Believable Characters in Writing and on Film
Jan 30, 2021 4:19:58 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Jan 30, 2021 4:19:58 GMT -5
Creating convincing Characters in Writing and on Film
One of the difficulties in the creation of a convincingly real character, both via the written word and on the screen, is to have the character behave normally under situations that require normal behavior. For example, we don't expect humans to run at a slow trot when death at the hands of a maniac or monster, is hot on their heals as Sigourney Weaver's Ripley-character in the film Alien, did when she calmly paused to fix her hair up in a bun while being stalked by this bloodthirsty creature who had just savaged the other two crewmembers.
Neither do we expect characters to behave like morons incapable of seeing the glaringly obvious. For example, we have the spaceship Nostramos crewmembers not noticing the medical officer's unawareness that his patient, whom he had meticulously examined both externally and internally, was harboring a parasitic alien his chest. In fact, that very obvious fact doesn't ever even arise after the creature emerges from the crewmember's chest. Neither is the medical officer's effort to protect the creature from harm when a crewmember threatens to stab it, ever questioned.
The we have Jeepers Creepers third film where this cop is shown retreating from a location at a casually slow trot after witnessing his partner getting savaged by the supernatural creature. Before that he had remained calmly aiming this little gun as if it offered some protection after having seen the creature take round after round while remaining totally unscathed.
Now, in writing, this type of flaw is totally the writer's fault, since the story's characters are veritable puppets fashioned by the writer's whims and preferences. However, in films, humans are employed to embody those characters, and humans are expected to think or to react critically to what they are instructed to do.
So when an actor is told to do something unbelievably idiotic, one would expect some kind of reaction. Yet, there they are, frequently going right along with the unbelievable displays of idiocy and getting paid ridiculously large sums of money to do so. Which means that they either don't notice the serious discrepancies, or else that they simply just don't care.
Of course, serious writers do care and try to avoid such a basic mistake at all costs.