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The characters we create in our screenplays are like the people we know: sometimes they let us down. We expect a certain type of behavior or level of performance from the people in our lives whether they're friend, family or co-workers. And when they let us down or disappoint us, it's difficult to handle.
It can be the same way with our characters. Maybe the lead that just doesn't come to life or turns out not to be as interesting a protagonist as we thought when we were plotting out the script. Or the bad guy isn't bad enough. Or the girl that the main character likes is so bland that we wonder why he's after her.
In real life we have to deal with those who let us down by either dropping them, forgiving them or trying to understand why.
In our screenplays we can be less merciful. A character is either working or not. We can try to find new shadings and contours for him, but if at the end of the day, no matter how hard we try to inject some life, personaly, colors and depth the guy is still uninteresting, we have to cut him loose and start fresh. |
