Quick check-in with my fellow writers. It’s been a while since I posted here. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with character highlights for my project Rise of the Rejects—short teasers that spotlight a character’s powers and personality in just a few lines.
Got me thinking: how do you all introduce your characters in your scripts? Do you go big and bold right away, or keep it minimal and let the dialogue/actions speak first?
I’d love to swap notes and maybe pick up some fresh techniques from the community here.
3 people like this
Think of it this way. A script will be translated into a physical production of time and expense. PG Wodehouse wrote to imagine each character is being paid by yourself for their presence.
You definitely want to get to the point and make each scene/shot setup count
3 people like this
I introduce my characters in different ways, Chikaima Uwakwe. Sometimes it's a big action scene, a scary scene, a mystery, etc.
2 people like this
The most intuitive solution is that each character is doing something which is typical for them. In my latest script, the main character leaves a cemetery (her baby daughter is dead). The CIA boss is fleeing for his angry wife. The honest scientist is complaining about the cheating professor. The cheating professor has a wine bottle. The rich woman is talking in the phone to her assistant.
2 people like this
I try to introduce them via establishing character moments, but sometimes they like to be lowkey first and then surprise with the truth. It really depends on the story I'm writing.
2 people like this
Have you ever read the opening few scenes of Four Weddings and a Funeral? Something like 8 or 10 characters are introduced via their homes and how they navigate their morning before the first wedding and I think it's a great example of how you can tell the audience so much about a character before even the first line of dialogue is written.
1 person likes this
An Antagonist can be introduced to a group as the oppiste of that group,
Antagonist
Imagine, a quiet church, people praying silently, and a loud drunk walks in and yells he seen the preacher at the whorehouse last night.
Protagonist
Introduce the Protagonist the way they think they are, to get them to connect with your intended audience.
Imagine a room full of big male charaters fighting and a small elder woman walks in the just looks at them and the stop fighting, you know shhhe is thier mom.
1 person likes this
I love to show a person as they start their day. Waking up. Getting dressed. Talking to partner. Kids perhaps. Leaving the house to go to work. The car they drive. How they treat the person that gets them their coffee at the cafe.