- The audience must identify with your character and goal as human beings.
- Even ensemble films have to have a main character. Every film must have someone we can focus our attention on, identify with and root for someone to carry the film's theme.
- The 'who' must serve the 'what is it'. Not the other way around.
- Add to your logline an adjective for the hero, an adjective for your villain and a compelling goal.
- Design your hero so they have the most conflict and the longest journey.
- Motives must be primal and basic. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death. Needs real stakes for the audience to relate.
- Always write your characters as recognisable archetypes. For example:
- The young man on the rise. A little dumb, but plucky. You want to see them win.
- Good girl tempted. Pure of heart. Attractive. The female counterpart of the 'young man on the rise'.
- The imp. The clever, resourceful child.
- The sex goddess or the hunk.
- The wounded soldier going back for one last redemptive mission.
- Who deserves to win and why? Who deserves comeuppance and why?
- If your hero does some questionable things, you must have a bad guy who does something ever worse.
- In an ensemble, the hero carries the theme.
- Who comes the farthest emotionally? Who offers the most conflict? Who is the most likeable? They are your hero.
- Your hero should be someone:
- I can identify with.
- I can learn from.
- I have a compelling reason to follow.
- I believe deserves to win and...
- Has primal stakes that ring true.
- Go back to your logline. Be a slave to it. It's your film's DNA and if it's good, you have a winning idea. Never stray from it.
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