DZ-55: Character Motivations 1

Listen if you're writing a scene where your character does something 'out of character' and your readers to buy it.

Chas & Stu look at examples of good character motivation. We’ve all watched movies where we don’t believe the motivation of a character or characters. We may have even written scripts where readers don’t buy the character’s choices. And that’s often a real problem because most of these choices coincide with key structural moments — e.g. the moments where the characters decide to do something “out of character” in order to progress to the next part of the story. To help us solve the problem of how to improve our character motivations, in this episode we explore great examples of character motivation and how they have helped the audience believe a character’s decision.

This episode started out as an exploration of bad character decisions; ones which are universally derided by audiences. And, sadly for us filmmakers, it is often a key structural decision being made by a character that audiences just don’t buy. However, as Stu and Chas did their homework, this episode swiftly became an exploration of character motivations (because that is really what you have to get across in order for your audience to believe a decision) and - in true DZ style - good examples of character motivations.

And so Chas and Stu dive into NOTTING HILL, TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, GAME NIGHT, ARRIVAL, IN THE BEDROOM, BEIRUT, BREAKING BAD, THE MATRIX, BLOCKERS, A NEW HOPE (of course) and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Passing/honourable mention also to MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, THE COMMUTER, THE LOBSTER, GAME OF THRONES, IRON MAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and DOCTOR STRANGE (as we re-visit and re-contextualise stuff we’ve analysed previously).

The potential craft tools they uncover are character patterning, structural timing of the decision, debating the decision (both internally and externally), withholding the decision from the audience, and using external plot elements to either remove obstacles or push the character into making a decision that is... well... out of character. But believably so.

Stay tuned for Part II where we - for once - actually do explore some bad examples of character motivation.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:05:00 – Craft Tools and Subjectivity [Manchester by the Sea]
• 00:08:43 – Decision versus Motivation
• 00:09:49 – Character Patterning [The Commuter]
• 00:13:08 – Character Patterning [Game of Thrones]
• 00:15:04 – Early Character Decisions [Notting Hill]
• 00:18:54 – Early Character Decision [To All The Boys I've Loved Before]
• 00:23:28 – Late Character Decision [Infinity War]
• 00:37:28 – Debating the Decision [Game Night]
• 00:52:45 – Debating the Decision [The Lobster]
• 00:54:54 – Internally Debate the Decision [Arrival]
• 01:00:02 – Withholding the Decision [In the Bedroom]
• 01:06:27 – Withholding the Decision [Beirut]
• 01:10:40 – Motivation through Backstory [Breaking Bad]
• 01:19:47 – Motivation through Backstory [Notting Hill]
• 01:22:15 – Motivation through Backstory [Game of Thrones]
• 01:25:03 – World Building [The Matrix]
• 01:29:22 – Removing Anchors [Star Wars: a New Hope]
• 01:38:09 – Overcoming Character Wounds [Marvel First Acts]
• 01:41:43 – Goal, Stakes, Urgency [Blockers]
• 02:09:14 – Wrap Up, Learnings and #Backmatter
• 02:15:19 – Backmatter

FILMS

• ARRIVAL (2016) — (w) Eric Heisserer (d) Denis Villeneuve
• NOTTING HILL (1999) — (w) Richard Curtis (d) Roger Michell
• BLOCKERS (2018) — (w) Jim Kehoe, Brian Kehoe (d) Kay Cannon
• THE MATRIX (1999) — (w) Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
• STAR WARS (1977) — (w) George Lucas
• GAME NIGHT (2018) — (w) Mark Perez (d) John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: ARRIVAL (2016) — Eric Heisserer
• Study the script: NOTTING HILL (1999) — Richard Curtis
• Study the script: THE MATRIX (1999) — Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
• Study the script: GAME NIGHT (2018) — Mark Perez

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

• Five Shots: CLOCKERS
• The Game of the Scene - GAME NIGHT
• ▶ How is this oner from GAME NIGHT so seamless?

LINKS

• Read: Scripthadow: GSU

EPISODES IN THE CHARACTER MOTIVATION SERIES

• DZ-56: Character Motivations 2
• DZ-55: Character Motivations 1

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2019/dz-55/