▽ Behind The Film®

Today we’re talking about 2 key elements you need to be writing characters with more depth.

This is a bit of a teaser and quick-win-type of episode. Let me know in a review or comment if you’d love for me to expound on this. Hope it gets you thinking!

Where is your story lacking?

For me, the depth of my characters and their arc in the story lack the most.

My screenplays used to just be a longline of events happening to “characters” who were really just random individuals who fell prey to said events.

These 2 keys helped me write better characters, and therefore more impactful stories:

1. Give every character an outer goal

The second one is crucial to help you later on in writing your story.

An outer goal is what your character desires. The definition of the one thing they consciously know they want.

An inner goal is what your character needs to happen to them in order for their character to experience restoration and completion to their arc.

The outer goal is necessary for the viewer (or reader) to have a clear understanding of where that character is heading.

The inner goal is what makes a character arc possible.

When you have a character’s inner goal written down, you can understand how to build toward unlocking that inner goal when having other characters interact with this character. You can build obstacles and resolutions for each character.

This will give your characters depth and make your story more impactful.

Does Onward deliver on the same storytelling power and impact that brought us Monsters Inc., Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille?

Onward definitely gives us something special that we all need, which we talk about toward the end of the episode, and it does deserve praise in several categories.

Let us know what you thought of Onward, or check out the video that we have on our Behind The Film YouTube channel, and leave a comment!

Cory McCabe & Stephen Barbettini discuss how they each interact with film and their different ways of experiencing the art form.

While there isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to watch a movie, Stephen and I talk about the multiple and many ways to interact with the art form of film. Our individual experiences with films are inherently different than anybody else's.

There are so many factors that come into play that cause each person's experience to be a subjective one. The goal of this video is to get you thinking about how YOU experience and watch films. Please share in a review how you find yourself watching movies. I wanna hear.

Something I'm setting out to challenge in this video podcast series called "Behind The Film" is to see where objectivity meets filmmaking. Essentially, can a film be objectively good??

Art, and fine arts, have a clear subjective nature to them. But is all forms of art purely subjective? Continue following along to see what I find out.