Kyle Buchanan joined our friend John Horn, host of KPCC radio’s entertainment show “The Frame,” to talk about producing this story and what it reveals. The scar tells us she’s seen some serious stuff since the first movie. She knows 50 is not the new 40 and because of that, she is still described by all who know her as beautiful. Right now she’s singin’ and dancin’ up a storm, seemingly without benefit of training in singin’ or dancin’. Here’s what we know about Jane: she’s got a hold on life. You might expect some of those attributes to work their way into Lonergan’s description of Lisa. SARAH CONNOR is 19, small and delicate-featured. Examples of character descriptions that describe observers. Buttercup is in her late teens; doesn’t care much about clothes and she hates brushing her long hair, so she isn’t as attractive as she might be, but she’s still probably the most beautiful woman in the world. Her VOICE is a low and chilling monotone. Her eyes peer out through a wild tangle of hair like those of a cornered animal. She overdoes it in the style of the time: rosebud mouth and so forth. What’s great about this character introduction is the economy shown on the page. But let’s really look at the story here. Look at the way they tell us about Kat Stratford. JANE is mid-fifties and has embraced that fact. Character description generator. KAT STRATFORD, eighteen, pretty -- but trying hard not to be -- in a baggy granny dress and glasses, balances a cup of coffee and a backpack as she climbs out of her battered, baby blue '75 Dodge Dart. Okay, so you go out of your way to how female character descriptions that describe their attractiveness are cliche and lame, but then the three examples you give are exactly that. We get a look at her now for the first time. We learn right away that Jack has a sense of humor...and false grandeur. She is in her middle twenties and her name is FRAN KUBELIK. The mutant hair types on Rex or wire-haired breeds are shorter and curlier than the hair of most other cats. Books. Physical measurements seldom make any difference to the plot, and (IMO) it is an amateur mistake to imagine any character, male or female, with too specific a set of measurements. Raises a tankard in salute. A strong woman character can be saving the world from an alien plague, strong-arming her … It’s an immediate backstory and gets us interested. But don’t think that her goal necessarily has to be noble and righteous! A worthy goal. What I love about this description is that the theme of the movie is how Jane goes from solid to spinning out of control and finds her real-life amidst the chaos. By Sara Boboltz. Everything about this woman's appearance screams "solid.". She holds a large bath-towel around her very appetizing torso, down to about two inches above her knees. She is unkempt, quick, volatile, scattered, and beneath it all, perhaps because of it all, an original beauty. As a writer, learning to write compelling and evocative character descriptions is incredibly important. , but it’s great to master character introductions so you can set the scene in any act. I like reading Nancy Meyers scripts because you can see her imagination on the page, and see how she depicts it on the screen. Her skin is very pale, and she is wearing dark glasses. Yes, the Strong Female Character has become a thing and it’s not a good thing… but it’s not like the issue is confined to female characters. 2. First up, Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith take on 10 Things I Hate About You. Choose descriptive details you’ve observed in your own life. We'll give you the way she's introduced in the screenplay. An unreliable character might lose a … All the surprising ways your favorite roles were introduced on the page. These are all details that the various departments like costuming and props can utilize when they’re creating the world. Still, it’s striking to see how often and how thoroughly the female characters’ physical attributes are dissected. Many screenplays promise us that we’ll eventually like the female character, especially if she’s introduced in a place of conflict. This can be used to show how description can be 'weaved in' to writing rather than just a list of characteristics/ features. For example, various characters mislead Penelope about Odysseus’ identity, as if afraid she would ruin the element of surprise in his confrontation with the suitors. She is a little woman. Subscribe to receive the free PDF! We’re going to fall in love with her. Hope you find them useful. Outside her apartment she hears a “Honk Honk.” She sticks her long mane of silky black curly hair, her giraffish neck and her broad shoulders, out of the window and yells to a car below. Look at the way they tell us about Kat Stratford. MADELINE ASHTON, fortyish, has just reached the point where age is beginning to encroach on her incredible looks. Sorry, the correct answer is: Nina Sayers, How 50 Female Characters Were Described in Their Screenplays. This is the character description we get after some brief Off-Screen dialogue that sets up the fact this is just a casual fling. What we need to know about Kat is that she’s in control of her own body and looks. Get your FREE copy of the eBook called "astonishingly detailed and useful" by Filmmaker Magazine! I believe we need to start writing characters as human beings who happen to be male or female. So when you’re crafting a female role, you want a great description that doesn’t rely on lazy or outdated stand-ins. (From Ted’s perspective at least.) Now, if you remember the movie, this was all changed. Some interesting, sometimes frustrating trends emerge in the details; you may not be shocked to learn that most of these writers spend far more time describing the female character’s level of beauty than they do her male counterpart’s. Character descriptions are often the first way readers start to piece together their understanding of the characters that populate a work of fiction. JK, this is American actress Sheila Terry. Her vulnerable quality masks a strength even she doesn’t know exists. Personally, as a reader, I don’t really care what characters look like – I care who they ar… Vulture has rifled through countless old screenplays to find the descriptions for 50 notable female characters, which we present to you below. She is childish, adult, reasonable, unreasonable — usually one when she should be the other, but always positive.”. , even though Sarah Connor is supposed to be a vulnerable target, the script goes out of its way to make it all about looks. The bigger the goal, the stronger your strong female character will have to be to achieve it. I don't understand what the point of being critical is if you don't have any examples to support your point. Her vulnerable quality masks a strength even she doesn’t know exists. Read more. Okay, I feel like the trolls are going to come out here and say that Kat is pretty and that I just said not to do that. The 17-year-old rainbow-lover officially came out as gay, confirming fans’ suspicions. This character description is tight and sparse—all we get is Annie’s age. There are a million examples of the Strong Female Character that happen to not be female. Sample Character Descriptions From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (Scholastic, 1998) • He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Lydia is cool, Lydia is sullen, Lydia is her father’s daughter by his first marriage. Her big bare feet slap on the hard wood floor. She was an enormous star in the ’50s and ’60s and bears that mark. She’s elegant, she’s beautiful, but if you look closely behind her eyes in a quiet moment, you’ll notice something else. Hopkins replied, "Because I can smell her.". Include the following items: o The character’s name, age, brief physical description, and role in the story Include everything from their physical description to their background, … The resource consists of a character profile template with headings for pupils to consider when analysing a female character from a story. Here’s how Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig introduce the same protagonist in Bridesmaids. When you first meet a character in a screenplay, a brief description tells the reader how they should picture that person in their mind. How To Write A Strong Female Character For Your Story Or Novel. Her mouth is large, her nose upturned. 3 Character Descriptions from Other Professional Authors. Strong female characters can encompass many different types of women, with varying opinions on what is considered “strong.” In order to write strong female characters, old tropes and stereotypes (like the damsel in distress or the nagging wife) should be avoided, as they can be detrimental to how your female character is viewed as a whole. When you describe how a character looks, think about how appearance illuminates personality.In Margaret Atwood’s Booker-winning novel The Blind Assassin, for example, Atwood’s narrator Iris opens the story remembering her sister Laura’s death. She is a woman of about twenty-six… a tremendously vital person, interested in everybody and everything, in contrast to Nick’s apparent indifference to anything except when he is going to get his next drink. Perhaps the woman doesn’t know how pretty she is, or there’s a slight imperfection added to make her relatable. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which But guess which character is described with care, cinematic attention, and not a single description of her sex appeal? Take this description by Quentin Tarantino of the first woman we see in his film Death Proof, the radio DJ played by Sydney Tamiia Poitier: A tall (maybe 6ft) Amazonian Mulatto goddess walks down her hallway, dressed in a baby tee, and panties that her big ass (a good thing) spill out of, and her long legs grow out of. On the walls, extraordinarily detailed, skillful drawings, mostly European cityscapes, in charcoal or crayon. Not beautiful, not ugly. “The CAMERA follows the bottle to MARGO CHANNING,” wrote Mankiewicz in his stage directions. But how many of us remember the way each of these characters is introduced? Let’s look at the way James Cameron described Sarah Connor over the arc of two Terminator movies, starting with the first film, when this humble waitress had no idea she would go on to become the mother of the resistance: SARAH CONNOR is 19, small and delicate-featured. What are some of your favorite great descriptions? She could be attractive if she put any effort into it, which doesn’t occur to her. Everything about this woman’s appearance screams “solid.”. Many screenplays try to hedge their female character’s beauty, lest she seem so gorgeous as to be unattainable. Sabrina Carpenter is now telling her side of the story with a surprise single, “Skin.”. The Devil Wears Prada gives us glimpses of Streep’s intimidating editrix until the full version is unveiled: We see more flashes of MIRANDA… $2,000 crocodile Manolos, Chanel jacket, perfect hair, fabulous Harry Winston earrings… [until] MIRANDA steps out of the elevator and for the first time we see her head-on. The amount of character description really depends on the writer and their writing style. A YOUNG FEMALE HUNTER hides in the foliage on the side of a pond. That’s a delicate balance, so let’s look at some great examples. She is a lesbian and wants people to know it. A good description of a character goes a long way to letting you get to know that person — but it's a tricky business. About this resource. SARAH CONNOR is not the same woman we remember from last time. Info. Film and television are visual mediums, but they always start on a blank screenplay page. Demme asked Hopkins, "Where do you want to be?" She is in her early thirties. On her feet a pair of high-heeled bedroom slippers with pom-poms. Julia Roberts isn’t necessarily thought of as a fashion plate, but if you peruse the screenplays for her films, you’ll realize that many of her most famous characters express themselves through what they wear. Log in or link your magazine subscription, Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture. A Superstar. Character introductions in professional scripts tend not to directly describe the character as much as aspiring screenwriters are instructed to do. Screenwriting is all about "economy on the page". DESCRIBING FEMALES RED HAIR LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5 OTHERS mercury-red hair magma-red hair ruby-red hair solferino-red hair vermeil-red hair molten-red hair lava-red hair rouge-red hair Titian-red hair vermilion-red hair 1. You tell us who she is. There’s even a Twitter handle dedicated to exposing the worst versions of this. Stuck on actually getting your story started? Other writers have a very to-the-point and less descriptive writing style, so their character descriptions may be very sparse. You can listen to their discussion here. There is a warm understanding relationship between them. There are funny descriptions, sad ones, and even action-packed, amazing descriptions. Powerpoint consists of extracts of character descriptions from a variety of books with question prompts to explore author's viewpoints and methods of description. The character description component, sometimes, is only a word or two. a fifth, unoccupied gallows, bearing a sign: PIRATES – YE BE WARNED. Strong character descriptions work on multiple levels. But while giving distinct … How To Use Character Traits In Plotting. And she is devastatingly beautiful — for a girl with a tail. Joshua Bassett has voiced his support for his rumored girlfriend’s new song. With this is mind, I came up with six defining traits for strong female characters in fiction. From Northeast Kingdom, written by Alex R. Johnson. She’s not defined by what we think of her, she’s defined by what she thinks of herself. July 14, 2020 at 10:25PM, Edited July 14, 10:25PM. Some authors don’t describe much about their characters. Some of the most endearing character descriptions are of girls navigating the path to adulthood. There are a lot of ways to communicate who The Dude is. Author: Created by Della1986. Her name is NOMI MALONE. And if the right ones want to be in your movie, then your movie might get made. Make a character sheet to develop a well-rounded character. Very pretty, knowing, outwardly confident. First up, Pretty Woman: VIVIAN turns and stares at herself in a grainy, cracked bedroom mirror. See, I still find that a difficult prospect – looking back over my work, I have some female-dominated stories (for example a female detective hunts a female terrorist with her female sidekick to help her female boss, and there aren’t really any other characters) and some male-dominated stories (two men and their absent wives) and some more equally mixed. Why 'Scream' Has One of Best Final Girls In Horror Movies. Furthermore, someone who reads a ton of scripts may merely scan the character list anyway. She is not knockout gorgeous like Roxy; there is a smoky kind of sensuousness about her. She is DORIS MANN, about 60, formerly beautiful and more than somewhat currently. A character profile is a detailed description of a fictional character's life and personality. She’s attractive, if a bit hardened, dressed conservatively in a skirt and jacket. © 2021 NONETWORK, LLC. He turns, considers her… A face so long out of the sun, it seems almost leached – except for the glittering eyes, and the wet red mouth. These Infographics Help Explain. — Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016. So these really matter. Not the best-looking girl in her class but definitely in the top five. The amount of character description really depends on the writer and their writing style. Check out these other physical description examples from some of my other favorite authors: Roland Deschain and Randall Flagg, The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. Unique only in that she is immediately interesting. Her name is NEYTIRI (nay-Tee-ree). Leave them in the comments and we can all discuss them! She has long blonde hair and a refined, classically beautiful face. I think this is a good way forward. Amanda Gorman Geeking Out Over James Corden Won Late Night This Week. I love the entrance of Jack Sparrow. SARAH CONNOR is not the same woman we remember from last time. One of the most complicated female protagonists in recent years has to be Lisa, the high-school student played by Anna Paquin in Kenneth Lonergan’s underseen masterpiece Margaret. Preview and details Files included (1) docx, 62 KB. It's 100+ pages on what you need to know to make beautiful, inexpensive movies using a DSLR. (There’s even a Twitter account devoted to it.). When we meet Jennifer Grey’s character in Dirty Dancing, the script emphasizes how far she still has to go: Next to Lisa is her sister, BABY, an endearingly unkempt puppy of a seventeen year old, whose face has the unguarded responsiveness of a child. 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