Character Breakdown List
After reading the script, making notes about the story structure and doing your scene-by-scene analysis, the next part of the Director’s preproduction homework is figuring out the development and objectives of the characters through detailed Character Analysis.
To find the “heartbeat” of any script, a director needs to understand the “subworld” of the characters by discovering every character’s backstory, scene objectives, internal and external traits, strengths and weaknesses and their relationships to the other characters.
The first thing you need to do is create a Character Breakdown List for all the characters in the script who have speaking roles (not extras) by listing the main characters first and the secondary characters next.
NOTE: You will eventually use this list to create your Character Descriptions which you give to your Casting Director before you start auditioning actors.
Character Background (Personal History)
A good screenwriter must fully understand each character’s background to discover what “really” motivates their behavior, so a major part of a screenwriter’s job is to create a detailed personal history for each character in their script.
These background details include things like physical appearance, personal beliefs, likes & dislikes, daily habits, mental attitudes, their childhood, past family history and significant people and important events in their lives.
As a Director you will never have access the screenwriter’s Character Background information unless you also wrote the script. But if you did not write the script, I suggest you create simple personal background histories for all your characters to help ensure that each character’s behavior remains consistent throughout the film.
Here are three questions to answer to get you started on your list:
1. What does the writer say about this character? (Scene descriptions)
2. What do other characters say about this character? (Through dialogue)
3. What does the character say about him/herself? (Through inner monologue, dialogue, scene description, narration etc.)
Character Backstory (Real or Imagined Events)
A backstory is an event that has happened in a character’s life right before the scene starts – even if it’s the first scene in the film! This moment could have just been shown in the previous scene or it could be a “made up” off-camera beat just before the scene starts.
A backstory is important for every character because no actor should ever just “enter” a scene. They need to know what they were doing just before the scene starts. The character they are portraying has to come from some place and some event (big or small) has just happened to them.
If an actor has a good off-camera beat, when they “enter” the scene the audience should get a feeling they are in the middle of something already happening.
NOTE: When I say “enter” I don’t necessarily mean an actor has to physically walk into the scene. Having a backstory is also necessary for characters who already start in a scene when the scene begins.
