Hey everyone! I am currently brainstorming a TV series (though it could be a webseries or play) and am thinking about characters and storylines. I often base a lot of my characters on my friends because that helps me picture and form them better...but I have a lot of friends and the TV series I am writing can incorporate a lot of my friends because of the show's concept and what my friends and I all have in common. The number of characters keeps increasing. My question is should there be a limit to how many characters I have in a TV series? Does the matter of the number of characters differ depending on the medium (play, film, TV, novel, webseries, etc.)? How do I draw the line?
Screenwriting : How Many Characters is Too Many? by Stefanie Sears
How Many Characters is Too Many?
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Colette that is actually what I am doing now, writing a synopsis of my series so it is easier for me to go and write the script! :) I find that it helps. It is helping me determine what purposes my characters serve. I was somewhat thinking of it as a soap opera perhaps.
Thank you for the compliments and advice! :)
I was actually thinking about Inception too, Keita! I see what you're saying. Thank you so much for your advice! :)
Hi Stefanie, Great to hear you are busy being creative. My tid bit of advice has to do with studies on the brain and also with studies of sound in film and games. Most people are able to keep track of 7 things at once, so the comments people wrote above all ring true with this fact. In Sound Design for film and games, it was discovered that people rarely notice more than 7 footsteps of separate people. Any number above that ends up to be wasted work. I think this is not a coincidence between the two separate studies. So as far as using characters at one time, 7 seems to be the limit for most viewers. Any number under that is easier. If you have a great film score, the composer will help the viewer remember with subliminal musical cues - or a few obvious ones! LOL : )
That's an interesting concept! Thank you, Wenda! I'll keep that in mind! :)
I'm no expert, just a TV viewer. The number of extras & background people you could effectively use depends on how many episodes you produce, the location and the storyline, etc.. Think of a long running detective drama set in a major city. It's not the same as a series like "Lost". But in both examples you'll find new people introduced to give the writers new possibilities. Star Trek introduced a new character that wore a purple shirt weekly. Each episode you knew who was going to get killed next.
Hi Wayne! Yeah I also figured that more characters would bring more story possibilities as well.
check out my projects listed here. If you need footage for your movie, let me know. I think it's ok to act in stories that you like. I don't think it's a good idea to do exploitation movies for free. I always offer footage from my movie as soon as transfer the film and begin editing, sometimes while I'm still shooting I give actors some scenes they have done for their reel.
This is all very good advice! Thank you all for your help. I'll keep it all in mind when I write. :D