ArticlesIf you read some of my previous blog posts you might have gathered that i´m somewhat into well constructed and developed characters. The most obvious observation in movies with really good characters is that they´ve got some background and are not only present during the movie. They developed certain habits, maybe some strange behaviour in different situations and so on. While a good screenwriter does not slap you in the face with the background of his characters but places them in little situations during the movie so that you can guess some of the characters background. In most cases it is not even essential that the background story is revealed during the movie, often it´s just the little hints that make an interesting story.
So to add more realism to your characters a good strategy is to have a full background story for each of the main characters. Don´t reveal it with a cheap exposition or in a dialog like “Oh, you remember the incident where i nearly got killed? Where i got hit by that car and was badly injured?”. Such dialogs don´t have nothing to do with the story itself, they are just cheap attempts to show the audience that a person has got some background. If for example that car accident is essential for the story you have to get it in the movie somehow, but there are lots more sophisticated ways of doing such, like the person has got a scarf on the back or something and every time a car passes by he / she takes a step back.
Exposition of the background story
Sometimes it is really important to reveal the background story of a certain characters, one of the nicest is in The Rear Window from Hitchcock. The protagonist is sitting in a wheelchair with a broken leg. To reveal why his leg is broken Hitchcock thought of a really great way of exposition: Obviously the protagonist is a photographer (with this camera in his hand), and during the start of the movie the camera pans through the room to tell the setting of the character. You see pictures of sport events, the camera and finally a picture of a racing car during an accident that moves towards the camera, so obviously the protagonist got hurt during that crash - a reayll beatufiul exposition.
So telling the background story can be done quite discreet, of course another possibility would have been a dialog between James Steward and Grace Kelly like “So, after your accident during the car race you have done quite nice, your leg is getting better very fast…”. Hitchcock has really done the right thing, telling a story with images, that´s what movies are about. Those dump dialogs are just to tell the audience something, noone would talk like that, because the protagonists already know - there are better ways of telling something.
Keeping characters alive
Beside a well thought background story it is very important to keep your characters alive, of course the journey they take during the movie should be the main plot, but there are small gestures, habits or moments that really make your character alive. It is quite hard to describe how because it is different from character to character, but here are some examples that come to my mind when thinking about that:
Justin Quayle in The Constant Gardener
Ralph Fiennes plays a really interesting character in that movie, he is very passive and tries to avoid problems. His wife Tessa on the other hand is exactly the opposite, she´s a rebel and tries to make a difference. The character of Justin changes during the movie dramatically, but that´s not what i wanted to point out. This is another really good example of how to introduce a character and with a single scene tell so much about him: On of the first scenes in the movie is when Sandy, a associate of Justin, comes in his room to tell him that his wife Tessa has died. Justin just stands there, unable to move. The only reaction is to thank Sandy that he has told him personally - this scene really tells so much about Justin, the look on his face, the reaction, it´s great.
So just with this single moment we really know a lot about Justin, this passive person who tries to suit everybody.
T-Bag in Prison Break
Well, Prison Break is a series, so the characters have to be well constructed to keep the series working, but there is a little detail that i really like. I won´t describe the whole character of T-Bag now, but basically he is an awful person (who has got some history, but ok). The thing is that in different situations he licks his lips with his tongue and makes this strange noise whith his tongue and his teeth. This is just a little habit that has really nothing to do with the plot of the series or the background story of T-Bag, but it´s a habit that deepens the character, the way he gestures and everything. I know it is just a really small thing, but for me it is fascinating.
Bob Harris in Lost in Translation
Another really nice exposition, Bob sitting on his bed with the bathrobe and just staring into the room - a nice image of beeing lost. Or the carpet samples he receives from his wife, this fact and his reaction tells so much about his relation to his wife, a cheap dialog could have possibly told us more about his marriage, but with that scene everything you need to know is said.
Those are a few different examples of how to keep characters alive and tell their background story in a cineastic way, showing, not describing, that´s what movies are about.
2 comments zu “Keeping characters alive”
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Matt Butcher
, 05. September, 2007 at 11:54 pmI’m curious about an aspect of exposition and you might know the answer. What if you know the background BEFORE a story begins, like Popeye and his spinach or Clark Kent being Superman? What is this type of exposition called?
michael
, 06. September, 2007 at 8:40 amI don´t really know if there is a special term for different kinds of exposition, but nevertheless also this is an exposition.
These kinds of expostions focus more on the story than the character, since the character and his / her traits and background story are already familiar to the audience.
In the case of Superman for example the exposition would deal with the plot the movie is about, would probably show some problems Superman / Clark Kent has to face during the movie, would introduce the antagonist and so on…
I hope i could help on this one, even though i don´t know a special term for that kind of exposition.