How to create character chemistry?

[sumokurt1]

I have a problem with character chemistry. I wrote a script last year and a producer told me there was "absolutely zero chemistry" between the protagonist and his girlfriend. So I vastly rewrote the script, added poignant instances of the two caring for each other, showed how they shared common goals, showed them kissing a number of times, etc. A year later a new reader went over the script and immediately said there was "not an ounce of chemistry" between the protag and his girlfriend!!!

[ComicBent]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

People may really have been telling you that the characters just do not come alive. Remember that it is just like real life: A character has to "live" as a separate entity outside of any relationship.

If you want, send me the script, and I will look at enough of it to see if I agree with the two negative assessments.

[email protected]

PDF, Final Draft, MMS, Word, Sophocles formats. No Macintosh files, please.

EDIT to add an afterthought:

I recently finished a stage play ("The Troll with Golden Hair") that used a Grimm fairy tale as a source ("The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs"). However, my work was really only inspired by the original tale. My play has very little resemblance to the fairy tale. I created most of the characters and most of the story.

One of the characters that I created was an aunt for the Princess in the story (the Princess herself was not even a speaking character in the original). I thought that the aunt would just be a functional character, existing as an interlocutor for the Princess. But I was pleasantly surprised that the aunt took on a real life of her own. I gave her some qualities that made her come alive, and I have found myself wishing that I could know her in real life. I accomplished this with a few flourishes of action and dialogue that gave her some depth and complexity. It was like drawing a smiley-face. The nose and mouth were there, but she came alive as soon as I drew the eyes.

[Biohazard]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

I don't know how much can be said without examples from the pages, but chemistry is more than just common goals and kissing. It's more about everyday interactions and how they play off of one another for a desired effect.

Perhaps posting some pages in the pages forum would help us get a better idea of what other have said did not work.

[Gwai Lo]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

What gives you chemistry with people in real life? Put some of that in the script.

[NoTalentAssClown]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

I have a problem with character chemistry. I wrote a script last year and a producer told me there was "absolutely zero chemistry" between the protagonist and his girlfriend. So I vastly rewrote the script, added poignant instances of the two caring for each other, showed how they shared common goals, showed them kissing a number of times, etc. A year later a new reader went over the script and immediately said there was "not an ounce of chemistry" between the protag and his girlfriend!!!

Do you have enough conflict? Characters who get along, who are all lovey-dovey the whole time, are boring.

The fixes you mentioned sound too surface-y. Like you're using your fingers to plug serious leaks. Adding 33% more kissing scenes isn't going to fix the larger problem. "There's no chemistry" could be another way of saying "I don't buy their relationship." Sounds like it doesn't feel real to the people who have read it. Ask yourself: why do people fall in love? Go out with your friends, get drunk, and really explore this question. Make the characters, the relationship feel real. Make it an emotional rollercoaster. Re-write the poop out of it until it starts resonating with people.

Did I mention conflict? Conflict, conflict, CONFLICT.

[WritersBlock2010]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

Many times "no chemistry" is code for people not believing so-and-so would get along (be together) in real life, for whatever reason(s).

As others said, if this is a romantic relationship, just adding more of the lovey-dovey stuff won't cure the problem if people just do not buy the two of them together for reasons other than romance.

Are their actions consistent with these two people being together?

Are they equally matched in terms of intellect and other comparable qualities?

Do their actions show they care about each other? Or do they just say it in dialogue, but never demonstrate it in larger ways?

Or does the interaction seem forced and contrived?

For example, is he a real jerk and she a doormat? Or vice versa? But they still "love" each other only because the story dictates it?

From a fictional perspective, couples usually work because they are the other person's better half in every way. They are a reflection of the other person's better qualities and most important, they make the other person strive to *be* better than they are because of this. Is this present in your on-screen relationship?

[wcmartell]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

What everybody else said... plus:

What does the couple have in common? The thing that makes me disbelieve romance on screen is when two people who have nothing in common hook up because they are the male and female leads.

Another factor - and this is connected to having those well developed characters in a way - is clever conversation. I'm just thinking about couples on screen who seem like they have chemistry, and Nick & Nora Charles come to mind, and they bounce clever lines back and forth between them... which creates an energy. If you know your characters, and know how they are different, and each has a distinctive voice - they can bounce lines off each other and just come alive on the page.

- Bill

[Signal30]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

A little antagonism goes a long way.

[Ulysses]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

Chemistry or the reaction between physical materials changing all materials involved. Sometimes the change is so important that a third substance evolves, that bears no resemblance with the two materials you started out with.

Two characters meet, and none is the same afterwards. The chemical reaction to the other person induced something into their world. And nothing in it stayed the same.

If this reaction is big enough, and other materials (outside world, character) are added into the mix, it can transform the people into a third material that bears no resemblance to the people they were before. E.g. soldiers turn to mindless killers under Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now" or Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner turn evil in "The War of the Roses".

Like a different spirit, good or bad or just different, entered a person, usually after a big or traumatic big experience. It changes him. He will never be the same again as personality is a product of one's situation and knowledge. He will, from now on, react different to any other stuff and people.

None of the lead characters can be a catalyst, who changes others, but stays the same himself. This can be an important supporting character, but can per definitionem never play the lead, or your script will turn to lead.

It's the key problem with bad protagonists that they are like catalysts, watching their environment, detached, uninvolved, never challenged to the core and being the same at the end.

PS: Now my chicken burned. Never let your chicken roast when posting. Your oven will turn into a hell for meals.

[bioprofessor]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

Chemistry or the reaction between physical materials changing all materials involved. Sometimes the change is so important that a third substance evolves, that bears no resemblance with the two materials you started out with.

Two characters meet, and none is the same afterwards. The chemical reaction to the other person induced something into their world. And nothing in it stayed the same.

Thanks for this. This is exactly what I was striving for (but fell short) in the pages I recently posted from my SP. My protag and a female ally have been pushed to the edge of their respective worlds, albeit by different forces. In the end, I want them to help each other discover what they need to heal inwardly while working to defeat their physical nemesis. Tricky stuff. That edgy, tense dialogue between Eve and Thornhill in N x NW may be a good place to start.

[WritersBlock2010]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

Good advice, everyone

Another way to look at chemistry is that it is a fictional trust your characters share. Especially if they are a romantic couple... But even if it is a group of platonic friends. Trust applies here, too.

And I'm not talking about just any ordinary trust. Trust that comes from shared experiences both intimate and non-intimate.

What allows you to criticize someone like telling him / her that they have two left feet and that dancing with them should include hazard pay?

Trust.

What allows you to ask your best friends to be the God Parents of your child / children?

Trust.

What's the thing that hurts & suffers the most when one party betrays another?

Trust.

And in this case... It is including, building and establishing that fictional trust between your characters, regardless of whether or not they are romantically involved.

[sumokurt1]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

I'll have to post some pages. I'm doing everything you guys have mentioned, bonding, bouncing catchy dialogue off each other, showing how they share common goals of advancement in their fields, showing actions of caring. It's a totally broad comedy, so I left a lot of room for communication mixups, silly antics, etc. And there is a strong build up to a brutal verbal conflict that leads her to cheating and leaving him acrimoniously, although they get back together at the end of the script. So I thought I had all my bases covered, and then I get hit with a real downer comment about my characters.

[NikeeGoddess]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

one scene that i'll always remember is from rear window. the first part of the flick you wonder what is wrong with this guy? the woman is gorgeous! what's holding him back. she wants to be with him for the rest of their lives. THEN when she joins him in the caper... she sneaks over to raymond burr's apartment like a true sleuth. it's a tense scene b/c she almost gets caught. then she comes back and tells jimmy how she what happened (even though he saw the whole thing through his binoculars) but it was this moment when he finally realizes that she is the one. that's chemistry!

[Butch Jarvinen]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

Ulysses,

that is a smoke alarm, not an oven timer!!!

[wcmartell]

Re: How to create character chemistry?

What is the dream your story is providing for the audience?

Movies are shared dreams - we sit in the dark and images dance across the screen. These dreams are things we wish for... true love, unconditional friendship, super powers, etc. Films can also be nightmares - horror movies and thrillers often are. But films are dreams, wishes, fanatsies. That is a basic. What is the dream/fantasy you are providing for the audience?

The problem may no be chemistry, but fantasy.

- Bill (wish I was Jackie Chan)