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Creating Characters

Telling a powerful story with video does not require professional actors or people experiencing extraordinary events. But it does hinge on making your characters interesting and believable. So how do you do this? Remember those five Ws from fourth-grade English class? Who, What, Where, When and Why (and we'll slip in How) are back, and we're putting them to work to develop characters that will make your next drama or even documentary one that people remember.

Depending on your particular story or genre, you may not have much choice over your main character. But you may have control over which aspect of your character you want to emphasize. Is it the father, the husband, the carpenter or the hang-glider pilot who can best carry your story's main theme? If you do have a choice over your subject, don't feel limited to making it human. A pet, a city, an institution can all be made into subjects that deliver your message and spark strong emotion in your audience.

For both fiction and non-fiction, your character will have certain physical and mental qualities that contribute to your story. Is your character particularly strong, ugly, courageous, creative or smart? Anxious, sedate, compliant or headstrong? Even what may at first appear to be perfectly average characters will have qualities that have either landed them in their current predicaments or have shaped their responses to the events around them. More interestingly, just how did your character develop these qualities? Did your character develop physical or mental capacities by overcompensating for real or perceived weaknesses as a child?

Be careful, however, not to focus on just one strength or weakness. If you do, you will create a two-dimensional character, one that is little more than a caricature. Watch any superhero flick and you'll know what we mean. It is your job to show your audience how your character uses or is used by these traits to either achieve some goal or be thwarted fr…