Study Task 8: Reflective Writing

For my practical response to this theme, I have tried to visualise the concept of character development. The main way this is possible is through physical appearances. These are the external attributes that are visible to any outsiders. This mostly has included things like; hair, beards, clothing, posture, attitude, demeanor, cleanliness and injuries (scars, missing body parts). Most of the images show the contrast of beginning and end, or polar opposites as much as possible to get as much difference as possible.

I came to find that many characters who go on negative character arcs (in which they become typically less morally sound throughout) they tend to grow more facial hair. I thought this could have something to do with hiding their inner selves as well as it looking more menacing. It’s less about the growing of the beard, but being clean shaven is often associated with being pure and clean, which these characters no longer are. There is also the trend of characters shaving their heads when going rogue or off the rails slightly. While Walter White had cancer which instigated the shaving of the head, it also worked with the same reasons as Captain Flint in Black Sails and Shane Walsh in The Walking Dead. In contrast to growing out a beard, they shaved their heads to mark a kind of clean slate and that they are ready to rebel.

It was hard to find ways to illustrate the aspects of character development without simply showing the physical changes in their appearance. I couldn’t really show the internal development in the way the characters make their choices. I did manage to illustrate a few of the ideas from quotes I had gathered. The quote about intention and obstacle was illustrated with the idea of someone reaching out for something (their intention) but they are being held back from it (the obstacle).

I feel that the visual research helped me further understand all aspects of character development. Though it is harder to show internal development, the external appearances are all relevant and complement it. For example, Long John Silver plays into the legend that is created around him as a fearsome and deadly pirate. His colour pallet gets much darker and his hair and beard engulf his profile to create a more imposing figure. I developed this into blending faces together from different periods of the characters story when they are at complete opposites. I started doing this by getting photos or screenshots and crossfading them over each other. This created a interesting effect that made me think about animating this kind of transition which ended up being my final piece.

I had been struggling to think of an idea for the final piece, debating whether to just do a character design or something like that. However, I am happy with what I did in animating Long John Silver’s character change. I drew the inbetweens so it has a good passage of the character throughout the seasons of the show. Admittedly, if I had decided on doing this earlier, I would have been able to go more in depth with more inbetweens and maybe even doing a full body transition.

I would have liked to have done more sketching and illustrating of the ideas in my essay. I am not much of a sketcher and so I found it difficult to always try to add pages into the sketchbook. I would like to improve my time management to allow me to get more done in my visual part of cop next year as I feel I could have done more in order to aid my project as a whole.

Study Test 7: Practical Planning

So far I haven't got as much in my sketchbook as I'd have hoped to. I think I am struggling for ideas since there isn't many other ways to show character development visually other than the physical appearances of them changing.  

As for where my practical work is going, I'm still not quite certain on the final outcome. It was suggested earlier that I could look into decide your own destiny style stories in which you turn to the page of whatever decision you want to make. These could be interesting because it lets the reader develop the story and character how they choose. It could have a certain amount of endings that reveal and create a different type of end character by the end of the story. This sort of idea really excites me however it is simply too much to do for the time remaining.

Through the process of gathering photos of characters changing through their respective stories, I have thought I could make an animation of a character morphing between the start and end of the story. This would be interesting to show, as their mood and expression can change too. I'm not sure if this is what I will actually end up doing but it is probably the most realistic idea at this point.

Primary Research:

I have looked at books and video essays to gather my primary research. These include Robert McKee's Story, Aaron Sorkin's Masterclass on Screenwriting and K.M Weiland's Creating character arcs to name a few

Secondary Research:

This includes searching for images/screenshots of characters throughout their stories to show the physical development. I have then also drawn using these sorts of photos for reference. 

Media and Processes:

I have and will continue to use pencils for most of my sketches. I will keep using photoshop to make digital pieces. I also want to try communicate the idea of true inner character using tracing paper to be able to reveal the underneath layers of a characters person. 

Context:

Robert McKee's quote saying 'True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation.' is really useful to understanding the fundamentals mechanics of character development.

Study Task 5: Practical Approach

For my practical response, I plan to investigate the visual changes in characters who have significant true character development. This is the main way to visualise character development as most of it in the points I've been making are down to internal true character and their choice. So to visualise this idea, I will use the characterisation qualities like; hair, beards, clothing, accessories, attitude, posture, scars, injuries (missing limbs or parts of yourself).

I plan to use the quotes I gather to inspire artworks, I will try to illustrate the idea that the quote is getting across. I want to experiment with melding photos together from characters over time. I can line them up as much as possible and fade between them. I'm not certain what my final piece will be yet. The logical outcome would be character designs or redesigns, however I'd like to think of something else because I'm personally not very interested or confident in character designing.

Study Task 4: Essay Synopsis and Quotes

Characters make a story. Without great characters a story will fall apart. We as an audience need strong characters to connect to. That doesn't necessarily mean the character(s) have to be physically or emotionally strong, however they do need to be fleshed out so that we can really understand and empathise with their person, making the narrative memorable. The viewer need to know the character, and to really know someone takes time to grow with them as they develop. So how does strong character development aid viewer investment in a narrative? That is what I will be exploring in this essay,

My core researches sources are:

Story By Robert McKee

'We cannot ask which is more important, structure or character, because structure is character; character is structure. They're the same thing, and therefore one cannot be more important than the other' p.100

'TRUE CHARACTER is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature' p.101

'Pressure is essential. Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little' p.101

'Choice under pressure will strip away the mask of characterisation, we'll peer into their inner natures and with a flash of insight grasp their true characters'

Developing Characters for Script Writing By Rib Davis

The protagonist - and where possible other major characters as well - must develop through the script, and the means of that development taking place is conflict.

We allow the audience to learn about our character from what they say about each other and from what they say about themselves, but most of all we learn from the choices they make.

Aaron Sorkin Teaches Screenwriting (Masterclass)

Intention and Obstacle. That’s what creates friction and tension, and that’s what drama is. If you don’t have that, then it’s journalism.

My ideas in terms of case studies are to look into the character development in Breaking Bad, since there is already a lot written about that because of it's critical acclaim. Then, using that, I really want to do my own analysis of the character development in Black Sails as this doesn't have as much written about it due to it being a bit more off the radar. However I personally believe the character development in Black Sails is stronger and so I want to evidence that myself.

In my practical research I will be showing the physical side of character development. How the internal character changes manifest into an external appearance. I will show characters like Walter White, Captain Flint, Long John Silver, Tyrion Lannister and Jamie Lannister as they all have quite significant changes to their appearance as their character changes.

Study Task 2: Reading and Understanding Texts

The text that I read for my subject was Robert McKee's Story. This is a very definitive book on the craft of storywriting. I specifically read the sections about character in which he makes some very interesting and useful points.

'True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.'

This will be a really good and useful quote. In this section he was pointing out the difference between characterisation and true character. He is saying how all characters have the key observable qualities and then who they really are as a person. Their decisions under pressure show the audience what they are really like. And when other characters and they acknowledge it, that is when they develop from it.

'The finest writing not only reveals true character, but arcs or changes that inner nature, for better or worse, over the course of the telling.'

This quote stresses the importance of character arcs to make the writing of a much higher standard. This all links to my theme very well since it is talking specifically about how characters need to arc and that it can be for better or worse. The characters I will be looking at (Walter White, Long John Silver, ect.) are not what we would class as good people. They go down rather destructive paths and become darker. McKee's point about revealing true character implies that this dark nature was there all along, it just took the pressure of a situation to force the character to reveal it.

Study Task 3: Images and Theory

How strong character development creates viewer investment in the narrative?

This question allows me to really explore the parts of character writing that I really want to be able to craft myself. I can also look into audience investment and engagement with narrative in general and in relation to characters specifically. 

There have been a few things I've been gradually researching into, the main one at the moment is a video masterclass by Aaron Sorkin. He talks about a great many tips, tricks and formula's to writing stories and characters. In one part he spoke about the fundamental base of drama being intention and obstacle. He talks in great detail about how every character needs to be moving for something and there needs to be something else, no matter how small, stopping them from doing so and that is the basis of writing a drama. From this, good character development will ultimately be when there are multiple events of intentions and obstacles, and these events make the character change the way they would try to overcome them. This is a good springboard idea as it is very simple yet very relevant. 

Some keywords to do with the idea of character development are:
Emotion
Connection
Growth
Evolution
Change
Strengthening
Adapting
Familiarity
Arcs


John Silver - Black Sails
Rick Grimes - The Walking Dead

Tyrion Lannister - Game of Thrones

Jamie Lannister - Game of Thrones

Walter White - Breaking Bad

Study Task 1: Initial Idea / Target

This is what I produced for my target. I am looking into character development for my project. It is something I am really interested in and passionate about. I also want to improve in my writing to be able to craft better stories and characters.