Once you come up with an idea for a series you have to develop it. In TV lingo, developing means expanding a concept into a fleshed-out series, complete with format, characters, and story ideas. Sound complicated? Nah! A series, like life, is really an amazingly simple thing in terms of structure. It is comprised solely of characters and an environment. Nothing else. If your characters—their goals, jobs, motivations, etc.—are properly laid out, then they will embody what your series is about. If this sounds too simple let’s take a closer look.
Let’s use the animated Batman series as an example. If you fully describe who the characters are, both the good guys and bad, and what their goals are, then what else is there “about” the series to describe (other than the environment and its hardware)? How Batman uses his weapons? This is really part of his character. Which villains he goes after? This is determined by his motivations and theirs. Why he does what he does? When he does it? Where? To whom? All are determined by Batman’s motives, either personally or vis-à-vis the baddies. There’s nothing there other than characters and environment.
This tells us at once that the characters are the heart and soul of any series. It also tells us why the hardest things to do (and teach) are creating and developing good characters—because it’s all in the characters. It is the characters that the audience is interested in. It is the characters that make them feel and think. It is the characters that make them laugh or cry. It is the characters that will ultimately bring them back again to watch another episode. (Or not!)
What is a character? With respect to animation, a character is a person, animal, or other “thing” with a personality, who acts and reacts to other characters and things in a unique way. Every character, no matter how simple, has a point of view—a unique way of looking at and dealing with life. Although a person’s point of view can be very complex, it doesn’t have to be in order to make an interesting character.
Most good cartoon characters have simple yet precise points of view. Wile E. Coyote simply wants to catch and eat the roadrunner. He’s very clever, very, very persistent, and very, very, very unlucky. Human characters tend to be slightly more complex, but they are still not very complicated. The Ninja Turtles are good examples. Although the characters may have developed a little more depth as the animated series evolved, you can define each in a short sentence. Leonardo is the caring leader. Donatello is the more analytical and technically minded one. Raphael is the sarcastic jokester, and Michaelangelo is the carefree surfer-dude.
All you need in terms of a character’s point of view is enough personality so that he or she can act and react to the world in a unique and interesting way.
©Jeffrey Scott, All Rights Reserved
(Jeffrey Scott has written over 700 animated and live-action TV and film scripts for Sony, Warner Bros., Disney, Marvel, Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Big Animation, Hanna-Barbera and others. His writing has been honoured with three Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. He is author of the acclaimed book, How to Write for Animation. To work with Jeffrey visit his website at www.JeffreyScott.tv.)
Read other articles from this series:
#1 The difference between live-action and animation writing
#3 It all begins with a premise
#4 The secret to developing your story
#5 Finding the scenes that MUST be there
#7 How to easily transform your outline into script
#8 A brief introduction to script writing
#9 How long should your scenes be?
#10 How to (and NOT to) edit your writing
#13 The importance of communication
#17 Assuming the point of view of your audience
#23 The screenwriter’s bookshelf
