Creating characters to connect with

[prescribe22]

Most people, no matter how successful (or not) they are in real life, identify themselves with winners.

That said, most people feel they haven't yet experienced the success they think they can achieve. In our minds, most of us feel we're capable of so much more, but we're being held back for one reason or another.

Take ROCKY. Despite Rocky's considerable lack of success, he's really not a lovable loser. The very opening scene depicts a fight where Rocky is kind of going through the motions until he's headbutted. Then we get a glimpse of the real Italian Stallion. We see that Rocky is capable of much more, but he just needs to overcome some external and internal forces that are holding him back. He's a winner who's being held back.

Everything from THE MATRIX to WORKING GIRL sets up a similar mindset.

We see early in those films that Neo and Tess have amazing potential in their respective worlds. We root for them to realize that potential because we identify with their situation. They represent what most of us feel about our own lives.

There are always exceptions, but IMO it's usually very important to show that your character is good at what they do. They're "winners" but they're being held back by some external and/or internal force.

Not many people want to identify with losers. No matter how lovable they are.

Make your character a winner who's being held back.

[BattleDolphinZero]

watch movies you like with characters you like.

study what the filmmakers are doing to make you like them, invest in them, making them sympathetic.

[Juno Styles]

Lots of good feedback. Back 2 the Future is another great example. As a kid and an adult I think I was fully invested in all the main characters.

[Fortean]

Originally Posted by Jami2025

Someone who recently read my script said he didn't feel connected enough to the characters to really root for them.

How do you all create characters the audience feels connected to and cares about?

There are memorable characters and others about which we couldn't care less.

Have you read a screenplay or a book, and, an hour later, forgotten the names of the main characters? Then, for an hour or two, you were engaged by the story but not by the characters, (or, perhaps, you have a bad memory when it comes to names).

One screenplay that I read this past month had so few distinguishing differences between a group of characters that I had difficulty from one page to the next remembering who was who. And, I truly hate a book with several lines of dialog, (which fail to identify who is speaking), such that one must stop to think who exactly, (in a group), is talking.

In Ben Affleck's THE TOWN, one does get a good set of characters, which is why I think this film succeeds in winning over an audience. Each of the main characters is introduced by name, (and, sometimes, a story); for, example, (from an earlier version of the screenplay):

CLAIRE
I'm sorry, did you say your name was Jim or Gem?

JEM
Both actually. Teachers always used to say, 'You can have this one, he's a real gem.' It kind of stuck.


The same film starts with throw-away names that mislead the audience:

DOUG MACRAY
(narrating)
Driver's name is Arthur Shea. Former Metro Police officer, fifty-seven years old. Soon as his partner leaves with the coal bag, Artie cracks a Herald, and he don't look up 'til the guy gets back. Marty Maguire. Cummins Armored courier. Five-ten, two-twenty, fifty-two years old. Picks up every Wednesday and Friday at exactly eight-twelve, makes a hundred and ten dollars a day, carries a Sig nine. And he's about to get robbed.

Neither of these two characters from the armoured car speak nor get seen again, as the masked bandits, (some of the main characters), race past them into the bank.









Who do you best remember in the paragraphs above? Artie, Marty, or Jem?

[sc111]

I try my best to infuse characters with qualities, habits, intellectual/emotional POV, etc., of real people I know, after discovering how readers reacted to a particular character I based on my grandfather. But it took me a awhile to figure it out.

It was my first script, more indie fare than commercial, and gramps was a minor character. It was easy to write him because I knew him well and loved him a lot. Some of his dialogue was virtually edited transcriptions of conversations I had with him related to the topic of the script. The script got a lot of negative critiques as many first scripts do, but everyone loved the gramps character who, though only in perhaps less than one-third of the scenes, blew all the other characters away. And by comparison, made the others come across as cardboard. As a result, few were interested in the journey of the co-leads, but everyone wanted more of Gramps. And some suggested I restructure the whole story, possibly change the whole story, and beef up his role as co-lead. Much to my annoyance at the time.

I put the script aside, wrote several more, then went back a year-plus later to give it another look. Further along in my learning curve, I could clearly see what everyone was talking about.

Since then I make a point of basing my characters on real people, as opposed to characters from other films - which I think a lot of new spec writers unconsciously do. Once I got in the habit of doing this, it was easier to keep a clear idea of who each character is at the core.

In my current script, the antag is based on my next door neighbor. In real life he's not a bad guy but he has a volatile edge to him. He "explodes" easily over the dumbest things (like his dog digging under the fence into my yard). And he lets loose with a lot of colorful analogies. I imagine him running a big corporation and responsible for monetary loss. How would he handle it? What would he blurt out?

I don't think readers/the audience must empathize with all our characters. Not even our protag. We simply need to create charavters they have a strong emotional reaction to in each scene intriguing them in such a way the audience wants to continue watching them do their thing till the end.

[NikeeGoddess]

TAXI DRIVER - the combination of scenes: we know travis is socially inept with women. he takes his lovely vision (cybil shepherd) to a porno flick on their first date. dumb move, idiot! but haven't we all done something stupid, making ourselves ridiculous? but that's not why we feel empathy for him. it's the subsequent scene where he delivers flowers after flowers after flowers after flowers.... trying to apologize for that dumb move. nothing he does works. the flowers are all withering and dying away. and you're like, that poor dumb idiot

[Jami2025]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone.

[TwoBrad Bradley]

Originally Posted by Jami2025

Someone who recently read my script said he didn't feel connected enough to the characters to really root for them.

How do you all create characters the audience feels connected to and cares about?

In addition to all the good feedback:

- Make the character's objective (goal) something the audience can identify with. If that would be a challenge for a particular goal, make the character's motivation something the audience can identify with.

- Save the cat.

- Create the sense that the character is a real person with a life that started before the movie starts.

[jonpiper]

Originally Posted by TwoBrad Bradley

In addition to all the good feedback:

- Make the character's objective (goal) something the audience can identify with. If that would be a challenge for a particular goal, make the character's motivation something the audience can identify with.

- Save the cat.

- Create the sense that the character is a real person with a life that started before the movie starts.

What TwoBrad said about goal and motivation. See the Fighter. Two strong supporting characters, Christian Bale (Mickey) and his mother, at first antagonists to MarkW's (Mickey's) goal, become characters you root for. We identify with their motivations, and appreciate thier changes, in the end.

[evolution]

actually what you're striving for is making characters real. Because real is relatable.

Here's a perfect example, I can relate to Neo in the Matrix as the gifted loser/loner (lmao) but not to Neo as Superman in Reloaded. Neo in the Matrix has doubts, flaws and is full of indecision. He is striving to be better. Neo in Reloaded is God. Who is more relatable?

When someone says they're unable to connect with your characters, it means your characters couldn't exist in the real world because you've never met anyone like them.