Ron - a character biography, version 1

I wrote the opening scene just because I wanted to have something with a couple fighting. So I didn't have a premise, a plot, a backstory in mind. Also no character biography. That goes actually against my suggestion to be as clear as possible about who your characters are before you show them to the public.

However, that's the way the mind works. You have an idea, an inspiration and you have to do something about it, write it down, think it through, expand on it and see where it leads. One perfectly acceptable way - at least for me - is to write a piece of script. Others may just talk about it, think about it. One writer said 'I thought about my screenplay for a year then wrote it in a week.' Okay.

So, I frequently write before I think. Or while I think. Some ideas only come while I'm writing. However, I try to tell myself that nothing that I write spontaneously has any relevance just because it ended up on paper. Everything is object to change or cut if the need arises once backstory, story and plot mature.

That said, let's look at the opening scene and extract whatever we can from the behavior that I spontaneously gave to Ron and Martina.

In the opening scene Martina is mad. She is going ballistic over something, throwing expensive, fragile items at him.

How does Ron react?

First of all he stays calm, at least externally. He is so calm that he probably drives her crazy. He actually appears arrogant, cynical in his calmness. His choice of words indicate that he commands a decent vocabulary, has some grasp on financial concepts: steady inflow of cash, expensive shows of compassion - this is not language from the gutter.

He has some wits that catches her off guard: Somebody has to be boring around here.

And he has emotion. Deeply buried, may be, but he shows it:

He turns to her, eyes wide, lips tight. A deep breath.

...

Ron walks to the door.

A moment of hesitation.

He is out the room. The door closes silently.

He may not be able to show it or decides not to, but he has feelings that well up under the surface.

So why is he like this? What is his past?

His age: the script says 30s. So he is born in the seventies. Let's say 1975. Some things follow logically: He entered prime school in 1981, high school in 1985.

What about his parents? I'll make a decision: His father has is own business in the construction sector. His mother ... don't know, yet.

Ron has two children with Martina - a 9 year old daughter and a 6 year old son. The birth of the daughter actually caused him to ditch his aspirations as an artist and go into business.

Ron had aspirations for an artistic career and started a university study in creative writing. But financial obligations forced him to switch to law and later enter his father's business. His parents actually 'convinced' him it's all for his best, but he isn't convinced. Still, he has to stick to it to feed his family. He studies business part time, because he doesn't want to settle for the image of being the 'old man's son.' He still wants to do greater things, but balancing even his reduced aspirations with the demands from his family is difficult.

The conflict causes him a great amount of stress, both externally and internally. He is frustrated that things progress so slowly. He often wonders whether he was right to give up on his dreams. He is frustrated, doesn't feel understood, left alone with his concern about the financial needs of his family, especially the future needs.

That's enough for the moment. I'll add more when I need it. Actually, the biography may change once I visit the premise of the movie and fit Ron and Martina into it. Starting with writing script can have these consequences. Just remember - nothing is sacred, just because it's in the script.

But judge for yourself now. Is Ron's behavior in the opening scene consistent with his biography? Would a person with Ron's background and past behave this way?

Character Biographies

I consider character biographies part of a movie's backstory. They are the characters' personal contributions to backstory.

What is a character biography?

It's easy. You have a biography. You were born at a certain place, at a certain time. You grew up in a certain environment, went to schools, may be college. You worked or didn't, whatever. The sum of everything you did and everything that happened to you - that's your biography.

To a significant part you are a result of your past. I don't say that's all that defines you, but definitely our past - that includes the way we look at the world - strongly influences our actions and our aspirations of the future.

It's the same with the characters of your movies. Okay, they are invented. They will only be relevant for the length of the movie. And all in all - even the main characters will be seen for incredibly few minutes of screen time. So, why give them an education, parents, brothers and sisters, hobbies, a social environment, a driving record, a life insurance if that never shows up in the script?

Answer: these back issues may not be relevant for the script, but your characters are and they are a result of their biography. So, if the character is relevant, give him/her a biography. (Of course, that checkout clerk in the supermarket that only shows up in one scene doesn't need one.) What I said about backstory applies here. too: Most of it will never be told in the movie, but it will define your characters' behavior, their actions and their words.

For example, a character that is well educated, works in an executive position and is respected for his contribution to society will probably not habitually use foul language to express dissatisfaction. And if he does exhibit unusual behavior, there should be a good reason for it. And that reason would be part of the character's biography.

If you are fully aware who your fictional character is, it is likely that you give him a behavior and a language that fits that fictional background and as a result is consistent over the length of the script. Before his dialog will sound strange to the reader of a script, it will sound strange to you. As a result your characters will be solid, consistent, believable from the past.

That said, in the next few posts I'll give the fictional characters in the opening scene a character biography.

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

A vase hits the wall, SHATTERS inches away from the
glass door of a cabinet stacked with tableware.
Porcelain fragments rain to the floor.
                MARTINA
        (screams)
   How can you be so ...
She seems to look for the greatest possible insult.
                MARTINA
   ... boring?
MARTINA (30s), a tough, feminine beauty with Hispanic
features, stands at a sink which holds more ammunition.
Her long, black hair in disarray. Angrily she beats a
strand of hair out of her line of vision.

RON (30s), average in height and in every other way,
scantily glances at the fragments on the floor. A
creased brow the only sign of emotion.
                RON
   Someone has to be boring around
   here.
             MARTINA
        (puzzled)
   What?
             RON
   If I wouldn’t ensure a steady
   inflow of cash into this
   household you ...
He makes no effort to avoid a salad bowl which barely
misses his head. He has seen this before.

The bowl hits the same spot on the wall.
                RON
   ... could hardly afford
   expensive shows of compassion to
   everybody who comes to cry on
   your shoulder.   
His eyes widen. He ducks, narrowly escapes a plate which
a moment later hits the cabinet full center. BREAKING
GLASS, expensive CLANGOR.

Ron resurfaces, looks at the damage. Turns to her, eyes
wide, lips tight. A deep breath.

Martina stares at the damage. Expectant.

Ron walks to the door.

A moment of hesitation.

He is out the room. The door closes silently.

She leans on the sink.

Tears.

To plan or not to plan

The question comes up occasionally. Should I plan a screenplay before I start writing or is it okay to make it up as I go?

My answer: Of course it is okay to make it up as you go, but you are in for a lot more rewrites than if you first type a few thoughts about the plot and the characters into a text editor or write them down on paper.

Once you do that you realize how many details have to fit together to make a believable movie character and a plot without logical holes. And once you have done that you will realize how easy it is to put into script what is now in your head. There is so much more to focus on once you sculpt the script. Much, much more than just to come up with the next quirky idea or patch a hole that suddenly yawns at you, just because you didn't think it through that far.

So, in some of the following articles I'll reverse engineer Martina and Ron, whom we met in the opening scene in the article 'Backstory'.

I wrote that scene just off my head and all I wanted was an opening scene with a couple fighting, some conflict that would draw the reader in and make him want to turn to the next page. Did I manage? Go ahead and comment.

I think the scene is okay for the beginning. It's just one candidate for an opening scene in this project - the T.Y.P. Movie project - which deals with a group of fictional, highly diverse characters that all share a particular situation.

As the characters start moving around in movie spacetime they will interact with other characters and the environment. Then their actions, reactions, interactions have to spring from their personalities. If they don't the character will not be believable.

Also, if the writer isn't clear about the character, its behavior might be inconsistent. 100-120 pages of script are a lot of space to fill and inconsistencies are bound to surface when the foundations aren't clear.

So in the next few posts I will reverse engineer the two characters of the opening scene into their biographies. I will do that by making some deductions from their behavior and come up with a list of character traits and a rudimentary account of their past.

Then I'll bring the two characters together again. If their behavior in the opening scene is still consistent with their biographies then great. Otherwise there will be changes to the opening scene. That's because: the plan determines the action - initially.

Actually, the ultimate foundation is the premise, the theme of the movie. Strictly speaking, we should start with that. However, I didn't, because it's such a common, even natural thing to follow an inspiration when it occurs.

We have to do that otherwise they will either cease to come or drive us mad. And because, in spite of all engineering we might apply to it, screenwriting is less of a science than an art.

Like life itself, I might add.

Backstory

Backstory is whatever happened before a movie starts. It defines the situation that we find at the beginning. Depending on how you look at it that might include the Big Bang, but that’s hardly relevant in most cases. (I actually wrote a script once that had the Big Bang as plot point 1, but that’s another story.)

So lets define backstory as the sum of events that are immediately relevant for understanding the situation at the beginning of a movie. And let's take the meaning of ‘immediately’ as relaxed as necessary.

A picture says more than a thousand words. Here a potential opening scene. (It's not properly formatted but this is the best blogger will do):

KITCHEN

A vase hits the wall, shatters inches away from the glass door of a cabinet stacked with tableware. Porcelain fragments rain to the floor.

                MARTINA
     (screams)
How can you be so ...

She seems to look for the greatest possible insult.

                MARTINA
... boring?

MARTINA (30s), a tough, feminine beauty with Hispanic features, stands at a sink which holds further ammunition. Her long, black hair in disarray. Angrily she beats a strand of hair out of her line of vision.

RON (30s), average in height and in every other way, scantily glances at the fragments on the floor. A creased brow the only sign of emotion.

               RON
Someone has to be boring around
here.

              MARTINA
         (puzzled)
What?                        

              RON
If I wouldn’t ensure a steady
inflow of cash into this
household you ...

He makes no effort to avoid a salad bowl which barely misses his head. He has seen this before.

The bowl hits the same spot on the wall.

                RON
... could hardly afford
expensive shows of compassion to
whoever comes to cry on your
shoulder.   

His eyes widen. He ducks, barely escapes the plate which a moment later hits the cabinet full center. Breaking glass, expensive clangor.

Ron resurfaces, looks at the damage. Turns to her, eyes wide, lips tight. A deep breath.

Martina stares at the damage. Expectant.

Ron walks to the door.

A moment of hesitation.

He is out the room. The door closes silently.

She leans on the sink.

Tears.

The two obviously have issues with each other. What's wrong with them? What do we know of them until now?

Ron is well educated, judging from his way of speaking. He exercises self-control. He isn't the most interesting guy in the world, as a matter of fact he appears boring. There is hope, though: when almost hit by the plate he shows a reaction and his moment of hesitation before leaving the room at the end indicates internal events, no matter how subtle. Of course, we can't be sure whether it's about the damaged tableware or because of bigger things.

Martina is emotional, expressive, passionate and compassionate. She has style. In spite of her passion and anger also exercises self-control - or already the vase had been aimed at Ron's head. She has more a focus on relationships than on money. And she cares for the relationship with Ron, she suffers from the fight - she cries in the end.

The two apparently live with each other. They are financially well off. And they need some new tableware. The rest is backstory:

Who is Ron? Who is Martina? Are they married? How long? Do they have children? How many? If not – why not. What is their educational background? Are they both working? (Probably not, judging from a remark of Ron.). Why are they so different? Why are they together? And why have they been fighting?

The answers are in the backstory.

It’s important to know enough about the events that lead up to the moment. People are a result of their past. So are characters, which are fictional people with a fictional past. The way they speak, dress, act and react has been formed by what they have experienced. The history of a an individual is called a character biography – a personal type of backstory. That’s another article.

The same is true for events. Knowing what preceded an event, why an event happens, might have an influence on how it unfolds and what other events may occur as a result of it.

If a character’s car broke down in the countryside and the sky is dark, suggesting that rain is imminent, a scene may show her running towards a house in order to call a tow truck and avoid the rain that would ruin her costume.

On the other hand, if her car was rammed by a homicidal maniac that has terrorized the area for a few weeks the scene will show find her running, rain imminent, to that house in order to call for help. However, she will be running for her life and it is not a tow truck that she plans to call. And her face will show the difference.

Also when creating the story backstory is important. In historical drama’s backstory can fill books – depending how much research you feel is required. I once heard someone saying “If it rained that day in 1828 – it’s in the file.” At the other extreme the backstory could fill half a page, or just exist in your head – but it should be enough to explain the events and it should be consistent.

Some events from backstory are revealed in a script, sometimes in full, sometimes only sketchily, chronologically or else, through dialog, subtext or flashback action. Others are never revealed. But all have an influence on the script.

Introduction - bare essentials on screenwriting

This is part of a collaborative experiment to create backstory, characters, story and plot for a screenplay.

I will post here messages explaining the bare essentials to get started with screenwriting. Topics will include - but not be limited to - the following:

• backstory
• character biographies
• three act structure
• other structures
• visual storytelling
• screenplay format

There is plenty of information available on the web. To the right you find a still rudimentary list of screenwriting blogs and websites.

When in doubt, google it.