things are almost certain to happen. It’s human nature to like to see slapstick things happen
to people with power or authority, especially if they’re pompous or misusing that authority
(the mean boss, the overbearing substitute teacher, the bully who’s a hall guard). Most of us
humans struggle to be normal, to be perfect children or parents, to be the ideal student or
employee, and fail at these things every step of the way. Much current television is based on
these failings.
Do you really understand this character and what makes him tick? How is this charac-
ter similar or different from you? Let his feelings and emotions show. Do you like him (even
if he’s the villain)? Accept the shadow side of yourself so you can accept those flaws in your
characters. If you truly understand and like your characters, others probably will, too. If you
still don’t quite “get” your character, do more research. Delve more deeply into yourself.
Write or act out scenes that won’t be in your script to learn more about him. Make your
character real to you.
Then exaggerate! Make your characters larger than life. Think James Bond or Super-
man! When the average person is the main character, he or she often walks taller than in
real life. The character becomes a model of all average people. Make your slob a superslob,
the bore a superbore. Exaggerate! Exaggerate! Exaggerate!
More realistic characters are harder to animate convincingly. You can’t squash and
stretch a real person. The less realistic ones lend themselves more to the medium and to the
gags, especially if it’s a comedy.
What behavioral tagsdoes this character have? These are repeated actions that are spe-
cific to that character. Does he go into a one-armed handstand when overjoyed? Does she
shake her hips from side to side or tug on her ear?
Set up relationships. One way to create a series is to start with a character type or one
really strong character and let all the remaining characters bounce off. How does your char-
acter feel about each of the other characters, and how do they feel about him? Why are
these characters friends or enemies? Contrast characters (a smart guy with a dumb guy).
How does this character affect each of the others by the strength of his personality, by his
actions? How do they affect him? Does he team up well or conflict with the others? Each
of your characters should be as different as possible from each other. You might want to
make a list of characters and then itemize the traits of each to make them as different as
you can.
There may be two stars. What brings your characters together and keeps them together?
What pushes them apart and provides the sparks? Is life better for others around this team
or worse? Is life sweet or bitter when they’re together? Are there enough believable reasons
that this team will stay together, or is the conflict intense enough that they must eventually
split up and end your series? Too much attraction and the show is boring; too much conflict
and the characters may become unlikable. Roadblocks may come from the situation rather
than the characters themselves to avoid this problem.
Avoid using too many characters. Keep economy in mind. Also, it becomes much harder
to identify with characters who don’t receive a lot of screen time. If there’s too many, we
don’t care about any of them.
Can we identify with this character? Bond? Does the audience have real recognition of
that character? We need enough information about a character to empathize. What are the
real-life, down-to-earth traits that we immediately recognize? What are the character’s little
eccentricities, small compulsions, and very human characteristics? Or you may want the audi-
Developing Characters 67