Although F. Scott Fitzgerald, not exactly known as an action writer, said it best: “In movies, characters are what they do, not what they say.” This is the most important thing you can keep in mind when writing any script for film or TV, and believe me I know how hard it is for people like us to remember.
After all, we’re writers, aren’t we? We live and die by the word.
Once you the writer have given us, the audience, characters with whom we can sympathize, your next job is to give these new people some “tsuris,” which is Yiddish for “Trouble with a Capital T.”
As Aristotle pointed out a couple of years ago, effective writing comes from building up to a climax, which means that once you’ve established the basic situation for your character – the neec that must be fulfilled – you can start out “small,” with only one unmanageable stress.
Taika Waititi is a New Zealand film and TV director, producer, writer, actor, and, yes, it’s true, comedian known for his work in JoJo Rabbit and Thor Ragnarok.
Oh, and The Mandalorian too. (It would have been criminal omit his best TV work.)
When writing for television, the key to creating a successful series is creating characters the audience wants to come back and see again and again. This means they have to be interesting—maybe even quirky—and realistic.
Many writers—and most development executives—think this means the characters have to be likeable, but television history belies this. Any Sippowitz may be everyone’s favorite “fascist” cop, but is he likeable? And what about Archie Bunker?
Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, which include Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There will be Blood, and more have been nominated for 25 Academy Awards. Dood knows his stuff, and spills on it here.
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