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Training
Character Building
It's all about character: Harry He's Here To Help
CHARACTER BUILDING
Monday 25 & Tuesday 26 September 2006
It’s tempting to think that character is the easy bit of screenwriting, after all, it's just people. But characters don’t just inhabit your story, they are your story. You can’t successfully structure a screenplay until you know what your characters would do. And any meaning that you want your story to have can only be told through the choices that your characters make.
Not everyone sees things the same way - American BeautyThe discussion of character is too often limited to defining the roles of protagonist and antagonist. This new training course from the Script Factory takes character as the starting point to approach all aspects of story design.
Whether you are building a screen story from scratch, or are on your tenth redraft, this two day training course offers you a range of practical approaches to thinking about character. The aim is to get them out of your head and onto the page in a way that will convince funders and producers that an audience may want to spend an hour or two with them also.
Taught over six sessions on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 September, Character Building is suitable for screenwriters and all those involved in the script development process, including creative producers.
COURSE PROGRAMME
Monday 25 September
10.30 - 12.30: “I know your type”
Building memorable characters means creating characters that are both unique individuals and recognisable types. However original a character might be, until they are pinned down and identified in terms of their type – hero, villain, angry father, rebellious daughter – the action of the story will remain elusive and the characters refuse to come to life. This session explores how working with archetypes – from Cinderella to David & Goliath – can clarify the design of the story and allow the creation of characters with universal appeal.
12.30 - 1.30: Lunch
1.30 - 2.45: “A leopard doesn’t change its spots”
Writing the rites of passage: Stand by Me Or does it? Screen characters generally get it harder than most as their creators test them by hurling a barrage of misfortunes their way: unrequited loves, burning passions, consuming fears, axe-wielding psychopaths in the basement. But do people really change under such pressure or is it rather that their true characters are revealed? This question will be explored through a thorough examination of the rites of passage genre, which deals with that most inevitable and subtle of transitions – growing up.
2.45 - 3.00: Coffee Break
3.00 - 5.00: “If you were in my shoes”
There is always another side to every story, so how do you ensure that the audience identifies with your main character and interprets the action in the way you intend? This session clarifies and explores the many important elements of screenwriting craft evoked by the phrase ‘point of view’, from the world view that emerges from the film to the way in which you structure individual scenes and sequences in order to direct the audience to see events through the eyes of a particular character.
Tuesday 26 September
10.30 - 12.30: “Losing the plot”
Learn from Master and Commander how to chart your character's journeyPlot driven stories – thrillers, action adventure stories, crime stories – routinely develop a love-interest or personal relationship story to counterpoint the main action. Without it characters can seem little more than functions of the plot. In character driven stories, however, personal relationships are the main action. The question becomes how much plot is needed to sustain the audience’s interest and reveal the truth about the characters? This session explores the balance between the action line and the relationship line in different kinds of screen story.
12.30 - 1.30: Lunch
1.30 - 3.30:“Don’t make me the bad guy”
Step into the moral complexity of Dead Man's ShoesThe last few years have seen a noticeable rise in the number of films with central characters to whom the word ‘hero’ would not routinely be applied: serial killers, paedophiles, assassins, con-men, adulterers, misogynists and losers. This session questions what we really mean when we say that screen characters have to be sympathetic and considers the various ways in which the writer can ensure that audiences will be content to spend a couple of hours in the cinema with people from whom they would probably run a mile from in real life.
3.30 - 3.45: Coffee break
3.45 - 5.00:“What you see is what you get”
A novelist can describe the innermost thoughts and feelings of a character. In a screenplay character is defined by what a person does and how they do it. A look betrays their real intentions; a gesture proves their words to be a lie. Everything of significance has to be seen. This final session examines how making the essence of a character concrete and visible – externalising the internal – makes for economical and dramatic story telling.
All course sessions will be taught by Rob Ritchie, Marilyn Milgrom and Justine Hart from The Script Factory’s training team.
Booking Information
Training takes places at The Script Factory in Central London. The fee for Character Building is £150 + VAT (total £176.25) which includes lunch, light refreshments and a comprehensive training pack. Script Factory Members can get a 10% discount (reducing the total to £158.63) - for details of Membership .
Spaces are limited to 25 participants.
To book by credit / debit card, please call Josh on 0207 323 1414.
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