establishing character and world

Marek gave us some awesome takeaways tonight! One in particular I want to emphasize:

Establish a character and world before you plan the situation or action. By doing this, you’ll have a better understanding of how your character would react in the given scenario.

For example: a character is waiting for a bus.

If you just say “a guy” is waiting for a bus, it’s more difficult to think of actions of how this person would act. Thus you start to lean towards cliches, which isn’t ideal.

If instead you say James Bond is waiting for a bus, you can better picture how he would carry himself. He’d be standing tall and confident, might be fixing his suit, and have that expression with the curved eye brows. You know that expression I’m talking about

Suddenly the shot just became much more interesting.

After the character is established, establish the world. You’ll then be able to understand a character – world relationship and how they fit into the given scene.