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| The Descent |
All screenplays should be love stories. Not between the characters on the page, but between you and your characters. The saddest type of movie to watch is one where the writer clearly hates some if not all of his or her
characters. They have constructed characters who’s sole purpose
is to show up long enough to eat up screen time and be gotten rid
of in the most gruesome manor possible.
This has become standard in both action and horror movies. Just because it
is standard does not mean that you have to follow that rule. It may take a little more
time to write about characters who have lives and are interesting to both you
the screenwriter and the viewer, but hey no one said that this job was going
to be easy.
You can turn on Fear net or Showtime Extreme or the Sci-fi channel and
see countless movies populated by characters created to first fail and then die. You
will never create a great script this way.
What about Friday the 13th? What about Halloween? What about Mad Max?
What about them? Do not think about the sequels. Think about the originals.
Think about the first of each. Friday the 13th is filled with actual characters.
Halloween spends time letting you get to know the star and her friends. Friends
who have lives and dreams and plans. Dreams and plans that do not include
getting slaughtered by a masked killer. They were not made to be killed, they
mostly happened to be in the way.
Mad Max is filled with memorable characters. It is the loss of these characters,
concluding with his wife and child that turns a cop with an unspoken mission to give
the world its heroes back that drives Max over the edge.
Let me give you a modern example of what is becoming a genre classic.
How many of you have heard of the movie the Descent?
You have not only heard of it, but seen it?
Cool, so did I. As a matter of fact I was lucky enough to see this movie at
a film festival. It was the North American premiere and it was one of those rare
moments when at the end the audience, including myself, stood up and applauded.
This movie held its audience from beginning to end.
There are no easy kills in this movie.
There were no empty lives.
Each character is introduced and defined.
They actual die as they have lived.
They actually seem to know each other. They interact as friends would. They
all share a common history that has lead them to this moment in their lives. What a
great job of writing and directing. There are moments when they don’t like
each other but still care about each other. If these characters were lost in
the woods and there was nothing chasing them this would have still been
and interesting film.
The Descent is not a perfect film, we could talk for days about the
alternate endings, but it is a great example of how to populate your script with
characters whom you as the writer and view will get to know and
care about.
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| Hannibal Lecter |
The lesson is that if the writer does not care about character C then why should
the audience? Care about them all, even the villains. Even if the villain is a monster.
Hannibal Lecter is one of the most evil characters to ever appear in a film. Audiences
can not get enough of him. His creator must care about him, perhaps even
admires many aspects of his personality.
Find things to like about as many of your creations as possible and where or
when you can find things to love about them. It will show up on the page
and hopefully on the screen. Love your characters and they may in return,
through the gift of fame fortune and glory, show you love in return.
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