Experience workshopping actors

[steve hyde]

...I suggest pushing yourself to make these characters *complex*. If your characters are sufficiently complex, it will be easier to get away with a simple plot. Plus that is what your actors will want: definitive characters. When they come with questions about motivations and so on, you will have solid answers that serve your story if you have a solid psycho-analysis of your characters..

...so I suggest "mapping them"

For each character, what are their greatest fears, desires, wants, needs? What is their trouble trait? What characteristic do they most admire in others? What do they hate?..and so on...

Furthermore...and further along the character development continuum, if each of the characters were to write a monologue about *the situation*, what would they say? How does each character *define* the problem?


Steve

[npcoombs]

...I suggest pushing yourself to make these characters *complex*. If your characters are sufficiently complex, it will be easier to get away with a simple plot. Plus that is what your actors will want: definitive characters. When they come with questions about motivations and so on, you will have solid answers that serve your story if you have a solid psycho-analysis of your characters..

...so I suggest "mapping them"

For each character, what are their greatest fears, desires, wants, needs? What is their trouble trait? What characteristic do they most admire in others? What do they hate?..and so on...

Furthermore...and further along the character development continuum, if each of the characters were to write a monologue about *the situation*, what would they say? How does each character *define* the problem?

Steve

Good idea. Will do this.

[steve hyde]

...another thought: if your story is an examination of lying, then what is at stake will probably be *trust*. Trust is the most important component of any love bond and breaches of trust can be powerfully dramatic...Again, the Dardenne film "L'enfant" comes to mind. That film, for me, was about the power of trust characterized by the meaningless of life without it.. The story showed us that love and trust was the only thing the protagonist "Bruno" had in the world: the love of Sofia (and her baby) and the love and respect of his friend the little theif. (name?). He lost Sofia and then nearly lost his friend.
His friend had become the last person who even remotely cared about him and Bruno instinctually knew that betraying him would destroy his own life and he decided to do something about that..

Steve