From the course: Creating a Short Film: 04 Working with Actors
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Discovering the characters
From the course: Creating a Short Film: 04 Working with Actors
Discovering the characters
- In this tutorial we're going to look at how to figure out who your characters are, and how to bring them to life on screen. A lot of times writers will create really involved backstories about the entire life of their characters so they can understand why they would make certain choices in the film. Directors or actors can use these backstories or create their own. This helps them feel connected to the character and to know them more intimately. It's important though that the director and the actors discuss anything that affects their performance, just to make sure that everybody's on the same page. For example we don't learn anything about the parents of Korda'a or Ta'ani. But Heather and I wrote a backstory about their mother and how she taught Ta'ani who she was and put Ta'ani in charge of training Korda'a and sending her on her mission. It was for us as writers so that we could know more about our story. I don't even remember if we told this to Eva or not. Now the idea of…