Film Courage: I’m hoping we can talk about a character with a goal and a character with no goal. How will I be able to see that my screenplay has a character with a weak goal?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Interesting. I think most movies mainstream movies that you watch are really built around a character pursuing something, right? I would say they all have pretty definable goals. Any movie that you see that is in the theater…I take that back…not any movie that you see…most movies that you see are designed around somebody who wants something very badly and goes after it, right?
I would say if you’re trying to figure out whether your character has a weak goal probably the places that I would start is at your Break in [Act] 2, this is assuming you have already written the script. At your break into 2 do we know what your character is going to be pursuing over the rest of the movie?…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
CONNECT WITH NAOMI BEATY
Facebook.com/groups/ScreenplayLab
Like this video? Please subscribe to our Youtube channel. Or love this video and want more? You can show additional support via our Youtube sponsor tab or through Patreon.
Advertisement – contains affiliate links:
Scriptapalooza Fellowship Accepting Screenplays And Pilots Only!
Coverage, Ink – Screenplay Analysis, Development and Editing.
UNARMED MAN Movie – Winner of the HBO best feature award. Called “absolutely stellar” by Film Threat. Civil unrest erupts after a Police Officer shoots and kills an unarmed man. Forced to give a statement, the Officer recounts his version of events in a scathing examination of fear and violence by writer/director Harold Jackson, III