for characters do you put their description within the script for example "john a 40 year old man with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes blah blah walks into the kitchen to get juice" or do you have like a seperate page with the list of character names and descriptio?
Screenwriting : Characters by Jackie Jimenez
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Normally within the script, but I'd avoid hair and eye colour unless somehow necessary to the story itself.
ok thank you @anthony
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I write very brief description that sums up the character, not so much detail that it'll put constraints on the creative team for example - SARAH HUGHES, mid 30's, attractive but reserved about her appearance.
thank you all
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Hi Jackie - Caps within script for initial intro followed by the bare minimum needed to describe character. Your image isn't necessarily congruous with the way a director (or reader) envisions your character. And this is fine unless they are missing the essence of the character. In that case you would need to include. But in general, less is more. Don't step on the director's toes. My 2¢
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No. No physical description of the character unless it is critical to the story. Casting is not our job, and they will cast whatever star is available and says yes... and do down the list until they find one that says yes. My Script Tip today includes the "Tom Rule" where any actor named Tom can end up playing the lead... and if all of them say no, it eventually ends up starring Whoopi Goldberg (who has played a character when Bruce Willis dropped out and played a character when Eddie Murphy dropped out). So physical elements mean nada. What you want is the character of the character. Their attitude and personality in a single sentence. "NEO, a young man who knows more about living inside a computer than living outside one."
@william what about just name and age along with personality
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Not too much personality though, the major points of their personality should come through in their actions and words. It's literally a brief summation of the character.
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Which is why I used the example from a screenplay... that's it for Neo's description in THE MATRIX. I could pull hundreds more just like it from screenplays, but they are all pretty much like that.
I tend to describe characters through movement unless I'm writing for a Minority, wherein I will add something that specifically informs the reader that this character is NOT a White person-I do that even though I've actually sat in a meeting where an executive suggested a character I described as being a "dark skinned beauty with long dreadlocks" be played by Julia Roberts.