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The Language of Film is Emotion The world is getting smaller every day. The importance of international markets grows daily. There is so much talent around the world eager to tell their stories. This book will help you find the universal connection, through the heart, that will make your story resonate with audiences world-wide. and politics to connect powerfully with the audience. How else could stories from Shakespeare, Ancient Greece or the Mahabharata from Ancient India continue to move modern audiences all over the world?

The language of all great storytelling is emotion. That language is universal. Whether your story takes place in Argentina or Zaire (or any place in-between) if the emotions ring true audiences from America to Zanzibar will understand and be moved to laugher or tears (or any emotion in-between). Human emotion is the one constant in great storytelling. An emotional response is the essence of being entertained. The audience is moved to laughter or tears. Viewers tense with excitement or are startled in surprise. If the audience feels nothing, they turn away in boredom or simply change the channel. Great stories tell us that we all share the same depth of feeling— We are more alike than we are different. Great stories reach across time, distance, culture, class, language, religion The Character Map Book

When you write from the heart—when you write character-based stories that ring true emotionally—structure is secondary. A nonlinear interactive narrative or a classic “wellmade play” both can move audiences to laughter and tears—if the story and characters are emotionally true and truly gratifying.

Chart Your Character’s Emotions The Character Map is based on universal emotional truths we all know and understand intuitively. Learn to use these principles consciously to make informed creative choices and create characters with strong believable personalities. The Character Map is easy to use, and most importantly, it works. © 2006 Laurie H. Hutzler

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The Emotional Toolbox I developed the Emotional Toolbox™ approach to solve the most difficult television and film scripting problems I encountered as a story analyst, writer and consultant. These methods analyze and strengthen the emotional content of all kinds of scripted entertainment. I have worked with Oscar-winners, Emmy-winners, BFTA-winners and absolute beginners on feature films and television programs around the world. Authenticity is Key The audience perceives the emotional authenticity of a story in a flash. The book Blink, written by Malcolm Gladwell, describes brilliantly how these instantaneous assessments operate. According to Gladwell: “Blink is about rapid cognition, the kind of thinking and assessment that happens in the blink of an eye. When we walk into a house or meet someone for the first time our minds take about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. In a flash we decide how we feel about something. These instant conclusion are very powerful and extremely important.”

A recent newspaper article shows how quickly these immediate conclusion are transmitted to others. According to The New York Times: "When word of mouth does happen, it moves with lightning speed: teenagers will send a text message to friends during the first show on Friday about whether a film is good or bad. While it might not be true - yet - that most people decide on the Thursday before a movie opens if they will see it in a theater or buy it on DVD, certainly 24 hours after a film's theatrical opening most of the audience has in effect made that decision." November 13,2005 The Emotional Toolbox Approach provides ways to instantaneously engage an audience's interest and emotions. It will help make sure that emotional connection is a satisfying experience and will help you create a story that audiences feel compelled to recommend enthusiastically.

How Can This Book Help? This book provides a set of simple concepts, exercises, tools, and reference materials that writers, directors, television show-runners, game developers, actors, producers and development executives can use to create the emotional clarity that distinguishes great characters and great stories. Tips for using the material most effectively are also included.

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Copyright Notice No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or informational storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the copyright owner and publisher of this publication. Order additional copies from: [email protected]

IT IS ILLEGAL TO PROVIDE COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION TO FRIENDS, FAMILY, WRITING ASSOCIATES, FELLOW STUDENTS OR MEMBERS OF ANY ORGANIZATION OR ASSOCIATION. If illegal copies are made in violation of this copyright, in addition to legal action, the original purchaser may be charged for all illegal copies traced to their coded original. Just as you would not want your work copied, distributed and/or sold without your permission, I feel the same about my work. See the final section of this book (pages 82-83) to learn how to copyright your work.

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Table of Contents Mapping Yourself

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Six Questions

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Character Map Worksheet

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Step One: The Mask

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Step Two: Fear

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Fear Worksheet How Does the Character…

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Step Three: Strongest Traits

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Step Four: Admired Traits

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Step Five: Trouble Traits

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Step Six: The Dark Side

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The Mapping Process

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The Beginning

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The Middle

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The End

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Using the Character Map

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Creating Conflict

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Character Transformation

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Internal Conflicts

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The Character’s Choice

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Completing the Process

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Emotional Traps

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Film Examples The Character Map Book

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Sample Character Maps

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Character Map Worksheet

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About Copyright

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New Book

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Free Newsletter

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About The Author

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Conflict & Emotion All stories are about characters and emotions clashing and colliding. Without conflict there is no story. Although all characters struggle with external events and obstacles, the deepest conflicts are always within the character. A Character Map with help you chart the emotional tensions deep inside your character and explain how those tensions lead to his or her transformation. The Power of Change At the heart of any character's inner conflict is change or transformation. Someone or something provokes some kind of shift or change in the character. The character discovers something new or begins to think, feel, speak and act in a new or different way. One of the first questions to ask yourself is-- Why now? What happens in your story to provoke a fundamental shift or change in your character or in his or her situation? How does that crisis-provoking change kick off your story? Change doesn't come easily and it isn't without opposition. No change ever continues unchecked. Someone or something always stands in the way. Transformation is always upsetting. Emotions run high. The situation and characters are in turmoil. Someone or something resists the change with all his or her might. Who or what stands in the way? Is your character resisting the change or is someone or something resisting the transformation your character is bringing about or is undergoing" What kicks this change off? Who or what action changes or transforms your character? What is lost? What is gained? Who opposes the change? What does your character want? What does your character need? What is the cost of either choice? What does your character fear most? How much is your character willing to sacrifice? To what extreme is your character willing to go? The answers to these questions form the emotional core of your story. They also get to the heart of who your character really is. They give depth and meaning to your story structure.

Start with Yourself A good writer thoroughly understands his or her characters' emotions, inner conflicts and the whole process of internal transformation. Great writers dig deep to find this emotional truth within themselves. A Character Map charts internal conflicts and emotional transformation. In planning your story, each major character should be mapped. This process will help you get inside your character's emotions. But first you have to start with yourself. The Character Map Book

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Mapping Yourself Why should I map myself? To best understand the insights to be gained in the Character Map, I suggest that writers map themselves as though they were a character in a movie or television series. This is the best way to test the process. Write from Truth The mapping process starts with the personal and moves to the universal. Mapping yourself will help you look at the Emotional Toolbox process personally and assess its truth and validity. It will also help you examine the universal application of the process and discover how to apply it to all your fictional characters. All great writing moves from the personal to the universal. Start with yourself. After all, you are a complex, interesting, fullyformed three-dimensional human being. You constantly wrestle with a variety of strong emotions and struggle continually with a whole range of internal conflicts. These are the kinds of characters you should write about.

Start by Mapping What You Know Writers are always advised to write what they know. What writers (and all other human beings) know the most about is change. Living, by definition, is to change. Nothing in life is static. Change and transformation are all around you. Both impact you every day. You live in an unsettling and constantly changing world. Your world is full of uncertainty, evolving relationships, personal and professional ups and downs and conflicting responsibilities, loyalties, commitments and desires. Your characters should experience their world in exactly the same way. You know exactly how painful change and transformation can be. You have experienced extreme, dramatic and sometimes excruciating change. Your life has been full of unexpected reversals, complex dilemmas and difficult growth experiences-and so should the lives of your characters. (And there's no reason why all this turmoil and pain shouldn't be hilarious. Great comedians know-If it don't hurt, it ain't funny.)

Create Fiction from Truth So how do you create fictional characters out of all of this? How do you create stories filled with the kinds of emotions and changes you've experienced? It helps to have a process to turn your own raw material into fiction. Mapping your own character will help you create fictional characters. By understanding how change and transformation works in your life, you will gain insight into how to use this powerThe Character Map Book

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ful process to create complex, interesting fully-formed three-dimensional fictional human beingscharacters who are emotionally true and who have a life and integrity all their own. I believe the creative process always starts with your own emotional truth. The only thing that makes your story unique is your personal point of view. Human beings have been telling stories since we were able to speak. There are no new stories. The only thing new is you and the way you see and experience the world. Who are you? What do you believe? What insights do you have to share with the world? What is the truth as you see it?

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Six Questions There are six simple questions to answer in creating your Character Map. Write the answers to these answers questions by stating the initial two or three words that first come into your mind. Don’t dwell on your responses. Keep your answers brief. The first answers are the right answers. Trust your instincts and be as honest as you can. Are you ready to begin? Question One: Among people who know you but do not know you well—what is the biggest misconception about who you are? How are people often mistaken about you when they first meet you? What do people say about you in the loo or bathroom if they want to dismiss or belittle you?

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Question Two: What was your greatest childhood fear? This is a non-specific generalized fear. What would keep you awake at night as a kid if you thought about it too much? What could make you so anxious you had trouble falling asleep?

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Question Three: What are your strongest traits? What is your crutch in hard times? What personal traits get you through when the going gets tough? What traits do you lean on? What do other people identify as your best personality assets?

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Question Four: These are traits you do not have. They are, however, traits you really admire in someone else. When you see these traits in someone else your heart leaps a bit and you wish you could have these wonderful traits yourself.

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Question Five: What are the traits that get you in trouble? Sometimes, when things are going reasonably well, this is what will mess it up. This is the way you most often get yourself into disputes or difficulties with loved ones, coworkers, authority figures or friends.

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Question Six: Think of someone you cannot abide. This is someone you know well or someone you’ve observed briefly—it is a person who has actually passed through your life and not an historical or celebrity figure. When you met or observed this person, the hackles on your neck rose and you had a visceral response of intense dislike. What were the traits that this person had that set your teeth on edge?

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Tips for Reviewing Your Answers Go back and look at your answers. Adjust them to be as precise as you can in your responses. The key is to edit your answers and use words that are as clear and specific as possible. For example if you answered: “Death” or “Dying” to Question Number Two: “What was your greatest childhood fear?” Ask yourself, what did death or dying mean to you as a child? What specifically does your response mean? Was the fear of dying a fear of being overwhelmed by a (supernatural or unstoppable) force? Did it mean lurking evil waiting out there ready to snatch you? Did it mean being alone and cut off from anyone else’s help, support or love? Did it mean being separated from loved ones who needed you or couldn’t get along without you? Did it mean missing out on all the good things and fun that would happen when you were gone? Death means very different things to different people. If you answer was death or dying, try to be as specific as possible about what “death” meant to you as a child. Remember, like all good writing, this is a process. I’ve worked with many writers who have created four or five versions of their Character Map. Every time they answer the questions they hone their choice of words and create a sharper, clearer more precise definition of their responses.

Put Yourself Aside Now you are going to put yourself aside and pretend that you are creating a fictional character using the answers you have give. The pages that follow will provide worksheets, additional tips and will explain how to transfer your answers onto the diagram most effectively. Then we’ll look at your responses as if you were a character in a screenplay and show you how to build a story from your Character Map information. Are you ready to begin? The Character Map Book

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Character Map Worksheet Question 1 Mask:

Question 5 Trouble Traits:

____________ ____________ ____________

____________ ____________ ____________ ___________ _ Question 2 Fear:

Question 3 Strongest Traits:

___________ ___________

____________ ____________ ____________

Question 6 Dark Side:

____________ ____________ ____________

Question 4 Traits Admired

____________ ____________ ____________

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Step One: The Mask The First Step in creating a Character Map is developing the character's "Mask". This mask defines the character's behavior at the beginning of the story. It is the way the character is wrong about him or her self. We will watch this mask unravel (or harden) over the course of the story. Draw the Map Draw the Character Map in a diamond shape or use the worksheet provided. Write the answers to Question One on the top point of the diamond. (Question One: Among people who know you but do not know you well—what is the biggest misconception about who you are? How are people often mistaken about you when they first meet you? What do people say about you in the loo or bathroom if they want to dismiss or belittle you?) This first answer is the character’s "Mask. If you ask people what their mask is they will never be able to tell you. If you ask what the greatest misconception about them is they will always be able to tell you. We pretty much know what people say about us behind our backs. We wouldn’t know this unless we knew we were somehow projecting this image or impression. We also know this image is just front or façade. It’s not who we really are on the inside.

A Character’s Mask The character’s Mask is the false face (or false self) the character wears or projects in public. It is the character’s protective outer shell The character uses this image to hide, deny, camouflage or “mask” his or her greatest fear. It is the character “game face” in facing the difficulties of the world. The character's mask is also the audience’s superficial “first impression” of the character. This is how the audience first meets the character in the beginning of the story. It is the general impression the other characters in the story have of the character. This false impression gradually will be pealed away. Or, if the story is a tragedy, the mask will harden and imprison the character in his or her fear.

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All Characters Have a Mask Every character (and every person) has a public face or public persona. In the psychology of Carl Jung, a person constructs his or her mask or facade to cope with the demands of social situations, social convention, social expectations, social institutions and/or in response to the social environment. This public façade doesn’t represent the inner self or true identity of the person or ...