Screenplay Character Introductions Part 1: Description

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Lisa, and I would like to welcome you to the screenwriters toolbox. In this class, we're going to learn all about how you introduce a character into your story. It is a really great tool because you want your reader to be on board from the moment they meet your character, whether they're intrigued by them or they know exactly who they are, or they're just kinda curious to find out what happens next. But a screenplay doesn't have a lot of space to do this. So we need to connected, but we have to do it really fast. So that means we need to use language wisely. Basically convey a lot in a few words. And were writers. So this is a fun challenge, right? So in this class we are going to go through all the do's and don'ts. We're going to look at a lot of examples from movie and TV. And then we are going to practice what we've learned with a lot of writing exercises. Character introductions is going to be a two parter. The first class is about description and the second class is action and dialogue. After completing both classes, you are going to be totally capable and even comfortable at writing an introduction where you use description that actually gives us the essence of who the character is, an action that not only helps the story unfold, but lets us see who this person is. And then dialogue that is specific and intentional so that we actually hear who this person is by the words they choose. Now this is not a techie class. I'm not worried about the margins or formatting or how it looks. That's actually a future class that I'm working on right now. So keep your eye open for it. But if you are experienced and you have screen reading software, feel free to use it. You're new at this and you're just testing the waters of screenplays, then just use a word document, pen and paper, typewriter, whatever you've got. I love writing and I love teaching about writing. That I think I chose this class because I had been an actor for a lot of years. I moved up to New York City and I learned all about story structure and script analysis and play analysis. But I learned about it from the perspective of the character. I, as an actor, look through a script and I'm searching for clues from the writer to help me do my job and bring this character to life. That's really how I learned storytelling. When I moved to LA, I discovered that really anybody who's working on a production is a storyteller. They just tell it through editing or lighting or set design and hair and makeup, music, location shots. Everybody is telling your story through their expertise. So it's your job to give them the information that will help them. The more you understand that this is really a team event, the better writer you're going to be. So I hope you're as excited about this class is I am. Let's get started. 2. Class Project Explanation: We are not going to do just one class project. We are gonna do multiple rating exercises. We'll do a character introduction on description. We're going to look through all of the ways you do with things you don't want to put in and things that you do need to put in. And then we're going to look at examples so that you can see how other people have done it. When that's done will work with prompts. And I will give you literally random information. I will be pulling names, ages, and characteristics out of jars. And then you will do a writing exercise using description with the information that I've given you all have the same exact information. I think when you are practicing and learning something new, don't add on the pressure of coming up with a really brilliant idea. It's just not fair and truthfully there's no perfect ideas. So just take this information and see what you can do with it. The second thing is scripts have a lot of restrictions. That is one of the biggest complaints I get from students is they feel like their creativity is going to be compromised because the script is telling it what to do. Well, get used to it for one, but for two, I firmly believe, and I will say it a billion times, limitations promote creativity. Yes, it really is true. We've all sat in front of a blank screen or a blank piece of paper. Or a teacher says, write whatever you want and you thought to yourself, how come I can't come up with any good ideas. That is because our brains like a good challenge. Our brains love to overcome a problem, love to find a solution, loved to fix it or figure it out or get a workaround. That's kinda how we're hard wired. The only trick is you ask yourself a good question. How do I make this work? And then keep your eyes, ears, heart, and mind open because your brain is going to come up with some answers. They might not all be good, but it won't be a blank slate. During these exercises. I want you to get into the habit of loving a limitation and asking yourself the good question. Okay, so let's get going and find out a few quirky things about script. 3. Quirky Scripts: I know I promised that we weren't going to be like super technical, but there's just a few things I wanted to go over that are a little technical. In general, 90 pages to a 125 is about an hour and a half to 2.52 hour movie. They average out a page of a script as one minute of a movie. And that is an absolute average because dialogue takes a lot of real estate in a script while it doesn't take a lot of time in a movie, unless people are making like really dramatic pauses. Description can look like something small, but then she climbed over a fan and ran across a JAR. You scaled a three story building that actually take some time to both film and to watch. That's why it kind of averages out people who are reading your script are truly evaluating it. They are looking at so many different factors to see if this is something that is viable to turn into a movie. And the first one is going to be too long. And if you've written a 200-page script, they are going to assume it's going to be too long. Now, are there exceptions to the rule? Of course, you've got people like Aaron Sark and he's renowned for writing a lot of dialogue, so his scripts tends to be very long. However, we don't have the street cred of an EHR and silicon. So it's just a role that we kinda have to file. Shooting script is more of a technical document that's used by the production team. What we are writing is a speculative script. This is for people to read and be inspired in order to make the movie. Here's an example of the difference angle on Jim. He gives Allison and intense stare. Another angle, he winks. Jim stairs intensely at Alice and then he wins. One thing that I just want you to practice when you're working on the writing exercises. In general, a script is always written in the present tense because we are watching it in the present. And so you're going to say things like he walks into the room, not he was walking or he walked. Sometimes when I read my scripts, I'll see a few that aren't set right? And it's simply because when we're normally writing, we would use all of these different tenses. But for screenplay, if you can get into the habit of always writing in that way, you will solve a lot of problems for yourself. 4. Character Description: Let's get comfy and talk about character introductions and using and discretion. Now when you're writing an introduction for a character, it's usually just one or two sentences of description. You can let your action and your dialogue introduce her character and we're gonna be doing that in the future. But I think it's always a good idea to have just a moment to get the essence of who they are so that it actually can flavor the action and the dialogue that's coming. In addition to that, it's just a lot of fun to do. You want to make sure that when you're writing description, it is something that can be conveyed are translated by the filmmaker onto the screen of a weekend. To somewhat break that rule, when we introduce a character, we get to be a little bit more playful and share information and not ever be on the screen. But it actually gives us some deeper understanding of the character as the reader. It might even sum them up entirely, or it could just give us a clue. It's going to actually help you as the writer. It will help the reader understand the story quicker. And it's going to help the team who's going to make your movie. I was writing a screenplay and I had a really good idea of who my two main characters were. However, I had a scene that came up or a plot point that I really needed to help to propel my story alone. But it was not coming out well, like I'm telling you, I kept a rewriting and rewriting that seeking and it just felt awkward and it never float. So I took a step back and they kinda looked at my characters and I looked at the scene. And what I discovered is that what I was trying to make happen didn't work because it went against who my characters really were. I was so geared on the story that I kind of shoved my character into it. So what I ended up doing was what was happening to her. I made happen to her. I swapped the dialogue, I swapped the circumstance, and immediately it all flowed and my story got to move forward. So my point is, if you have a clear idea of who your character is in, in a very simple way, then when the story arc happens, you one can keep track of it and know, oh wait, that doesn't sound right for my character. Or at this point, my character needs to grow or develop and you know where you started. So you know what the change is going to need to be. So it's very helpful for your own sake. So how does a strong character introduction help your reader? I'm gonna give you another story. I was reading a script that actually had won some awards. I'm not going to name it, but I had never seen the movie. So I was reading that script cold. And for the first ten pages, I had literally no idea what was happening. Let me be clear. If you're writing a thriller or a mystery, I completely understand that sometimes you want things to be a little bit more vague. Sometimes you don't want to describe a character because you want to have a big reveal and a big surprise, and that's totally okay. But I challenge you to also make sure that in that timeframe, I'm curious. In this situation, it was a normal family with a normal conversation and a normal situation. They didn't give any descriptions of the characters. So quite honestly, any of those characters lines could have been switched and it wouldn't have made any difference. So the problem was, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know who anybody was. But more importantly, I wasn't connected to anybody. Even just like one or two of the characters with a simple line of description that gave me some insight. I could've thought to myself, OK, so I know who she is, but what about these other people? Now I'm asking a question that I want the answer to, so I keep reading. Jc twenties was the kind of gal that's shopped at the bargain bin of the thrift store. Okay. We will probably never see her at a thrift store, but we have a little clues to who she is. We don't have the full portrait because I actually don't know what type of shocker she is at the thrift store, but I do have an idea, so it's something that I can put in my bag and go, let's go hunting for more clues on who JC. So now the team wants to make your script into a movie and they are picking it apart, trying to find out all of the clues and the information they need to do their job. Let's use the JC example again. With that information, your location person is going to be thinking to themselves, she in a small town, large tower, the quirky artists side of town. Does she live with a room issue, live in an awful little studio via cool little trailer. So the wardrobe person is going to have those kinda questions too. Is this that quirky thrift store shopper her, is she the type of gal who spends $0.05 on a sweater and says, Who cares, that keeps me warm. Even your set design and set dressing and prompt. If she shops at thrift stores for her close, does she also shopped for all of her furniture issue, that type of person who finds that 19 sixties turquoise toaster that matches her 19 sixties turquoise refrigerator? Or does she just need a photon and a lamp? And she's good to go. These are the questions that they're going to already from that one sentence be thinking about and starting to look for more answers. So basically, you have got everybody curious and connect it with one line. That doesn't mean you have to answer every question in that one line, but you have to make us want to read more. 5. Lists Looks Labels: I'm that last description. I didn't list any items, no clothing, no props, no colors, no specific things that had to be. And in general, it's best not to list giving us the essence and then letting the experts do the shopping and the finding an order to paint that picture is exactly what you want to do. Are there exceptions to the rule? Of course, there are. Some times it's something is important for the story or there's a joke being made. And so the item needs to be defined. Or sometimes the outfit does reflect very much who they are and there's a couple of specific things that need to be included. Feel free to list it, but just don't give a list of 20 things. Just a couple of the big points that really give the essence and then let them have their fun. I'm going to give you an example of that from the movie something's gotta give. Erica is the lead. So great description a little bit longer because she really carries the entire movie. Well, what I like to is her sister. Zoe has in her forties, Zoe's the loose one. She wears drawstring pants and a T-shirt that says Boys lie. It did specify drawstring, you know, sweat pants and a specific teacher truthful, you didn't need to get the t-shirt that say boys lie. It would have given us an idea of who it is and given the actor enough, but they didn't make one for it. And it's perfect because instead of having her tell us that she's distrustful of men or he's a Schumacher, any of that? We just she just walks on and we know exactly who she is. So yes, they gave a couple of explanations and there you go. That's when you use it, and that's when you use it wisely. In general, with a screenplay, physical descriptions are not necessary unless they are necessary for the story. You know, somebody's named red because their hair is red. Well, then, yeah, you're going to probably put that in there. And they're gonna get an actor who either has red hair or will dye their hair written. So anytime there's a novel, people tried to stay a little bit closer to the looks that were given in the novel. A good example of this is from the movie The Green Mile. John Coffee is a huge black man, nearly seven feet tall and 300 pounds. His massive head shiny and bald, his skin, a tapestry of old scars, his prison overalls, the biggest size they had ending at mid calf. He looks dull and confused as if wondering where he is and how he got there. They used physical descriptions because that character was supposed to be large and intimidating. And then we come to find out that he is also a very sensitive soul, which is hinted at when they say as if wondering where he is and how he got there, he didn't come in storming and being like a big bowl of a man, he came in with size, but with a passive quality. So it's a good introduction that allows us to see a little bit about dynamic of who he is. But other than that, we don't want to be limited to what actor is going to portray that rule. We want the essence so we can find somebody will encapsulate that role. I still say, don't give us just the stats because it doesn't give us much to play with. It's not even fun as a writers can do. So here's an example. If you wrote Tad 286 foot two, gorgeous, perfect muscular body. Okay. We have that information, but I don't really know anything about him. Is he one of those error get hot guys or as a really sweet out guy, I don't know. And that's fine. You can tell us more, but why not have more fun in the actual introduction? So let's find another way of saying it to convey more information about him. And so we don't waste art space. Let's say he is that arrogant kinda guy, tad late twenties, spends far too much time at the gym and standing in front of a mirror, you know, something that we're like, oh, okay. So he's good-looking guy but he lacked good looking guy. But what if these not the arrogant guy, he's just a really fit guy. You could say Tad, twenties, spends every weekend, so low rock-climbing, he's probably in great shape because you have to be as a rock climber, but he actually likes to be adventurous. That gives me a totally different feel about that fit guy had spends every waking moment surfing. What kind of surfer? He's the first sir for out of the water when someone yells shark. Okay. I got an idea. Or Tad, the guy who gets bit by a Barracuda and as back on a surfboard The next day, I have a different kind of guide. My point is you can do more than giving us the stats of a character. And it gives us as the actor more to play with us as the casting and the team. It's a more interesting character just, just by tweaking it a little bit. And that brings me to the next point, which is using adjectives and character traits to define your character. In these one or two sentences, we can actually tell a story that allows somebody to see it play out in their head. We see Tad get bit by a Barracuda and the next day hop on his surfboard. And that is going to flavor every bit of dialogue and every interaction he has. If I just said that he was courageous, it doesn't inspire the imagination. If you said something like She was a bitter woman, it kind of puts that person in a single note. While it may be accurate, OneNote is very difficult to play and one note is difficult to write for. So what if instead of just saying she's a better, Angry Woman? What if we said she had the look of a woman who was never loved as a child. If you leave it that open, I tell you what your casting director would get so many different actors bringing in so many different perspectives of what that means to not be loved as a child. You can be more specific because if you said she was bitter like a woman who had never been loved as a child. She is still better and she's still may be difficult to be around. But we have a feeling of there's a reason for this. So you could use anything. She's lonely or sad as a woman, she's hurt or angry, these defensive. She's eager, a desperate as a woman who has never been loved as a child. Any one of those words that you use by tagging on something else that gives us a better understanding of that woman is extremely helpful. Because if you say she's eager and desperate like a woman who has never been loved as a child. I can play that eagerness and desperation. I know where it derives from and there might be some underlying bitterness too. See, we can add the layers to it. And that's why those performances that you see that you go, I don't know. She was amazing. It's because there's more than just one note. I think we've learned a lot. Are you ready to read some more examples and then get ready for your exercises. 6. Examples!!: So I'm gonna just go across the board with these descriptions. I'm looking at lots of different movies and from different areas. From the original Jurassic Park. It says The man turns around, John Hammond, 70 ish is sprightly as hell with bright shining eyes that say, follow me. That is who this man is. He got everyone to follow him. And that is going to flavor your dialogue. You are going to have this energy as an actor that's like I got some of the dish show you production teams like I know the perfect person for this. So it gets everybody excited and you want that at every time you want that right at the beginning. In the movie us gave wilson, It says he's African-American, 34, very specific, or me age. A large man with glasses, who thinks he's a bit cooler than he is, seas Lake, a dad, yet l i what do those dabs? It was maybe cooling was 18, but he's 34 now. And so I have a great feel for him. And I'm curious to see how he is going to interact in the situation. Again, as a writer, you have established him and if you get lost as you're writing, you go back and you look at that original explanation. And it helps, it helps ground you in that character. How is he changing from that man? How was he still the same as that man in different circumstances? Let's go back away is we're going to look at the movie all about e, which is a movie from the 19 fifties, I think it is. And it's with Bette Davis, a black and white movie. It's actually got two descriptions. One was in the script, the other one is with something that Bette Davis talked about in Vanity Fair 1999. Said years later, Davis recalled Mankowitz, who's the director and the writer. His description of margot tanning. He said she was the kind of dame who would treat her mink coat like a poncho lump. That description. And he probably said it to her when they were discussing the character. And he's writer, so he knows how to just let them hit it. Bam, you understand who this woman is, almost a blazar attitude about her wealth and she's the kind of game that puts you a definitely an era phrase, but it gives her a toughness tour, right? So one simple line, I thought that was beautiful and what he wrote in the script was great too. But I do think that was a really good one. Looking at several from the movie Girls Trip. What I really liked about them is the way they did two contradictory things together in the descriptions. And that allows a huge space in between to play. So Sasha Franklin, Thursdays, whip smart, and in-charge. Her desk is covered in past due bills. Okay. Brilliant. Because whip smart and then charge. I have a certain idea of who that person is, right? Suddenly you throw in her desk is covered in past due bills. I'm like, Oh, okay. That's not exactly who I originally thought. That is a lot of space to play. Again, they did not say what kind of bills. Okay. It's past due bills. You know, the prop person might very well have a lot of fun when they start to define who that character is. They might actually get a lot of joy at discovering what types of places that Sasha is late on her payments for. And that's again, you don't have to give all of the details. Let them do their job, let them have their fun. Okay. Also from girls trip, Dina, Thursdays, hot tempered and always looking for a cause to fight, justified or not. Again, these contradictory things or the little added on are so important, hot tempered. Okay. And always looking for a cause to fight. Oh, that's good. Justified or not. As you're reading it, you have an idea, you have an idea, and now there's more room to play. From the movie training date, detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris in black shirt, black leather jacket, and just enough platinum and diamonds to look like somebody. Okay? In general, we're going to think of like a detective from TV and I'm going to put them in a suit. So you say black shirt and black leather jacket? I'm like, oh, okay. So that's a different that's a different kind of detective. The platinum and diamonds, Those are two super expensive things. So now we've got this. He's a detective. He's dressed like that. We are very curious about who this man is, right? I just love the phrase just enough to look like somebody. That again, they didn't define it, they didn't list it. They gave you sort of an idea of it, but then handed it over to the person who's going to be doing this costume to find out what that Just enough is. And so the whole team is going to be like, what about this? What about this? What about this? And he'll try on a bunch of different things until everyone goes. That's it. So this is another example of giving us a list, but also giving us a chance to let the team do their work. Ok. Looking at Star Wars, Han Solo. Han is a tough roguish star pilot at about 30 years old, mercenary on a starship. He has simple, sentimental, and COX. Sure. He used three adjectives, which I sometimes dislike. I think you can do more than that, but I think they, I think they're different enough. He also added in star pilot and a mercenary on a starship. So that if that's your first-person that you're meeting, you've also indicated what type of movie this is going to be. So it's very helpful for the reader to be like, oh OK, I see we're in a, you know, we're out in the stars. It's called Star Wars. So I guess they should know from the title, but if they just haven't the good there, we get an idea of what this movie is going to be about. So Luke Skywalker, I farm boy with heroic aspirations. It looks much younger than his 18 years. His shaggy hair and baggie tunic give them the air of a simple but lovable lad with a prize winning smile almost sounds like they got Mark Hamill and then made a description for how it after the fact. And because that pretty much describes him and it's great because heroic aspirations, that nice foreshadowing of where we're going. Let's see what they did about leah, a beautiful young girl about 16. Started. Okay, I will say to their credit in the script, there is a lot more of action that describes who Leah is. But I will say that that's true for Han and also for Luke. So interestingly, the only woman in the entire fell. And that happens a lot. I think it's changing and I think in this day and age we expect more. So do better than just giving a physical description. Delight in creating this interesting person for us to watch. That's it for our examples. I am ready to see what you guys can do with this. Alright, let's go start our writing exercise. 7. Exercise #1: Welcome, you made it to the writing exercise. Well, this is actually my favorite part of my class when they're live because I get to hear the imaginative things that my students come up with. I love that, so please be sure to post what you write. So here's how the game works. I am going to pick random information from the bags behind me, a random age, firstName, lastName, and three characteristics. You all are going to take that information and you're going to write the character introduction using description, no dialogue, no action, just pure description, giving us the essence of what those, what that information is. This is absolutely random. So there might be three words that are really similar or they can seem completely contradictory. Human beings are extremely complex. I think that's actually what makes a character very interesting. So when you're thinking, wow, those words, that's impossible. You have to ask yourself the question, how do I make this work? How do I make this work? To give you a brief idea of how this works. If you had a character named Betty, eighties, loud, opinionated, insecure, she might not be a lot of fun to play. So if you changed it to Betty, eighties speaks like a woman who needs to be heard. She can still be loud, opinionated, and insecure, but I actually get a kick out of her mouth. Now, I'm curious as to the ways that she struggles to be heard. And it might be funny, it might be tragic and might be really annoying. But there's a lot of room to play on that. So you're young. Late twenties. Firstname, lastName. Wu. Why do yoga? Near? They can't get treats. Characteristics where character treats a fam my yoga, mysterious, fearful am. Slide, wildlife XAMPP. Make sure when you do your project to put it at the top like this. That way we all know which project that you're working on. And try and multiple versions, see how many ways you can do it with the same information. At the bottom of these classes is a timer for five minutes. That means you don't get to overthink this. Just take this information and see what you can do with it. Have fun, be playful. This is supposed to feel scary and vulnerable and you are courageous for being here. 8. #2 Exercise: More Prompts!: Let's do another one. You are all going to take that exact same information that I will get from these bags right here. And you will write a character introduction using description. All we need is like one sentence, two sentences, three at the most, giving us the essence of a character. So h, Nick and say, how Lena, howdy back lesson. What you have to constantly know. It seems like they go together. Paulina, constitutional estimator for six, ALVINN, is I got to disrupt it and rebellious. Trustworthy. How Lena is interesting. Well, that's otherwise, make sure to put it at the top of your project when you post it. This way, we all know which project you're working on. And with this same information, see how many ways you can do it. We have a five minute timer at the bottom of these classes. Five-minutes. This means don't overthink it, just right and see what happens. 9. 5 Minute Timer for Exercises: I can't wait to see what you guys come up with. So please be sure to post what you write because I want to see it. 10. How to Post Your Project: Okay, so you've finished your writing exercise and now you're ready to figure out how to post this thing. First off, we can't use our cell phones currently to post a review or any class project. So you're going to need to use your laptop or your desktop. If you're on the full screen and follow my little blue cursor, you want to go down and get yourself on to the minimized screen. This is where you'll watch the class with a lessons along the right. And be sure to follow me right up here on this button if you like to class and you're wanting to see part two and all of my future classes. We're gonna scroll downwards and we have two ways of doing it. One is the roller on your mouse will take you right down. And the other way is to go off to the side over here and pull it down. Okay, we're currently in the about this class section, as you can see right here in purple. Next is the review right here. Feel free to tell me what you think of this class. And then over here we have discussions. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them. And then next button over it is projects and resources. As you can see, click that off. We have currently for different projects that have been submitted by the different students. So feel free to check those out. And if you're ready to post yours, then you just go over to this green button that says Create Project. Which sounds a little strange because you're actually just posting it. But go ahead and click it. That'll open you up to this page and you are welcome to upload an image, whatever you'd like, or no image at all. It'll just show your project title. Right here. You're going to put something like character description or something like that. And the prompts and then write your description if you have more than one version, just saved version one, version two, or even more. After you're done filling that out, you're gonna go right up to this button up here and hit Publish. So let's go ahead. As you can see, it is down here with the other projects and it has the title that you put, but it also has your name in the lower left-hand corner, so you know which one is yours. Let's say you've done your second project, you need to add it to the first one that you did. You just go right back to the student project section right there, projects and resources. Find your project. Click on it. Hit edit and fill out the rest. This is where you would say character. And then go right up here and hit publishing. If you're not in my class at that moment, you can always go up to your own profile, hit View profile. In that section, it will show you all of the projects that you're currently working on, on Skill Share. So you find the one that has character description or whatever you have titled it. Click on it, hit Edit Project. And then you can go ahead and fill out character to or what make any changes that you wanna make. Hit publish. Ready to go. 11. The Wrap Up: The more you know, the better of a writer you're going to be. So I want you to tell your story. The world really needs to hear your story. And whether you are wanting people to laugh or cry or think. It doesn't matter. Your history, your perspective, your imagination, your ideas, your unique, your original, and the world needs to hear your story.