American Film Institute

Paul Schrader's screenplay for Taxi Driver focuses on the lonely existence of Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro).

Every good script starts with a protagonist, or pivotal character. According to Egri, the protagonist "is the one who creates conflict and makes the play move forward…A pivotal character must not merely desire something. He must want it so badly that he will destroy or be destroyed in the effort to attain his goal." For example, in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), Maximus is driven to exact revenge on the ruler Commodus for the death of his family. Although he is captured and enslaved, he never loses sight of his goal, pursuing it with measured determination until the end. Willfulness, the ability to make decisions and take actions, is a necessary attribute of the protagonist. Without it, the protagonist will be weak, his or her actions will seem inconsequential and the audience will lose interest in both the character and your story.

As Egri notes, the antagonist is the one against whom the protagonist "exerts all his strength, all his cunning, all the resources of his inventive power." A good antagonist must be as strong and willful as the protagonist. Machines, animals and monsters can be effective antagonists only if they are capable of independent thought or emotion. The creature in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), for example, is especially terrifying because it is intelligent and can anticipate the space crew's behavior. In Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer HAL becomes a full-blown antagonist once it begins to think and feel for itself. Without emotion and thought, the computer is merely an obstacle, not an antagonist. In other words, the audience must find the antagonist a worthy opponent for the protagonist.

In most cases, the antagonist is easily identifiable as "the bad guy." His morals and motivations are clearly corrupt, his goals destructive--Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, for example. In other stories, the antagonist's objectives may be less sinister but still pose the major obstacle for the protagonist. In the classic romance Casablanca (1942), for example, the antagonist is Ilsa's husband Victor, the war hero. Although the Nazis threaten Ilsa and Rick, it is Victor and all that he represents who ultimately stands between them. He, too, is fighting for Ilsa's love. Rarely does a movie succeed without an antagonist. Even disaster and man-against-nature stories need a human opponent. If the sinking ocean liner were the only problem in Titanic, for example, the film would be thrilling but not moving.

Creating compelling characters
Every character in your script--the doorman, the murderer, the little girl next-door--should be special in some way. Your characters don't have to be eccentric to be engaging, but should have qualities or quirks that set them apart, and make them memorable.

Characters define themselves through large and small actions, through their words and their deeds. As in real life, movie characters have both a private and public side, the face they see in the mirror and the one they present to the world. They might say one thing and do another. Their needs might be contradictory. Villains might be likable and heroes difficult.

The behavior of fictional characters should be based on your knowledge of human psychology and your own experiences. Every character you create will be a reflection of some aspect of yourself, even those aspects you keep hidden or don't completely understand. If you try to make your characters act like characters from other movies, a common beginner mistake, they will seem flat and predictable. At the same time, characters inspired by you or the people you know should have their own identities because you and the people you know don't live in the world of your script.

You should develop as much biographical information and background details about your characters as possible before creating your screenplay. You can make a list of attributes for each character or write a brief biographical profile. Important attributes to list about your characters before writing your screenplay are the characters' physiology (sex, age, overall appearance and any outstanding physical traits), social and economic background (place of birth, occupation, education, race, religion, hobbies, etc.) and psychology (temperament, abilities, taste, ambitions, moral standards, etc.). Not all of these qualities will show up in your screenplay, but the more you know about your characters, the easier it will be to make them behave in a logical, consistent and intriguing manner.

In the opening pages of the script for the film The Water Ghost, the central character, Ling, is introduced and the audience is given hints about the main conflict ahead as Ling's friend, Winston, recalls a ghost story about a nearby lake and reveals a painful memory from Ling's past.

Creating compelling characters begins with your biographies. If you've thought about where your characters come from, where they went to school, where they work, what they like and don't like, you've already invested them with unique qualities. Their backgrounds and personalities should be consistent with the roles you want them to play. Passive, reactive heroes will annoy your audience; inept antagonists will bore them.

Once you begin to write and set your characters in motion, your premise and the psychology you've invented for your characters will determine their behavior and actions. Acting in character doesn't mean behaving in the same manner throughout the screenplay. People often act in contradictory ways, one minute helping their cause, the next hurting it. But, as Shakespeare once said, there should be some method, or sense, to their madness.

Getting to know your characters
While your characters should be active, they shouldn't be in perpetual motion. Pivotal characters should be allowed to reflect on their behavior from time to time, and audiences should be allowed into their thoughts. Voice-over narration is one way to give audiences insight into your character's head. American Beauty, Taxi Driver and Sunset Boulevard are all movies that use voice-overs effectively. Creating scenes featuring your character alone is a better way to allow your audience to explore the character's conflicts. The most memorable scene in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) is the one in which Travis, wielding his spring-loaded pistol, pretends to confront his imaginary enemies while studying himself in a mirror. His evolution from misfit to killer is dramatized most effectively while he is alone, showing us his anguish through solitary but powerful actions.

American Film Institute

Paul Schrader is able to create a compelling story even while the central character is alone on the screen.

For minor characters, distinguishing qualities can be rendered in simple, visual bits. In Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959), for example, the ruthless gangster "Spats" is known by his immaculate spats shoes, while his doomed rival, "Toothpick Charlie," is always seen with a toothpick in his mouth. Physical mannerisms and habits, such as a nervous stutter or chain smoking, can also be used in your screenplay to quickly differentiate your characters for the audience, while introducing them to important attributes of the character's background.

The character's progress

American Film Institute

The development of the character of George Bailey (James Stewart, shown opposite Donna Reed) in It's a Wonderful Life seems set on a downward spiral, until his moment of decision suddenly arrives with the assistance of a guardian angel.

Implicit in the premise of a story is character development. In order for the conflict to climax and resolve, the protagonist must go through change. His understanding of the world must deepen in some way. In Taxi Driver, as Travis Bickle's personality becomes more tortured and fractured, he becomes more violent toward the society around him. In Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), George's goals in life--travel, college, business--are consistently derailed, leading him to contemplate suicide. The learning process Travis and George go through alters their attitudes and behavior. The changes manifest themselves in their appearance and how they interact with others.

In every good screenplay, the protagonist reaches a final moment of decision, the point at which he or she must choose a course of action that will lead either to success or destruction. Moments of decision can be scripted subtly, through one reflective act or through a series of acts. In It's a Wonderful Life, George's moment of decision happens while he is on the bridge, teetering between life and death. The moment of decision is drawn out as his guardian angel, Clarence, gives him the opportunity to see how things might have turned out if he had not been born. Clarence's actions have the desired effect, and George declares he wants to live.

In this clip from the film The Water Ghost, Winston's playful joke thrusts Ling into the lake. As the Water Ghost is revealed to Ling, a sudden change in her character occurs, altering both her appearance and behavior.

Dialogue: Hearing voices
It is probably true that some writers have a natural ear for dialogue, while others have to work at it. Good dialogue is a cross between poetry and everyday conversation. If you've ever read a transcript of a trial or interrogation, or any taped conversation, you're probably aware of how disjointed and awkward most speech is: cut-off sentences, repeated words and phrases, bad syntax, ramblings, interruptions and pauses. You do not want to completely mimic natural conversation in your script, but you do want it to sound natural.

	Discussion
	What does it mean for a character to be "compelling"? Think of some characters from recent films that have flopped, or those that have flourished, in the minds of moviegoers. {Dis: Discuss with others your ideas for a good character.}

In the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, the young Southern girl Scout always calls her father by his first name, Atticus, and utters grown-up expressions like, "What in the Sam Hill." Atticus, a lawyer, is better educated than most of the townspeople, and his speech reflects his relative refinement. Strong regional accents are heard in some of the supporting characters, the "poor folk." The African American characters have yet another way of speaking. The blending of all these voices lends the drama texture and authenticity.

It is vital to create a voice, a way of speaking, for each character. The best dialogue starts with everyday speech and strains out the redundancies and incoherencies. Listening to and then thinking about how different people speak is a great exercise for all writers. You will notice that everyone has at least one speaking quirk. They have favorite phrases, speak in half-sentences, use big words or slang, turn statements into questions, etc. You can use conversational peculiarities like these to enrich your dialogue and differentiate your characters.

Creating tension through dialogue

	Creating Tension
	Read an excerpt from Robert Towne's screenplay for the 1973 film Chinatown. Why do you think this is considered a classic example of dialogue pacing and tension-building?

Every scene has its own rhythm or tempo, and dialogue is often its drumbeat. Scenes with long stretches of dialogue, or monologues, are necessarily slower paced. Tension can be heightened by quickening the tempo of an exchange with shortened responses or regular interruptions.

Many exchanges of dialogue are like an interrogation, with one character trying to extract information or concessions out of another. Questions tend to create more tension than statements, because by posing them, a character can force an issue, demanding an answer from the other party. How the other party responds might surprise the character and lead to more questions and conflict.

Sometimes what is left unsaid in a conversation becomes the most potent part. Screenwriters use dialogue subtext, or what is "under the text," to hint at a conflict without actually identifying it. Your characters might be having an innocuous conversation about a football game, but what they are really expressing are their feelings about the previous night's date. Conversations littered with subtext have more substance, and therefore, are more satisfying to the reader.

In this clip from the film The Water Ghost, once the two return from the lake soaking wet, a dialogue begins between Ling, Winston and Ling's grandmother. However, the most powerful force in the conversation is Ling's father, who remains silent.

The following excerpt from the screenplay for It's a Wonderful Life, written by Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Frank Capra, provides a good demonstration of subtext. Mary Hatch has just returned to Bedford Falls after four years at college, when high school sweetheart George Bailey drops by to see her: