Character and set development for use in end product (how the character and set is going to be used and how the design has been influenced by this in the development process.)
Character development
1 . How to develop a character
Step 1
Summarize the role in a short paragraph.
Step 2
Identify the role. An ally? opponent? Or a false friend?
Think about the key points of the role
- What is the goal of a hero?
- Who is the opponent? Conflict is an important part of the story, so consider who the hero’s opponent is and what strength / ability they have.
- What are the characteristics of characters? It includes physical, social (married, homeless, class) and psychological (fear, phobia).
Stereotypes / prototypes
Stereotypes should be avoided because they tend to reinforce negative images, such as Hollywood, which took decades to get rid of black stereotypes. We can subvert stereotypes by giving a character a strange characteristic to create interesting characters. For example, a bodybuilder may love classical music or flower arrangement.
Prototypes
Prototypes are very powerful because people are already familiar with them.
- Hero
- age
- Magician
- Rulers
- Clown
- Lover
- A free Explorer
- A rebel who breaks the rules
Location
Where will the character live? Do villains prefer dark nests full of science and technology, or do they want to live in dimly lit caves? Or do they want to break the rules, show the villains and their families live happily together, or give them an attractive sense of humor.
Props
Use props to express the character’s feelings.
Select the clothing / hairstyle / make-up required for each character
If a character is gentle and kind, and he or she doesn’t care about his or her appearance more than other aspects of life, he or she should use a small amount of nude or light colored cosmetics.
If the character is very outgoing and likes to stand out in the crowd, try bold colors, especially around the lips and eyes.
Empathy
The audience must resonate with the protagonist. This can be achieved by creating obstacles or conflicts for the hero, and by creating some romance and showing the hero’s trouble free help in the film can also bring good resonance to the audience.
Tips
When creating a character, describe them with action rather than emotion. For example, describing someone washing his hands 50 times a day is more effective than simply thinking that he or she has obsessive-compulsive disorder.
When creating a villain in a movie, make sure that anger is not his only emotion. If you want the villain to arouse people’s fear, make him merciless, mean, cruel and vulgar. But remember, villains have very different emotions.
They can fall madly in love with someone, do anything for that person, and show gentle kindness around them. They may also feel abandoned and lonely, or have terrible memories of childhood, which the audience will never know, but can feel the feeling of being abandoned.
For the creation of villains, 60% of the bad and 40% of the good.
2. How will the character be developed throughout the story
Hollywood movies are actually very simple. Although it is certainly not easy to write a successful Hollywood film, the stories of mainstream Hollywood films are based on three basic elements: role, desire and conflict.
All the stories in the movies depict a hero who faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles when they pursue a compelling goal.Whether it’s a romantic comedy, a suspense thriller, a history play, or a big budget science fiction, all successful Hollywood films follow the same basic structure, so what happens in a 90 minute comedy at 25% of the time is the same as a 3-hour epic at 25%.
Stage 1 Positioning
The first 10% of the play must attract readers and audiences. The initial orientation of the story must reveal the protagonist’s daily life. The audience and the protagonist must establish a sense of identity through the factors of the hero’s sympathy, threat, liking or powerful power.
By 10% of the script, the characters in the story must get a chance, which will create a new desire and will start their journey.
Stage 2 New Situation
In the next 15% of the stories, the character will respond to the new situation brought about by this opportunity. At this stage, the character adapts to the new environment, trying to figure out what’s going on, or making a specific plan to achieve his overall goal.
The story structure tends to follow the “geographic location,” because opportunity brings the hero to a new location. In most movies, characters are willing to enter a new environment, often with excitement and expectation, or they believe that the new problems they face can be easily solved, but when conflicts begin to form, they begin to realize that the obstacles they face are much larger than they think.
When writing a quarter of the script, something must have happened to the character in the story, which will turn the character’s initial desire into a clear goal and a clear end point.In this scene, the concept of the story is defined, and the extrinsic motivation of the characters in the story is revealed. The extrinsic motivation refers to the audience’s hope that the characters in the story can reach the end point at the end of the film.
Stage 3 Development
In the next 25% of the stories, the character’s plan seems to be achieving his goals
By the middle of the script, the characters in the story must be completely committed to their goals. Because there is no reward for passing this, the characters in the story have to deal with what happens later.
Stage 4 Chain Reaction and High Risk
In the next 25% of stories, obstacles will become bigger and more frequent, and achieving visible goals will become more difficult, and if the heroes fail, they will lose more.
The conflict continues until success seems to be in the hands of the character, and then the character begins to suffer.
Around page 90 of the script, something must have happened to the characters in the story, making the audience feel that everything is over.
Stage 5 Final Sprint
He’s going to take all the courage and the strength that he has to take to achieve his goals.
At this stage of the script, the conflict is overwhelming, the rhythm begins to accelerate, and everything must run counter to the hero in the story until he reaches the end.
In the climax of the film, these things must happen: the character must face the biggest obstacle in the whole story; he must decide his own fate; the external motivation must be solved once and for all.
Stage 6 Results
No film ends with a clear purpose, and the audience must experience the emotions of excitement, sadness, or romantic climax. It may also be necessary to explain to the audience the outstanding issues and reveal the hero’s new life after the journey.
3 . Weakness
Soldier
Advantages:
Physical / mental
self-confidence
chill
Be ready
Weakness:
Underestimate your opponent
Conceit
Objectives:
If someone wants to save the world, why don’t I?
Children
Once thought that there was only one way in the world, and then met the cruel reality, this is the story of children. They are young, naive and study hard.
Advantages:
Rich imagination
trust
Hopeful
Weakness:
Physically or physically vulnerable
It’s naive to the world
Easy to use
Objectives:
Study, get happiness, seek truth
Orphans
They don’t know their value unless someone tells them. They are usually designated as the savior or protagonist of the story. They live a normal life until the environment puts them in the spotlight.
Advantages:
They are chosen, so they will be respected.
They are survivors.
They sympathize with the civilian population.
Weakness:
Care too much about other people’s opinions
No faith
Eager to please others
Objectives:
And they want to be accepted by others. They want to be understood.
Creator
How does it feel to start from scratch? This character needs to create something tangible or intangible in their world. They will make any necessary sacrifice to achieve the bigger goal.
Advantages:
Infinite driving force
Creative genius
Weakness:
Normal people can’t understand their vision.
Perfectionism without understanding fireworks
Bear what ordinary people can’t bear
Objectives:
No matter what they create, they will make a deep impression on people. Goals are above everything.
Caregivers
Unselfish behavior is rare in real life, as well as in movies and television. The prototype of the caregiver role has been sacrificing everything in life to help others. They care about their family and friends. They are reliable people.
Advantages:
Tolerant heart
Selfless behavior
fervent
Weakness:
Easy to be deceived
Stubborn
Value the survival of others rather than your own
Objectives:
Protect the people they love at all costs. They live to serve others.
Tutor
It’s hard to succeed without a mentor in Hollywood. The same is true of character archetypes. A wise or wise teacher is a good teacher. They can have magic, or wisdom, or both.
Advantages:
About the wisdom of the world
one ‘s mind settles as still water
Good at listening
Weakness:
You can’t solve your own problems
Predictions may go wrong
Moving forward in the dark
Objectives:
Teach the next generation to accept challenges
Clown
Scrape through or seeks relief in comedy. Their story can be a warning or just a joke.
Advantage:
Everyone likes it.
It’s fun to be with them.
Can have a deep soul
Weakness:
Unreliable when needed
Usually for themselves.
Indulge in entertainment
Objectives:
What can make my life easier, what can make me happy?
Magician
For some, seeking enlightenment can take a lifetime. The difference between this person and his mentor is that magicians have something they want everyone to follow.
Advantages:
knowledge
strategy
Historical knowledge
Weakness:
Proud of Lucifer
If they can’t do what they want to do, they get angry.
Sometimes it’s belligerent
Objectives:
They need power and organization. They see chaos in the world and know how to solve problems.
Rulers
“Take me to your leader,” said the king or queen, who runs the country (or company). They are the people you follow, the people who give orders. I want them to be good at management.
Advantages:
power
communicate
Leadership
Weakness:
Control at all costs
The illusion of their conspiracy
Objectives:
Maintain social peace and order, maintain power and gain more power.
Rebels
Life is not fair. The rebels are tired of it. When they think they deserve more, they are no longer satisfied with their normal day. Rebels usually have leadership, but that doesn’t mean they are the leader’s first choice. However, people follow those who want to shock the world.
Advantages:
never give up
It can motivate the masses
Know how to get more out of it
Weakness:
Often at the bottom of a totem pole
You have to get what you want in a hard way
They have no power and no clear direction
Objectives:
The world is terrible. Let’s change it.
Lover
Love will let us together, let the lover go on. They lead with their hearts, with their sleeves. They are selfless and sometimes neglect their health and safety even if they are totally devoted to the people they worship.
Advantage:
Give to each other
Be passionate about the people they love
Open your heart
Weakness:
Willing to die for each other
To be able to please the other side at the same time lose their own personality
Objectives:
Give each other everything they have. Make any relationship as strong as possible.
Seducer
Some people call them snake and scorpion beauty or snake and scorpion man. These beautiful people control every situation with their appearance and charm. They’re conniving. They only value what they want. Nothing can stop them.
Advantage:
charming
Beautiful / handsome
Weakness:
There is no morality
Strong desire for control
Not loyal enough
Objectives:
They want power and control at all costs.
Story Development
1 . How to write a good story
- First, structure is the key to success or failure of a story.
- Second, when expressing the theme, we must not preach, but use the actions of the characters to convey the meaning.
- Third, if the story wants to be convincing, it should be designed according to different narrative objects, and the characters in the story should be authentic.
2 . The rules to a good story
Storytelling is like climbing a mountain with an audience. It has to be a zigzag process. Only in this way can we attract the audience’s attention. It can be realized through five steps.
- Beginning
- Incentive events
- Progress entanglement
- Climax
- Ending
Three Film Analysis
Avatar
Scene 1: disabled but righteous jack is taken to Pandora, where he can manipulate avatar against the natives.
Plot point I: Avatar controlled by Jack meets the aboriginal neydini in order to avoid being separated from his companions.
Scence 2: Jack gradually integrates into the life of Na Meiren and wins the love of niedini. At the same time, the Colonel constantly urges Jack to threaten Na Meiren to move out of the settlement, and finally launch a mutiny to attack the settlement..
Plot point II: Jack enters avatar’s body and returns to the settlement.
Scence 3: Jack leads Na Meiren to defeat the colonel and defend the homeland.
Opening scene: Jack’s lower body paralyzed, but still in the bar justice, but was thrown out by the security guard.
Theme presentation: Jack monologue: “you want fairness, but you’re on the wrong planet. The world will always bully the weak. “
Bedding: disabled but righteous jack is taken to Pandora. His twin brother died unexpectedly, leaving an avatar body that no one else could operate.
Push: avatar can get paralyzed jack up again.
Argument: Grice, a female scientist, opposes letting jack, a Navy born man, manipulate avatar. She believes that human beings should get along with Na Meiren on an equal footing.
See Tutor: Jack and grace link avatar to receive knowledge and training on how to manipulate avatar.
Scene 2: Jack escapes from the beast and falls down the waterfall alone. In the night, she was rescued by the woman nemesis. Later, she was brought back to the village as a booty by the Na Mei warrior Su Tai.
Story B: Jack is gradually integrated into Na Meiren’s life under the leadership of nidini. The two gradually fall in love, which causes Sutai’s dissatisfaction.
Game: Jack chooses his flying mount and flies on Pandora.
Midpoint: people come to attack the surrounding settlement of na’meiren
Tribulation: when the village is attacked, Sutai discovers the relationship between Jack and nidini and duels with Jack. Jack is forced to disconnect and Sutai wins.
Dying: Jack gets the last chance to lobby for peace from the colonel and tells nietinina that beauty must give up the settlement to the people of the earth. He completely loses the trust of Na Meiren and is disconnected from avatar and locked up. At the same time, niedini’s father died in human hands. The climax and reward of the second act: Jack and others escape from the base, link avatar, tame Toruk, become the “ghost Knight” in Nami legend, and regain the trust of Na Meiren.
Scene 3: the Colonel launches a coup and decides to attack the na’ami tribe and bomb the sacred tree.
The last battle: Jack leads Na Meiren against the human race, but there is no chance of winning. At this time, the life on the whole planet launched a counterattack, and finally beat back the human beings.
Ending: the earth people leave Na Mei Xing, Jack gets Na Mei’s acceptance.
The final picture: with the help of the divine tree, Jack becomes a real beauty.
This part of the introduction to this end, the following into a more complex structure division.
The theme of avatar is full of pessimism about the present situation and future of mankind. By Jake’s words, we can say that human beings have destroyed the earth, and now we are going to destroy Pandora. In fact, to show the author’s pessimism about human beings, the best choice is to use a physically disabled ex marine. At the beginning of the film, Jake says he doesn’t have the money to treat his disabled body, and he lives on the dole. Such a soldier who lives at the bottom of the society, has no source of income and no future, and his twin brother is still killed by gangsters, can be said to have tasted the pain and sorrow of human society. You can understand his excitement when he became avatar for the first time, running around crazily regardless of the advice of scientists. It was his long suppressed desire for health and freedom. Only when he became avatar, he was not an old soldier pushing a wheelchair, but a beautiful young man full of vitality. Jake decided almost from the beginning that he would rather be avatar than human.
After encountering Neytiri and the real na’amie tribe, Jake’s “mutiny” became more logical. Is it a warrior who has been tested by hunters in the beautiful jungle and finally won the approval of the beauty and Neytiri, or is it a soldier who pushes a wheelchair and is confined to a human base and reports to Colonel Quaritch all day long? For Jake, it is a multiple choice question without difficulty. Among all the “good people” in the film, to be exact, the break and struggle between RDA and mercenaries, Jake has always been the most resolute and tenacious. Because no matter doctor Augustine or female pilot Chacon, their help to the beauty is out of sympathy for the beauty and “distaste” to Colonel guaritch. Only Jake’s “rebellion” is really because only in Pandora can he realize the happiness and significance of life.
Jake’s handicapped setting, which I think is quite skillful, plays a reasonable role in promoting the plot. You can see that Jake’s Avatar’s first movement after sitting up is to move his toes, and even the later running can show Jake’s adaptation and satisfaction with his new body, which foreshadows Jake’s tendency towards Na’vi people.
AndHadHun
False blind, true moral blind
Akash, the male host, said he pretended to be blind in order to concentrate on music, and put a film on his eyes to block his eyesight. Can be in no one’s place will immediately take down to return to normal, after meeting his favorite girl, go out without that layer of membrane, unscrupulously deceive everyone.
After witnessing Simi and her lover killing her husband, he prepared to go to the police, but found out that the police chief was the lover, and then he counselled him. Although there was a struggle, the truth was never told. Later, he saw Simi push the neighbor’s old lady down the stairs, but he still chose to be blind.
When Simi, one of the killers, found out that Akash was not blind, he was afraid that things would be revealed, so he blinded Akash’s eyes and made him a real blind man. Akash fell into the hands of a taxi couple who secretly made money by buying and selling livers. Akash almost had his kidney cut off, but he told the couple that Simi had killed his husband with his husband’s sheriff, and that he had taken 10 million yuan to save his life. But in fact, the 10 million is fake. The sheriff and Simi are involved. After a scuffle, Simi, the sheriff, the taxi couple all got some retribution, and Akash survived.
At the end of the film, Akash is somewhere in Europe, wearing sunglasses and playing the piano as before. He tells Sophie: Simi killed the doctor and was going to kill me by driving. But it happened that a killed rabbit flew to the window of the car, so she turned around and lost her life.
Many people have questioned whether the truth in Akash’s mouth is true, whether he finally discovered his conscience or lost his morality. I think the ending should be the latter. It can be seen from the film that Akash’s eyes return to normal, because when the waiter asked him if the rabbit crutch was his, he said yes without hesitation. How can a blind man know if this is his crutch? The first is a shot of the doctor telling Akash to sell Simi’s liver and use her cornea to cure Akash. By this time, the car is far away. But in the back, when Akash told Sophie the truth, the car stopped under a tree. The implication is that Akash is lying.
When I looked at it for the first time, I thought that Akash still had some good people. He had morality, but he struggled in it and finally fell down. When I saw it the second time, I felt that Akash had never been a good man. He pretended to be blind and lived in a house with low rent. He was taken care of by many people. He was timid and did not dare to tell the truth under the power. He was greedy for life, willing to hurt others’ lives for his own life, and buried the truth for his own reputation. He was pretending to be a good man.
Taxi couple, police chief — take the bad consequences from oneself
Taxi couple and black heart doctor cooperate to trade liver for profit. They don’t care whose liver they take. As long as they can make money, it doesn’t matter if people die. But unexpectedly, the husband was seriously injured in the fight with the police chief and could not be rescued. His wife went crazy outside the emergency room and said to the doctor, “I have money, I have money. You must save him.”. But the doctor told him that he could not be saved, and said, “you can consider donating the liver to other people, as well as the cornea.”
The sheriff loves power and reputation. He does a lot of selfish things with his own power. In order to keep this power, he does not hesitate to hurt other people’s lives and violate professional ethics. But he was trapped in the elevator and hurt by his pistol.
Sophie — a simple and innocent perspective of God
Sophie’s appearance is not only to make the film appear “love” this factor, she also symbolizes a group of people, who are naive, simple, easy to believe other people’s words, and believe it. In the play, Simi and the sheriff find that Akash is a fake blind man, while Sophie, who has been with Akash for the longest time, does not find out. Moreover, Akash has many loopholes in the process, such as the one in front staring at the mural in the corridor and recognizing his rabbit crutches. Sophie didn’t have any doubts about others. Even knowing that Akash had cheated herself once, Sophie believed what he said and believed that he was a good man. Finally, there is to fight for him: “you should listen to the doctor’s advice to take away her cornea.”
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Although “spider man: parallel universe” tells the story of six spidermans fighting the villains together, it is obvious that they can’t be the protagonists at the same time. This is due to the limitation of the length of the film. If we describe each spider man too much, we will lose the rhythm. Therefore, the film depicts three spider men in detail. However, this film, like other films, focuses on one of the protagonists, Mel The middle-aged Spiderman Peter Parker and Spiderman Gwen are designed as secondary plots.
Minor plot refers to the story that has less screen time and emphasis than the main plot. Although it may not be associated with the main plot, a secondary plot should still support the protagonist’s story. In Robert McKee’s the story, he wrote: “if a minor plot does not contradict or resonate with the dominant idea of the main plot on the theme, if it can not help to introduce the incentive events of the main plot, or complicate the action of the main plot, if it is only parallel in the storyline, it will split the whole story and destroy it Effect. ” In essence, a minor plot must reinforce the main plot, no matter how. In spider man: parallel universe, there are two main methods.
They connect with the theme of the main plot
When miles lost his Spiderman identity, Peter Parker was lost in the pain of his divorce from Mary Jane, and Gwen lost his best friend because of his identity, so she decided not to make friends. The story of the three revolves around the same theme – seeking for self-identity value.
Enrich the world of the story
In Peter Parker’s story, we learn about spider man’s life as an ordinary person, and he also has emotional crisis; in Gwen’s story, we see the danger of spider man’s identity and the loss of her best friend. Through the stories of Peter Parker and Gwen, the identity problem faced by miles has a deeper background.
Together, these minor plots form a unified theme and depict the obstacles in the story world in more detail and forcefully.
Elements of secondary plot
In spider man: parallel universe, the main plot is how miles grows into a new generation of spider man. The secondary plot is similar to the basic elements of the main plot, but with less emphasis and turning points. Each minor plot should have five key elements.
- Desire
- Incentive events
- Conflict and struggle
- Climax
- Solution
Peter Parker
Desire: getting married again with Mary Jane
Motivating events: coming to a new world
Conflict and struggle: Miss Mei and Mary Jane
Climax: confide in Mary Jane of the new world at dinner
Solution: go back to the old world and knock on Mary Jane’s door again
Gwen
Desire: longing for friendship under Spiderman’s identity
Incentive event: meet miles
Conflict and struggle: getting along with miles and other Spiderman
Climax: admit the new hairstyle is great
Solution: acknowledge your friendship with miles
Miles
Desire: Hope father understand him, no longer restrain him
Inspiring event: Uncle Allen’s death
Conflict and struggle: Miles blames himself and other Spiderman partners comfort him
Climax: father confides to him through the door
Solution: call your father and hug him
It is worth mentioning that every minor plot deepens the theme. Peter Parker finally decides to renew the relationship with Mary Jane; Gwen gains the friendship with miles and other Spiderman; miles cherishes the kinship with his father more, and his father doesn’t force miles. The themes of the three stories are all about regaining self-identity.
Compare and Contrast
This similar sequence of film plot development uses a tight rhythm to capture the audience. The general plot is that the character changes from one character to another, in which a series of things happen. The emergence of villains, crisis, motivation and other factors promote the development of the whole plot.
I think the characters in these three films have a process of transformation.
The protagonist of avatar, because of his own physical defects, is actually not very expected of this. It can be said that he hates his own pain, but when he has a new body and contacts a new race and love, he shows a state of love. He thinks he has a goal and mission to accomplish the protection of the planet.
The role of the tuner also has a process of transformation. At the beginning, he is very kind, and later, because he is threatened and saved his life,becoming a false person who can tell lies.
The protagonist of Spiderman, the little boy starts from the fear and bewilderment at the beginning, and begins to bravely accept the fact, and undertakes his own mission to save the world together with other spider man. This is an improvement of his personal body and soul, including the relationship with his father.
And I think the three films listed above used similar narrative structures as well. This narrative structure can make the story twists and turns, that is, the rhythm of the film is compact and fast, which will not make people feel bored or expose the main line and goal of the story at he first sight.
The similar structure
Start
Usually this picture represents the theme / tone / and attitude of the whole story
Core themes. Usually, within five minutes of the film’s opening, the theme has to be brought out, whether it’s a dialogue or action between the characters. In other words, five minutes before and after the beginning of the script, an interesting question or discussion must be raised for the protagonist / Director / audience to answer together.
The framework of the plot
The first 10 minutes or so of the film is when the screenwriter introduces / constructs the film world: the relationship between characters, “personality”, what they want, etc.
In the first ten minutes, we should also show some shortcomings of the protagonist. These shortcomings will come back later and cause some problems or laughs.
The exciting point of the plot
About 12 minutes after the opening of the film, there will be a turning point in the plot: for example, a phone call informing rich dad of his death.
In other words, it is an event for the protagonist to say goodbye to his comfortable life. If this point is not strong enough, the audience will think that the film “has no plot.”.
The conflict and contradiction of the characters in the plot
After the turning point, the protagonist has to face the self struggle Do you want to keep going?
In this section, the protagonist should be more active, so as to be a “hero” and the audience will have a sense of identity.
The story enters the second stage
After the protagonist’s self struggle, he decides to accept the task, decides to set out to destroy the ring, decides to participate in the beauty contest, and decides to love bravely
The story officially enters the second paragraph.
Open story line B
As you enter the second paragraph, you should also start the second axis of the story. The main character’s love story usually takes place in the second story line; this section is also the best opportunity for the protagonist to meet his new partner.
Add more game time
The middle of the story. If so far, the protagonist has been all smooth sailing, then the middle point is the climax / bottleneck of his good luck; after the middle point, everything starts to go down until the final tragic ending.
The villains are coming
In the middle of the previous point, perhaps the protagonist temporarily defeated the enemy, but in this period, the enemy will regroup and make a big counter attack.
The enemy of the protagonist is more and more powerful in these 20 minutes. Before the end of this period, we have to force the protagonist to a corner.
Let the protagonist lose everything
At this point in time, the protagonist has been cornered.
The story enters the third stage
Just when everything seems desperate, the protagonist begins to turn defeat into victory.
Often, the key to the protagonist’s turning from defeat to victory is the people he knows or what happens in the story line B: the seemingly trivial events or characters at that time become the key to turning defeat into victory.
Ending
The protagonist successfully defeats the enemy and establishes a new self / life / even a new world by using the people and things learned in the story line B. The minor problems, habits or problems of the protagonist at the beginning of the story have also been solved.
Ending screen
The last picture of the film should correspond to the first one. The first and last pictures of the film can be used as a set of pre – and post use photos, reflecting the changes of the protagonist in the journey of the story.