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Lesson 5
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3 Replies
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Jeff Glatz’s Audience Connection to Characters
My Vision: To create commercial studio size films that move people. To create characters that can live forever and bring electrifying memories to those that have watched one of my films.
What I learned from doing this assignment – Really opened up the characters to new ideas and to make sure as move through story continue to demonstrate these traits.
Chris Wentworth (Protagonist)
Likability:
- Professor likes her in her opening scene.
- Smart, intelligent, independent female.
- Her “Aunt” cares for her and saves her life.
- Wants revenge for death of her loved ones.
- She can kick ass.
- Appears to not care about money while living in a privileged world.
Relatability:
- Shy, awkward – attempts to speak with her classmate and he ignores her.
- Doesn’t like to be set up on date with cocky rich kid.
- Her world is turned upside down in the attack on her and her family.
- Falling in love with James.
- Shock of learning about her true self (being a “Super Human Hero”)
Empathy:
- Her father is killed, her mother injured.
- Her Aunt/Best Friend killed.
- Shock of learning about her true self (being a “Super Human Hero”)
Ronin (Antagonist)
Likability:
- Cultured, sophisticated.
- Martial Art Skills. Just trying to show accomplished villain.
- Loves his Son.
- Knowledgeable.
Relatability:
- Truly believes he is right.
- Fight for what he believes right.
Empathy:
- Son is killed.
- His ancestors passed over in the past for high responsibility.
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Heather’s Likability/Relatability/Empathy
Vision statement: I want to see my scripts optioned this year and turned into movies that the audience will remember long after they leave the theatre.
What I learned doing this assignment is: antagonists don’t always have to be classically black and white. There can be a lot of leeway with them. If you go into their head and make them believe they actually believe their POV of the world is right and everyone else just needs to be enlightened
2. Brainstorm one or more ways you can present your Protagonist through each of these:
Likability:
He has that Canadian RCMP charm. So polite, even when he’s actually
putting you down. <div>Relatability:
He has a wife and daughters at home, so he’s empathetic. He’s a cop. We
want to like him. We want to trust him.Empathy:
like Benton Fraser in Due South: a Dudley Do-right kind of guy.3. Just to get the experience, give us one or more ways that your Antagonist could be presented through each of these:
Likability:
He is thoroughly professional taking Sarah’s statement. Getting all the
information, yet his comments about how she has her hands full while her
husbands at the camp and the way she takes care of the children and her
home are actually judgmental and full of subtext that say he thinks she’s
inferior. But so politely we might mistake it for empathy… </div><div>Relatability:…because
he structures his comments in a way that says he thinks his wife has the
same problems too. He thinks ALL women need a man to figure things out for
them and tell them what to do.Empathy:
“It’s not her fault. She was just born female. Don’t worry, let the men do
the hard stuff. You just keep us fed and happy.”Boy I bet every woman will want to punch his insincere, handsome face in, once they figure out he isn’t going to do a damn thing to help her.
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Cameron Martin’s Likability/Relatability/Empathy
Vision: Write a movie that connects with audiences on a deep, spiritual level, regardless of background, while prioritizing quality time with family.
What I learned doing this assignment is…Again, this is just so helpful for nailing down what makes your characters tick BEFORE you get into major outline decisions. I ran into this problem years ago when I first tried to retcon this story (because subsequent rewrites only led to more wordsmithing or minor changes, not fixing major concept/structural issues), and realized how important it was to figure out the likability and empathy of the character. Putting it through this triangle structure does help to make sure you’re creating a well rounded, versatile character, rather than just someone that you only empathize with but have nothing else in common with to draw you in; writing it down ensures you have a reference to go back to when you consider how this character would interact in the world.
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Protagonist: Null
Likability: She’s skilled, she chooses to save her copy instead of killing her, she cracks jokes when under pressure, she’s nice
Relatability: We believe we would choose to save someone instead of leaving them to die, we’ve all been in situations where we didn’t know what’s going on, or felt more like pretenders than experts, we’ve had relations that take a turn for the worst
Empathy: She’s alone at first, doesn’t know what’s going on or why she died, her only ally is her worst enemy, she wants to escape, she wants life
Antagonist: Janice
Likability: She’s polite, skilled, smart, educated, poetic, philosophical
Relatability: We’ve had wrongs committed against us that we want reconciliation for, We’ve all been through difficult decisions where we chose a personal vision or ambition over someone else or we can relate to the difficulty of that choice if we chose a loved one or another over our own personal pursuits, Some of us have been suicidal, some of us have wanted to be born different or to change in major ways
Empathy: She’s been gravely wronged, she wants to be a stronger, better version of herself, she never wants to be hurt again, she wants to escape, she wants life
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