Acting Class, page 3 -- Acting Tips: Character Development
- Create a biography/autobiography
- Where did I come from? How is my personality affected by my family, peers, upbringing, other circumstances
- What kind of person am I? What happened to me in the past that has made me (for better or worse) who I am in this scene here and now?
- Make the most dramatic choices appropriate for the scene. If your character is bored, the audience will be, too. It's more exciting to watch someone who is desparate for love, acceptance or attention than someone who likes go shopping because there's nothing better to do.
- See the world through your character's eyes: empathize, even with villains
- Five Senses
- Attitude is formed by what I see, hear, touch, taste and smell -- at this moment or in the past
- Time and Space: elaborate on the five W's. How does each one make me feel?
- Who am I?
- Where does the action take place?
- When?
- What am I doing?
- Why am I doing it?
- Conflict
- What do I want? What is my ultimate goal?
- Who trying to stop me? Why and how? How can I win?
- Relationship (to another character)
- Who are you to me?
- How do I feel towards you in general?
- How do I feel towards you at this moment?
- Character Traits (in general and at this moment)
- How do I talk?
- How do I move?
- What quirk or habits?
- Subtext -- your character's secret thoughts (write them in your script)
- Break dialogue into beats, marked with a /. Start a new beat to show a new idea, a different thought, something happens.
- What am I thinking? Why do I say that? Why do I do that? Is it what I'm really feeling, or the opposite?
- React to what other character says and does. How did that affect me?
- Moment Before
- What am I doing/thinking just before I make my entrance?
- How does that affect my movement, voice, attitude?
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