Tutorial 7

Hello everyone! So, this week we talked about; characterisation. And boy, there were so much to learn this week! Well, Mr Leslie basically taught us about how to define and develop a character. I strongly agree that a story without a character is like mee rebus without the gravy or chee cheong fun without the sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil and chilli paste. *oops, I think I heard my tummy made some noise. Hee. Okay, back to where I stopped. A good, strong story needs to have a character in it because I feel the task of a character is to carry out actions/motions based on what the scriptwriter has written in order for the story to come alive. The character is;

- the heart

- the soul

- the nervous system of the screenplay.

Thus, without character(s), the story will just die before it can even start. I believe without character no story can be conveyed or told. It is through the character(s) that the audiences experience emotions; angry, sad, disappointed, etc. Once, I watched Click! I actually teared in the cinema despite for it being funny. I could feel Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) loss when his father died. I also believe that only good actors can carry out a task that will make audience feel what the character feel. To me, if I was a directer or producer of a movie that triggered the feelings of many audiences; it is an accomplishment.

So why character is SO important again?

• Without a character, there is no action.
• Without action, means no conflict
• Without conflict means no story
• Without story means no script/screenplay

Hence, I feel that the character is the root of the movie. Just by not having a character, action, conflict and story will not exist to make a movie.

The next part of the lecture was on how to develop a character.

If I were to have a character for my movie, i will have to ask myself questions about the character that I want. What is his task in the movie, who will it be, why did he choose to resolve his problem in such a way, etc. Also, a character must have the ” Super 3 DS” (Dimensional Structure); Psychology, Sociology, Physiology. Sounds so medical huh. But anyway, what are these?

As what we learnt,

1) Physiology- sex, age, appearance, height, posture, heredity

2) Sociology- class, occupation, education

3) Psychology- sex life, moral standards, frustrations

In other words: Physiology= physical features, Sociology= background of the character and Psychology= moods/behaviour. Something like that… I think.

The other “main ingredients” to make a character are the INTERIOR and EXTERIOR.

Huh? Where do I make or find those two?

Well, the interior is basically what audiences don’t see in a movie. Like Click! we never see nor were told where Michael was born, where was he born, what size of shoe did he wear, what was his favourite colour, how he proposed his wife, was he a good student etc. Thus, the interior is about the bio-data/personal information of the character that audiences do not know.

As for exterior, it is what audiences see in the screen/movie. It starts when the movie begins till the end where happy endings or tragedies might be the conclusions. For example, in Click! we know that Michael had a wife with two kids, he worked as an architect because we saw it, does he have to have sex all the time (we saw that he had to because every night he basically had sex with his wife, only that it was fast-forwarded. HAHA! He was often busy (we saw it too!) and etc.

I felt that Sandler was good in that movie. Don’t you guys think so too?

Oh, wait wait! Dramatic characters interact in 3 ways. This is quite cool. Why? Because with these guidelines, I believe we can make better dramatic characters.

1) They EXPERIENCE CONFLICT when they want to achieve their goal. [e.g Need money – Rob a bank, rob a store, rob a person]

2) They INTERACT WITH OTHER CHARACTERS. [e.g If A is indifferent to B, it means A is doing something to B.]
3) They INTERACT WITH THEMSELVES.  [e.g, he overcame his fear of being caught by pulling off the robbery successfully]

And, and…

to make the character MORE SPICY, you can turn and twist their personality!