Create Your Own TV Series for the Internet-2nd edition. Ross Brown

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СКАЧАТЬ blue, and now the parrot mocks and criticizes Susie’s every move just like mom used to do, that’s significant.

CHARACTERIZATION

      Character is something internal — the essence of who a person is. So how do you take this internal thing — a person’s essence — and communicate that essence to your audience? Through characterization.

      Characterization is simply the techniques by which you communicate internal character to us. It is the externalization or dramatization of the internal. And there’s great news, boys and girls. When you get right down to it, there are really only three ways for you to convey or reveal who the characters in your series are: what they say (dialogue), what they do (action), and the environment they create, like their clothes, car, job, and living situation.

      Forget about writing for the moment and think about real life. When you meet someone new, how do you decide what kind of person they are? By taking careful note of exactly the details stated earlier. Each of us is kind of like The Terminator, with an involuntary mental computer that constantly processes data about the world and people around us. You walk into a Starbucks and spot a woman at a nearby table. The computer kicks in: She’s in her 30s, dressed in designer casual clothes, texting on her iPhone with one hand while she alternately sips a chai latte and shares her oat bran muffin with a toddler girl named Chloe in a stroller. Two cars are parked out front: a nearly new Toyota hybrid SUV and a mud-caked 40-year-old VW van with flowers painted on it. Which car is hers? You can make a pretty good guess because you already know — or think you know — her “character.” You know who she is and how she thinks, and you can probably predict what kind of car she’d buy.

      You walk out of Starbucks, and on the sidewalk out front is a guy in his early sixties, long graying hair and a beard, playing a beat-up old guitar with a peace sign painted on it. He’s singing songs like Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction.” Based on these clues, your mental computer says, “Hippie refugee from the 1960s.” Now you have a pretty good idea who owns the VW van. And you probably can make all kinds of other character assessments. Republican or Democrat? Neither — probably Green Party. Or maybe he didn’t vote at all because that’s how The Man controls you, man, and we’ve all got to fight the power.

      In a sense, the process of creating your characters is an inversion of the process you use to figure out who people are in the real world. As a writer, you will first decide who you want your characters to be, then your task is finding the ways to communicate that “who” to your audience. Let’s return to the 60Frames web series Be a Celebutante. The main characters are two rich, spoiled, less than intelligent party sluts whose only interests are money, self-indulgence, and hooking up — and helping you learn how to live the same charmed and fulfilling lifestyle. The pilot, which runs all of 95 seconds, is chock-full of character clues. Two hotties in bathing suits and fur shawls lounge by a private pool (environment). They introduce themselves as “the Douche (pronounced “doo-shay”) sisters, heiresses to the douche fortune” (dialogue). They are drinking and dispensing smug advice on how to make extra money (action). Dannah and Danielle’s ideas include:

      DANNAH

      If you really want to rake in the dough…

      DANIELLE

      Or make money…

      DANNAH

      You should “accidentally” make a sex tape.

      CUT TO FOOTAGE OF THE DOUCHE SISTERS IN BED WITH A MAN, CLEARLY AWARE OF THE CREW AS THEY “ACCIDENTALLY” MAKE A SEX TAPE.

      DANNAH

      Yeah, when our “accidental” sex tape “accidentally” leaked onto the Internet, we “accidentally” made five million dollars.

      DANIELLE

      Oopsies…

      You get the idea. Everything your characters say, do, wear, drive, eat, or come in contact with should tell us something about who they are as a person. Once the audience picks up on who they are (and hopefully finds them amusing or interesting enough to follow around for 6 or 12 or 100 episodes), the audience also begins to anticipate the juicy situations you might put them in.

YOUR OVERALL CHARACTER LANDSCAPE

      Characters do not exist in a vacuum. They exist to serve the overall premise, and they exist in concert with each other. It’s not enough for each individual character to be cool or interesting in his own right. They must work together, as a team, with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Each character should serve a specific function within your series, and that function should be unique. You wouldn’t want a rock band with five lead singers but no drummer or bass player. Instead of Hootie & the Blowfish, you’d end up with Hootie, Hootie, Hootie, Hootie, & Hootie. Even Hootie’s mom wouldn’t want to see that act. The premise is band. The characters must form a complete team or group, one with stars and supporting players.

      I think of this overall character composition as the character landscape. Your series landscape needs balance and variety. Each character should cover a different “instrument,” a distinct function or sound within your overall composition. Take The Guild once again. Yes, they are all online gaming freaks. But aside from that, they are different types of people: a mom so addicted to video games that she virtually ignores her three young children (Clara); a young woman so afraid of revealing any real details about her personal life that when asked what she does for a living, she gives the plot line to Ugly Betty (Tinkerballa); and even, starting in Season Two, Codex’s hottie neighbor who has absolutely no interest in video games at all (Wade). Characters with distinct differences are crucial to the success of your series because character differences are what lead to conflict, the essence of all comedy and drama and, therefore, the life-giving reservoir of stories for your pilot and your series.

LEADING CHARACTERS VS. SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

      All series have both. As stated before, no good group can be composed of all Hooties (leading character) or all Blowfish (supporting characters). But why is Hootie (or Mick Jagger or Bono) the leading character? What makes him more important? Surprisingly, the answer is pretty much the same for both music video and series television. Your lead character is the center of gravity for your group.

      In a music video, the camera focuses on the lead singer more than anyone else. And when the camera isn’t on the main character, what we see is seen mostly through his eyes. In a television series, we experience most of the action through the lead character’s eyes. In Gaytown, the lead character is the straight person who is desperately trying to avoid detection and persecution. We follow the action of Gaytown from his POV, as opposed to, say, the perspective of a morals cop trying to track down the “perverted heterosexuals.” We experience the world of The Guild primarily through the eyes of Codex. In Seinfeld, Jerry is the lead character, the primary prism through which the story is filtered.

      So what makes these characters leads as opposed to supporting players? What makes these characters capable of anchoring a series? For one, as quirky and troubled as Jerry and Codex are, they are, from most of the audience’s perspective, the most “normal” person in the universe of the series. Yes, Jerry on Seinfeld is a neurotic mess. But compared to George or Elaine or Kramer he’s a rock. Same goes for Codex. She’s so warped even her therapist abandons her. But compared to Zaboo or Tinkerballa, she’s a solid citizen. So one job description of your leading or main character might be “sane person in an insane world.” (Note: The rock band analogy СКАЧАТЬ