If you're looking for a tool to help you nurture your idea for a movie into an actual shooting script I recommend this program without hesitation.Professor Richard WalterChairman of the UCLA Graduate Screenwriting Program
The way your character behaves in the present moment says a lot about their backstory. Often, there is a reason why they act or react to situations the way they do, making a reader wonder about their past.
Download This Is Your Backstory
The idea is that for each row you pick from one of the columns. This defines your character based on attitude and response and avoids injecting any kind of ethical commentary. These attributes are not inherently good or bad and, when combined, form a surprisingly nuanced sense of who the person is and how they might react to any given situation. Even better, this behaviour matrix also allows for and actively encourages contradictions, which are the foundation of any interesting character.
A mysterious past, fleeing home, or being exiled are great hooks if a player doesn't want to detail their family out. However, use this character survey section to prod for detail - or make them up yourself - so the character has roots and a stronger place in your setting.
Every single person on Earth has a backstory. It is (quite literally) impossible for someone not to have a backstory of some kind. The sum of your experiences has culminated in who you are right now. Characters in a screenplay are no different. Can you imagine how weird it would be to meet someone who had no memory of anything about themselves until the moment you just met them? It'd be really weird.
Generally, as screenwriters, we are trying to write characters who have an element of truth and reality about them, so if everyone in the real world has some sort of backstory, then your characters should too. Today, we will explore how we think about and write backstories that can make your characters shine.
First, get to the bottom of what kind of person your character is and why they would ever go on the adventure you've laid out for them. Then, once you have an image of that person in your head, ask yourself what events in their past made them become this kind of person.
Usually, through the course of the story, the protagonist will have an opportunity to excise this Ghost, freeing themselves from their trauma and allowing them to become a fundamentally different person. This means that whatever residual effects the Ghost has on the protagonist needs to link to the plot's events. Marlon's backstory is about him failing to protect his children. The main plot of Finding Nemo is about him trying to protect his final son. This link is no coincidence.
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For a more enhanced experience with your Backstory Cards sessions, we highly recommend downloading the free Backstory Cards Techniques Guide which contains tips on how to workshop answers to prompts and flesh out your setting elements and elaborates further on the basic instructions included with this purchase.
After sharing at dinner that night, everyone felt that this backstory I shared was powerful and moving. The next day, Mark Levy took the main stage to teach us about positioning and to do an exercise with the room full of people on backstory.
Start thinking about the stories in your life that lead you to where you are today. Examine them and ask yourself, why are you the way you are? What do you want to change in the future? How can you tap into this and let it fuel you towards living the life you really want. 2ff7e9595c
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