Week 4 – A Unique Voice

Jude S -

Hello everyone, this last week has honestly been my busiest and ironically I haven’t even gotten much writing done. My mentor read what I currently have of my script and has given me the hard task of differentiating my characters. Often it is difficult for many writers, especially me to make characters that don’t all sound like me trying to pretend to be someone else. In order to do this I have to be able to understand all aspects of my characters inside and out. In order to do this my mentor suggested creating character profiles. Character profiles are exactly what they sound like, they’re detailed guides to a character in both their outward appearance and inward life. I did this with both of my main characters where I had about 20 different questions for each that I answered. With this, I am able to better understand not only the characters but understand what arcs they’ll have to go through.

Speaking of arcs, I also charted out the arcs of both of my main characters. Main characters shouldn’t be in the same mental place when a story ends, so you have to create realistic growth which can be hard with a film given the short amount of time compared to a novel. The arcs in my screenplay are primarily philosophical since it deals with the implications of death on life. The general arcs of the two main characters are: going from worrying he’ll be forgotten by the world to realizing affecting others in his life was enough and worrying about having control over everything to realizing he just has to take hold of his own life first.

The other aspect I dealt with during this week is the fact that writing a screenplay is a unique challenge. I read as assigned reading from my mentor in order to better understand what makes a good screenplay. A screenplay must never have aspects of the character or scene that can’t be visually communicated. They must be short and to the point but have a perfect word choice. They must tell us about the characters while being interesting. And there are so many more aspects to them. Juggling all of these and telling a good story is a challenge, but I am here to complete it.

Finally, my film recommendation of the week is Shoplifters (2018)

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    elle_m_r
    Hi Jude, these sound like some particularly interesting hurdles! Do you feel like trying to write your character profiles has taught you anything about yourself as you reflect on you writing like you're pretending to be someone else? I feel like I would find an alter ego that was a reflection of myself while trying to create characters.
    March 10, 2025 at 10:57 am - Reply
    adhip_j
    Jude, I am fascinated by all the different aspects that go into filmmaking!! Do you think that the time restraints you have are proving challenging, or do you not see them as much of a problem?
    March 10, 2025 at 9:13 pm - Reply
    thomas_c
    Hey Jude, you have really opened my eyes to the complexity of story making as it applies to film! When you were writing your character profiles, how did you know what questions to ask and answer? In other words, is there a general procedure to making character profiles or does it depend on the type of film that you aim to create?
    March 10, 2025 at 10:17 pm - Reply
    jude_s
    Hi Elle, that's the tricky part as just creating a reflection of yourself creates characters who all talk and act the same. You must truly write as someone else while creating characters if you want them to be distinct which in turn will help create unique arcs for each characters.
    March 12, 2025 at 2:23 pm - Reply
    jude_s
    Hi Adhip, to be honest, the time restraints for making a film often don't seem like an issue till the filming and editing, but I believe I should still have plenty of time to create a good piece of media, but art is never finished and I'm sure I could work on this film my entire life.
    March 12, 2025 at 2:25 pm - Reply
    jude_s
    Hi Thomas, the easiest way is to take an existing template and create characters through it, but all templates have similar questions or themes. You want the characters' background, relationships, philosophy, physical description, and where they'll end up. Character profiles don't change depending on the story they change depending on the character since there is no need to ask all those questions for a character who appears for two minutes.
    March 12, 2025 at 2:27 pm - Reply

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