DZ-55: Character Motivations (Part 1)

In part 1 of this 2-part episode, Chas & Stu look at examples of good character motivation.  We’ve all watched movies where we don’t believe the motivation of a character or characters. We may have even written scripts where readers don’t buy the character’s choices. And that’s often a real problem because most of these choices coincide with key structural moments — e.g. the moments where the characters decide to do something “out of character” in order to progress to the next part of the story.  To help us solve the problem of how to improve our character motivations, in this episode we explore great examples of character motivation and how they have helped the audience believe a character’s decision. 

And so Chas and Stu dive into NOTTING HILL, TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, GAME NIGHT, ARRIVAL, IN THE BEDROOM, BEIRUT, BREAKING BAD, THE MATRIX, BLOCKERS, A NEW HOPE (of course) and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Passing/honourable mention also to MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, THE COMMUTER, THE LOBSTER, GAME OF THRONES, IRON MAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and DOCTOR STRANGE (as we re-visit and re-contextualise stuff we’ve analysed previously). 

The potential craft tools they uncover are character patterning, structural timing of the decision, debating the decision (both internally and externally), withholding the decision from the audience, and using external plot elements to either remove obstacles or push the character into making a decision that is... well... out of character. But believably so.

Stay tuned for Part II where we - for once - actually do explore ome bad examples of character motivation.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND!

Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3. Watch it on on YouTube. 

Read the transcript on GitHub or in HTML.

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LINKS

• CRAFT TOOLS AND THE ISSUE OF SUBJECTIVITY 
• • MANCHESTER BY THE SEA written by Ken Lonergan  [@ 5m 03s]
  • Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/8oew26/character_motivation_examples_of_motivations_that/
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/manchester-by-the-sea
• DECISION vs MOTIVATION [@ 9m 48s]
• CHARACTER PATTERNING
• • THE COMMUTER screenplay by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle [@ 11 m 3s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/the-commuter/movie-tickets
  • GAME OF THRONES [@ 13m 8s] https://www.justwatch.com/au/tv-show/game-of-thrones
• EARLY CHARACTER DECISIONS
• • NOTTING HILL written by Richard Curtis [@ 18m 54s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/notting-hill
  • TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE written by Sofia Alvarez [23m 28s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before
• LATE CHARACTER DECISIONS
• • AVENGERS INFINITY WAR written by C Markus & S McFeely [@ 37m 24s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/avengers-infinity-war 
• DEBATING THE CHARACTER DECISION
• • GAME NIGHT written by Mark Perez [@ 37m 24s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/game-night 
• INTERNALLY DEBATE THE CHARACTER DECISION
• • THE LOBSTER written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou [@ 52m 44s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/the-lobster 
  • ARRIVAL written by Eric Heisserer [@ 54m 53s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/arrival-2016 
• WITHHOLDING THE DECISION FROM THE AUDIENCE
• • IN THE BEDROOM  written by Robert Festinger and Todd Field [@ 1h]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/in-the-bedroom 
  • BEIRUT written by Tony Gilroy [@ 1 h 10m 45s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/beirut/movie-tickets 
• PROVIDING MOTIVATION THROUGH BACKSTORY
• • BREAKING BAD - “GRAY MATTER” written by Patty Lin and Vince Gilligan [@ 1h 10m 45s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/beirut/movie-tickets 
  • NOTTING HILL written by Richard Curtis [@ 1h 19m 47s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/notting-hill
  • GAME OF THRONES - “AND NOW HIS WATCH IS ENDED” written by D Benioff & D B Weiss [1h 22m 15s] 
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/tv-show/game-of-thrones
• WORLD BUILDING AFFECTING DECISION MAKING
• • THE MATRIX written by Lana & Lily Wachowski [@ 1h 25m 3s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/the-matrix 
• REMOVING OBSTACLES/ANCHORS
• • STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE written by George Lucas [@ 1h 29m 23s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope 
• OVERCOMING CHARACTER WOUNDS IN MARVEL FIRST ACTS [@ 1h 38m 8s]
• GOALS, STAKES & URGENCY
• • ScriptShadow: GSU!!!
  • BLOCKERS written by Brian & Jim Kehoe [@ 1h 41m 43s]
  • JustWatch: https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/blockers 
• WRAP UP [@ 2h 9m 14s]
• BACKMATTER [@ 2h 15m 20s]