The car a character drives, the way they dress, the food they eat, how they spend money, their daily routine, etc. can tell the reader things about the character and shape the scenes in your script. They can even create obstacles for the character and other characters.
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MauriceThank you for the insight! I completely agree that small details about a character’s lifestyle, choices, and habits can reveal so much and even shape the story’s obstacles. I’ll definitely keep this in mind as I continue developing my script.
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You're welcome, Liger Bashiir. Glad to hear it. Do you make bios for your characters?
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Mourice Yes, I do create bios for my characters. I try to include their background, personality traits, daily habits, and motivations to make them feel real and drive the story forward.
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That's great, Liger Bashiir. I do too. I also come up with a character's story goals, life goals, secrets, etc.
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this is an important 'thing' Maurice Vaughan (forgive the pun lol) thx for sharing it! McKee, for example, separates character (who the individual truly is, emotionally, psychologically) from characterization (which is what you're bringing up here) - things get really fun when you contrast character with characterization - imagine the car in your picture here zooming into the parking lot and skidding perfectly into a spot, then out comes... an 85-year-old college professor in a bowtie and checkered suit :)
I tent to forget how valuable this tool is - appreciate the reminder :)
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Haha Sebastian Tudores. You're welcome. Thanks for the contrast idea! I'm gonna try it. Maybe in a Comedy or Horror Comedy script.
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Maurice Vaughan I completely agree! There’s nothing more boring than when the character is just "driving a car." You want him to drive a "beat-up van with peeling stickers."
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Give the car something so it's memorable/give it a personality. Great idea, Kseniia Zhuravleva!
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Maurice Vaughan Those are good additions and reader observations. When I write, I also write like a producer, so I’m cautious when it comes to cars and houses since they cost money to rent unless I have a high end car I’m loaning to the production.
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It's great to keep the budget in mind when writing a script, Abram Christian. I mainly do it with micro-budget scripts. And sometimes a writer can put something expensive in a script without showing it, like having a scene where a character hears a sports car outside, but the audience doesn't see the car.
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MAURICE - I once wrote a short script which could easily have been made for a micro budget and got a rude message back from the Client which said: 'What do you think I am, a multi-millionaire". While we are on the topic of Clients, I once wrote five, five-minute comedy sets for a standup comedian who described himself as "Adventurous, edgy and sexually explicit" and got the comment back "What do you think I am, a sex maniac?" I find myself wondering what other silly responses writers get.
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That sounds like the start of a Comedy script idea, David Taylor.
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Good insights, and yes, they are very important for the story.
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Thanks, Meriem Bouziani. Have you ever done this in a script?
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Yes, the first scene of *The Silent PFC War* will take place in the lead astronaut’s house. We see many space decorations, and even the house furniture is blue, so from the beginning we understand that this family loves space and NASA’s work. Later, we discover that the father is an astronaut himself Maurice Vaughan
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Yes, simply change the hat a person is wearing and you have another person. And one can force a person to do something the would not normally do, like having a priest dress like a hippie when his clothes became wet so he borrows someone else's clothes. Some of these details can be cheap, like plastic bags showing the names of well known retailers (either expensive or cheap retailers).
Those are great ideas, Göran Johansson. I like to show a character’s name and position with a name tag.
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Nice that you liked what I wrote. About name tags. One can have scene where a person tells that something is wrong with the name tag they just received. Like a misspelled title. Tells a lot about character.
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Maurice Vaughan Love this post! I think this is the funnest part for me sometimes in writing, it's the details that outwardly show who the character's are, their past, their status, their culture…everything. Even convey the tone of the film.
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Thanks, Juliana Philippi. What a character does, their past, etc. can definitely convey the tone of the film. And how a writer shows those things conveys the tone too. A character’s past might be tragedy, but a writer can show it in a funny way for a Comedy.
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Very true, like Erik Rhodes is canonically quite vain and one of his favourite items is his compact mirror. In BoFS his getting gifted a new mirror (he still has the compact) is actually a bit of extremely subtle foreshadowing that I'm quite proud of :D
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Using objects to foreshadow is a great idea, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! I'm not sure if I've done it or not, but I'll keep it in mind when I work on scripts. Thanks.
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You’re welcome, and thanks Maurice Vaughan. I try to make objects useful when I include them/make them significant, and the mirror was honestly done subconsciously haha. It wasn’t until after I wrote it and read it over that I was like “high five, brain!” Lol
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You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. "I try to make objects useful when I include them/make them significant." Exactly. Objects, clothes, locations, weather, etc. can be significant to a story. They don't just have to be objects, clothes, and so on.