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Where appropriate, use metaphors to capture your character’s essence. Use brevity, clarity, simplicity in describing your subject. “John Flyin pads into the room, a panther in an Armani suit.” Better.Īppropriate metaphors enliven character description and eliminate unnecessary words. He is strong and graceful, with a feline quality that suggests a strength and agility that comes from years of training.” Too wordy. “A well-dressed John Flyn pads into the room. …but ended up with: “SAMUEL is built like an earthmoving truck, but can turn on a dime.” I started with: “SAMUEL is big and muscular, but with a surprisingly light gait that belies his enormous size.” Brevity, clarity, simplicity at workĬonsider this character description from one of my stories: Because they influence how we view the character, they should be crafted with care. Not only do you void the need for adverbs, you make your sentences crispier and more vibrant.Ĭharacter descriptions in screenplays, too, should be brief but impactful. How does she stand? Is she slouching, leaning, erect? Never miss the opportunity to have a verb convey the personality and attitude of your character. How does Claire enter the room? Does she stride, limp, march, slink, flow, or pad in? How does he look at the girl? Does he frown, gaze, leer, glance, squint, or peer at her? Benjamin looks at the girl standing opposite him. Let’s look at two aspects of tight, vivid writing in screenplays: the use of verbs that capture the essence of character in the action block, and the use of metaphor in character descriptions.ġ. Of course, Hollywood is not the only place to peddle your screenplay, but if you’re looking to play the Lotto, there’s nowhere better. Readers have to wade through dozens of new screenplays daily, and their tolerance for poorly worded stories is short. Start high level and then drill down layer by layer until every scene is in place. Hollywood has a notoriously short attention span. When we’re planning out a character arc it’s easier to start big picture, just like when we’re working out the plot. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up by.
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Consider these examples where one character’s description of another reveals a little about the describer: My sister, Mrs.
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Who can forget the Sundance Kid’s film-defining line: “I’ll do anything you want me to but I won’t watch you die.” Examples of character descriptions that describe observers.
Character descriptions screenplay examples full#
No one in the industry will be willing to read an incorrectly formatted screenplay.Brevity, clarity, simplicity in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidIf brevity, clarity, simplicity are important in specialist writing, they are crucial in a screenplay.īutch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is full of laconic one-liners that crisply capture the essence of the characters. I can't tell from your question if you're generally following screenplay format, aside from this, but if not, you should take the time to research it -there are many good resources online (here's a decent one). When he appears on screen, however, the physical details must be provided right at the point that he appears, not a few lines later. If, as you indicated, the character first appears in voice over, describe the auditory qualities of his voice, rather than his physical qualities, because that's what the final audience would experience at that point.
Character descriptions screenplay examples movie#
In general, anything that will appear on screen needs to be described the first time in appears, not in the dialog, but directly in the stage directions, so the reader can see the movie in her mind as she reads it. Because of this, screenplays have a lot of strict conventions which you should never break (or only for EXTREMELY good reasons). A screenplay is an odd hybrid because you have two audiences, the reader of the screenplay, and the viewer of the film.