Lesson 17 - Designing Personality and Building Backstory
Learn how to create a real character with personality and backstoryLesson 17 - Designing Personality and Building Backstory
Developed by Jason Tomaric, FilmSkillsABOUT THIS LESSON
The act of writing is much more than simply creating characters - it’s about writing real people with real fears, ambitions, strengths and weaknesses. But although you need to be able to create real, believable people, every choice you make when creating them needs to support the story. Who they are helps them confront the plot, learn more about themselves and ultimately succeed or fail. Their background gives them the tools and experienced they need to confront the conflict, and most importantly, their tragic flaw gives their story a personal arc. So, in this module, we’re going to discuss how to create personality and backstory.
- 29:49 video that walks you through the process of developing your character's personality
- Illustrated companion guide
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- How movies represent a snippet of a character's life
- How to use the Myers Briggs to create realistic characters
- How to develop an effective backstory
- How to ensure the character traits you create properly support the story
ABOUT THE LESSON AUTHOR
Jason Tomaric
Director, Cinematographer Los Angeles, CaliforniaJason J. Tomaric is an Emmy, Telly, and CINE Award-winning director and cinematographer of four internationally-distributed feature films, dozens of national television commercials, music videos, and the largest film training content library in the world, published author of 8 books - used in many top universities, and creator of AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform.
Jason has worked in Los Angeles and around the world in over 20 countries. His clients include Disney, NBC/Universal, National Geographic, McDonald’s, Toyota, Scion, Microsoft, and Paul Mitchell, with narrative work screened at Sundance, Slamdance, and South by Southwest film festivals as well as on Netflix and on all broadcast networks.
Jason has taught and/or guest lectured at some of the nation's most prestigious film schools including UCLA, Columbia College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, San Francisco State, University of Notre Dame, and numerous film festivals.
Jason has written eight industry-defining books, all sold in bookstores, and used in film schools around the world. The American Society of Cinematographers hails Jason's books - "There are no wasted words in Tomaric's tome, which concisely summarizes each facet of the director's craft. It's difficult to think of a step in the process that Tomaric fails to address."
Jason’s DVD training series on Hollywood film production have trained filmmakers in over 40 countries, with distributors in Europe, Hong Kong, New York and Australia.
In 2010, Jason launched FilmSkills, which combines the world’s largest film training video library with his proprietary learning management system. Adopted by 47 universities within the first year, FilmSkills is now the leading industry-standard training solution for motion picture and television production.
In 2015, Jason launched AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform that bridges the gap between academia and industry.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS LESSON
Chris Huntley
Academy Award-winning creator of “Scriptor," and co-creator of "Dramatica"Chris Huntley is an Academy Award-winning software developer and Vice President of Write Brothers® Inc. Chris is also the co-creator of Dramatica®, an acclaimed theory of story and the basis of the popular Writer's DreamKit™ and Dramatica® Pro software. Chris regularly teaches workshops and classes on story structure and development.
While an undergraduate in Cinema Production at the University of Southern California, Chris created several short films, including the award-winning animated short, “Daddy’s Gone a’ Hunting,” which was chosen as the short film screened before the world premiere of the George Romero film, “Dawn of the Dead.” After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinema Production, Chris worked for several years in the film industry.
In 1982, Chris went into business with fellow USCinema alum, Stephen Greenfield, and formed Screenplay Systems Inc., now doing business as Write Brothers® Inc. Together they created Scriptor™, the world’s first professional screenplay formatting software, for which they won a 1994 Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They went on to produce other award winning, industry standard software, such as Movie Magic® Budgeting and Movie Magic® Scheduling, Dramatica® Pro, Writer’s DreamKit, Movie Magic® Screenwriter, StoryView™, Word Menu® and more.
As co-creator of the Dramatica® story theory, the co-author of “Dramatica: A New Theory of Story” (1994), and co-developer of the Dramatica® Pro and Writer’s DreamKit™ software, Chris has spent thirty years working with narrative theory and its practical application.
Today, Chris splits his time working as Vice President of Write Brothers® Inc. between design work for new products and overseeing day-to-day business affairs. Chris also spends a fair amount of time giving workshops in story development in the U.S. and abroad.
David Freeman
Writer, "Street Smart," and "The Border"Working as a writer and producer, David Freeman has written and developed scripts and other properties which have been bought or optioned by Columbia Pictures, MGM, Paramount, Castle Rock, Buena Vista Television, Atlas Entertainment, Hearst Entertainment, and many other major film and television production companies. He's a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America.
Guy Gallo
Writer, “Under the Volcano,” “Tales from the Darkside,” and “American Playhouse”Guy Gallo was born and raised in New Orleans and has lived in the Northeast since escaping soon after high school.
Educated at Harvard and The Yale School of Drama, he began his writing career as a playwright: Failing, Rain in Lent, and Peter and Wendy.
Among his produced screenplays: Under the Volcano, directed by John Huston; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, directed by Peter Hunt; The Enormous Radio, an episode of Tales from the Dark Side. His poetry and fiction have been published in BOMB and the Mississippi Review.
Guy has taught screenwriting at the Film Division of the Columbia University School of the Arts for over twenty years. He also teaches at Columbia and Barnard College. And has taught the history of modern drama at Princeton and NYU.
The Last Christmas, a screenplay written in collaboration with his wife Jeannine Dominy, is creeping up on pre-production. Most recently he has completed two stage play, Passage and Still Life with Nude, and a screenplay Hawker.
His book on screenwriting, Screenwriter’s Compass: Character as True North, was published by Focal Press in March, 2012.
John Anderson
Los Angeles-based screenwriterLos Angeles-based screenwriter
Ken Dancynger
Author, “Broadcast Writing,” “Alternative Scriptwriting,” and “The Technique of Film and Video Editing and Writing the Short Film” Ken Dancyger is Chairman of the Undergraduate Department of Film and Television, New York University, one of the leading programs in Film/TV in the United States, and a past president of the University Film and Video Association. Has also taught various film courses in the United States at Boston University, Emerson College, and Clark University and in Canada at Sheridan College and York University. He has edited a number of his own productions for film and television and is a screenwriter of numerous documentaries and dramas for film and television. In addition, he has been a director, production manager, producer, story editor, and script consultant for various films. He is the author of Broadcast Writing, Alternative Scriptwriting, The Technique of Film and Video Editing and Writing the Short Film (Focal Press).
Michael Emanuel
Independent Film Producer, actor in over 200 national television commercialsMulti Hyphenate, Michael Emanuel is the Star/Producer of the MTI/REDRUM distributed, multi-award winning film titled "LUCKY". A familiar face and quintessential 'EVERYMAN", this award winning actor/producer/writer has appeared in numerous feature films, television shows and hundreds of national TV commercials.
Neil Landau
Writer, “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” “Melrose Place,” “The Magnificent Seven,” and MTV’s “Undressed”Neil Landau is an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and director. His film and television credits include the teen comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Melrose Place, The Magnificent Seven, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Secret World of Alex Mack and MTV's Undressed. He has developed numerous one-hour drama TV pilots for several studios and networks including Warner Bros., Touchstone, CBS, ABC Family, and Lifetime, and has written movies for Universal Pictures, Disney, Columbia Pictures, and 20th Century Fox.
He is currently rewriting an animated feature based on the popular Tadeo Jones comic books for El Toro and Warner Bros. Pictures, for whom he also worked as executive script consultant on the film, "Lope,"Writer, “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” “Melrose Place,” “The Magnificent Seven,” and MTV’s “Undressed”
which was short-listed for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. He is slated as executive script consultant for the upcoming El Toro/Universal Pictures film "Bruc".
Neil has also worked internationally as both co-head-writer and executive script consultant on television and film projects for Sony Pictures Television International (in Russia), Freemantle Media (in Australia), and Intereconomia (in Spain).
Neil recently served as Executive Vice-President of Scripted Development for Amedia Film Group located in Moscow (Russia), working with writers, creative producers, story editors, and studio executives, guiding a slate of original projects including feature films, animation, miniseries, made-for-television movies, one-hour drama series, situation comedies, soap operas, and historical docudramas.
Neil teaches in the MFA in Screenwriting and Producing Programs at both UCLA School of Film & Television and USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is also a faculty advisor in the MFA in Writing Program at Goddard College.
Steve Skrovan
Two-time Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer, "Everybody Loves Raymond," and Writer, "Seinfeld"Steve Skrovan has had an eclectic career in show business as a stand-up comedian, actor, television writer and film director. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Yale University, Steve began his career as a stand-up comedian in New York City during what is now referred to as the “Comedy Boom” of the ‘80s. After moving to Los Angeles at the end of that decade, he segued from stand-up into comedy writing when Larry David gave him his first writing job on “Seinfeld.”
Steve subsequently landed on the first season of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” where he stayed for the entire nine-year run of the series, rising to the level of executive producer and garnering two Emmy Awards. After Raymond, he has been on the staffs of “‘Til Death,” starring Brad Garrett and “Hank,” starring Kelsey Grammer. Currently, he is a co-executive producer on “Hot In Cleveland,” starring Betty White. In film, Steve directed the critically acclaimed, Sundance Grand Jury nominated, and Oscar short-listed documentary on the life and career of Ralph Nader entitled “An Unreasonable Man.” Steve made his narrative directorial debut with the feature “Fred and Vinnie,” which is currently on the festival circuit.