Inneresting 98
Issue 98
April 22nd, 2022
Make Every Character Matter
Pay Attention to Connections - Melinda Blau discusses her book, Consequential Strangers, and how random encounters with the “bit characters” in our life can have larger meaning.
Making the Most of their Screen Time - A character in only one or two scenes can stick withe the audience thanks to sharp dialogue and a specific purpose. For example:
Mitch Murphy in Home Alone is more than just a decoy Kevin, but a memorable, curious kid.
The car rental attendant in Planes, Trains & Automobiles gets an entire phone conversation about her Thanksgiving plans to raise Neal’s blood pressure at the start of her scene.
The waitress in Hell or High Water turns a boilerplate interaction into a moment where two lawmen on a stakeout get intimidated by an octagenarian.
Not Just A Number - In Scriptnotes Episode 325, John and Craig talk about alternatives to naming minor characters things like Firefighter 2 or Third Soldier.
No Small Actors - Hunter Phoenix describes how actors auditioning for bit parts still go through a difficult audition process. Jason Guerrasio looks at the career of “one-line actor” Lukas DiSparrow, and what it’s like to have a small role in big, tentpole films.
Keeping Track of Characters in Highland 2
Highland 2 offers several tools to help keep track of your characters, large or small.
The Character Highlighting panel lets you add color to mark characters’ lines throughout your script, and can create a PDF charting out how many lines each character has and their first appearance in the script.
The Gender Analysis tool shows you breakdowns of characters by gender, and the amount of lines and words spoken by characters.
For more suggestions on how Highland 2 can offer you a more rewarding writing experience, check out our Knowledge Base!
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Mike Schur shares how an improv line from Amy Poehler changed the entire direction of Leslie Knope’s characterization.
Other Inneresting Things
Amy Wibowo illustrates her journey from building her first website in middle school to getting accepted to MIT.
Alejandro Medellin looks at the tools and tricks of the photography community still using the Game Boy Camera.
Johnny from Spoon & Tamago explains the Manuscript Writing Cafe, where writers pay to gently take themselves hostage in order to meet deadlines.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
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