character character You Can Invite Into Your Home and Living Room

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

A lawyer once told me that when a TV show or movie is being developed, the characters are more house or family friendly than those you see in movies in cinemas and movie theaters. Characters in series must be family friendly. That's why a serial killer can be a heartless gory killer like Jack The Ripper with no regrets for what he does. When a serial killer is made for TV, a Dexter Morgan is made with a code of ethics and turned into a hero who only goes after killers.

These types of characters work very well with the modern "shades of gray" characters where the hero and villain are both good and evil. However, the hero has just a little more good.

That is actually the type of characters I'm working on now and in scripts in the past.

Does anyone else make characters this way?

 

[VPTurner]

I create characters that suit the story and don't worry about whether it will get targeted for TV or cinema. It can always get rewritten to tone it down if needed for prime time.

In the case of Dexter, he's the protagonist. He has to be somewhat likable or else people like me won't tune every week to watch his ever growing dilemma. If all he did was hack and slash, where's the interest there? That would limit your audience. The vast majority want someone to root for when watching drama, and for regular TV the producers want the largest audience possible to get the advertisers. For premium cable without the ads, shows like Dexter and The Sopranos and Weeds get people to pay the extra money to get the premium content.

All of your characters should have shades of gray. That's what gives them depth. If they are nothing but black and white, then you're apt to write them as cliches. Even your villains can have family members who could disarm their evilness when they get home at night. Everyone has a weakness. It's those weaknesses that make us human.

 

[Ccolebrook]

Good advice VP.

I create characters along the same lines. Making them best suited for interaction with the storyline, then fleshing out their human qualities in ways that give me room to play throughout the story.

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

Yeah, I mean it's just creating a 3D character. Nobody is 100% evil, or 100% good.