplish that goal. You can track growth and change in a character by monitoring that one negative trait. By changing, a protagonist may turn this negative trait into a positive one by the end of the film. Try not to duplicate positive or negative traits among character sets. If you have one kid who has the best collection of comic books hanging out with other comic book kids, have them all specialize in different types of comic books.

The antagonist usually cannot overcome his or her negative trait at the end, which results in the antagonist's ultimate downfall. Most antagonists are either ignorant of their worst trait or completely revel in it. A tragic character loses all his good traits in a downward spiral throughout the story, from the weight of the big negative trait pulling him under. Hannibal Lector is better at killing people than anyone else (main positive for his plot goal). We may not like serial killers, but we admire Hannibal's skill. He is a genius, gourmet cook, and classy guy. His big negative trait is that he is completely insane. Study your favorite films for these trait sets to see how different combinations are developed for each character.

Character-Trait Chart

The following traits are loosely divided into positive and negative. Good traits help characters accomplish their goals, whereas worst traits stop them from getting what they want and need. Do not pick two traits that are similar. Lots of traits that do not sound very much alike are, such as "warrior" and "brave." It is fine to have two character traits that are cliché, as long as you balance them with two traits that are really original to create a unique set. You can add traits later that pop up while writing your script and remove ones that are not being used.

Character Trait Chart

Possible Best Traits	Other Possible Traits			Possible Worst Traits
Champion	Intelligent	Airhead	Fake	Insane
Professional	Athletic	Aloof	Activist	Addicted
Master	Affectionate	Middle class	Moody	Dead inside
Top	Fearful	Beatnik	Corporate	Mean
Model	Worrywart	Gypsy	Homeless	Alcoholic
Warrior	Brave	Thief	Hippie	Negative
Beautiful	Positive	Intuitive	Cool	Poor
Courageous	Average	Bitchy	Dork	Annoying
Rich	Loyal	Bookish	Trashy	Depressed
Charming	Blue	Nerd	Cultivated	Crazy
Talented	Competitive	Liberal	Boring	Corrupt
Well educated	Creative	Convict	Nice	Greedy
Mentor	Conservative	Dishonest	Natural	Obsessed
Happy	Confused	Curious	Mysterious	Evil
Caregiver	Black humor	Glamorous	Nervous	Clumsy
Childlike	Delicate	Fugitive	Obnoxious	Gossip
Funny	Deluded	Forgetful	Outlaw	Hot tempered
Compassionate	Dissatisfied	Foolish	Party animal	Hypochondriac
Loving	Easy going	Freak	Peaceful	Ignorant
Artistic	Uptight	Gentleman	Young/old	Impulsive
Independent	Cowboy	Humble	Political	Jerk
Enlightened	Anal	Hood	Playboy	Irresponsible
Enthusiastic	Drifter	Holy	Perfectionist	Maniac
Heroic	Motherly	Intense	Genius	Neurotic
Imaginative	Egomaniac	Lucky	Sexy	Cruel
Inspiring	Fashionable	Logical	Perky	Cynical
Passionate	Streetwise	Loud	Responsible	Psychotic
Integrity	Heartbroken	Lonely	Small-town	Possessive
King/queen	Cheap	Musical	Shy	Violent
Leader	Mindful	Simple	Superficial	Zombie
Survivor	Stubborn	Stressed	High strung	Burned out
Wise	Storyteller	Listless	Tough	Worthless
Prodigy	Modern	Alien	Wild	Broken
Psychic	Worldly	Soft	Biker	Slothful

Figure 2.19 This Bigfoot is better at levitating (floating) than any other one in the clan. This unusual best trait works great for animation and is something we have not seen much of before onscreen. What types of unique digitally enhanced character traits could you give your character (for instance, the ability to fly, glow, or become invisible)?