How To Introduce A Character

if you nail your character's intro you can get the audience to care in literal seconds take Luke gazing at the Suns longingly that's it that that is all we need to get his character no dialogue no voiceover just a simple shot reverse shot reveals how he wants to leave his banal life behind and go and do something exciting it's a very relatable thing to be suffering from and just like that we're on board with Luke's character but hey you don't need to make relatable take the Joker or death in person boots we may not like

the guy but damn it if we're not on the edge of our seats Keen to see more of this character and how there'll be such a formidable challenge to our protagonist down the line it's not all fun in games because if you writers out there screw this up you're done for like seriously you're done think about it this way us seeing a character for the first time isn't just our first impression of them it's often our first impression of you the writer and as we all know first impressions have a lasting power if you do

a bad character introduction that that's like an athlete tripping at the first hurdle of a race the pressure's on as a cautionary tale let's look at valarian city of a thousand planets people point at the absence of Chemistry Between the two leads as the sole reason that film was a massive flop but no a pure poppycock how could anyone believe that after hearing the initial conversation between our protagonists I know you're attracted to me why didn't I the obvious it's obvious yeah sure little good Two Shoes within ivy league education are always attracted to Galaxy

off and bad boys like me you're not going to find better than me on the market handsome intelligent modest Brave suicidal determined pigheaded faithful to yourself yeah and to you you're my partner we both know you're quite a lady killer so why do you lose interest in a girl as soon as you win her heart cuz I'm looking for the perfect woman just admit it you're scared of commitment oh de me in terms of big budget movies that's the worst character introduction I have ever witnessed to shine some light on why the scene was written

like that here's what the writer himself has to say on how he writes his dialogue I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards but I'll tell you what there's a really interesting correlation I've noticed I've searched all over the place for this video and for every Great Character intro I found where it's dialog focused I found three that weren't for every H Lander there's a Darth Vader an Indiana Jones and a jok the best introductions usually involve minimal dialogue as the character runs around and does something active in the world for example Jack

Sparrow now that's an S tier character intro we open with epic music as he stands in the crow's nest building up how badass this man is building up Jack's perception of himself then he jumps down and we get a wide shot revealing he's actually in a dinghy the closeup is us being intimate with Jack in a way seeing through his eyes building this Grand feeling of about him while the wide shot detaches us from Jack giving us a more objective view revealing how very non-r his situation is purely through cinematography we've learned a great deal

about Jack you've got to respect the creativity then he sees the Pirates he shows respect and we now know all right this guy's a pirate no cringy dialogue necessary and then the way he comes into port with the epic music still going it's masterful not just iconic but it lets us know how ridiculous this man is how nonchalant he is through what for near any other character would be a deadly serious moment then you've got other such action focused intros like Indiana Jones where they treat the character with this air of mystery for the opening

minutes of Raiders we can't see his face we only get partial glimpses of him one of his helpers runs away screaming at a statue while he calmly walks straight past all right so Indiana's levelheaded it takes a lot more than Birds to startle him he finds a poison dart but carries on without pause so we know he's Fearless he pulls out a disheveled map hinting at the idea that he's been on this quest for a very long time so we know he's tenacious someone in his team is about to kill him so he reacts instantly

and introduces us to his signature whip this hints he's always alert that he's mastered his tools and is experienced enough to know what the clicking of a gun sounds like this is all built up the Mythos of Indiana until finally we see his face Spielberg is trying very hard to make you think that Indian indana is a badass Action Hero and you know what it works like a Chum and Indiana's introduction doesn't stop there The Opening 12 minutes of the film is a prologue a contained short story much like the dark KN or in glorious

bastards and these kinds of prologues as well as telling us what kind of movie this is all going to be they tell us the crucial details we need to know about the scene's principal character we see him weighing out the bag to swap with the idol even though you know like gold is actually an incredibly heavy metal and easily weighs more than that sandbag ever did at Max Capacity but you know spill at least trying to make you think that he's a clever man who understands how these kinds of traps operate and he's also a

prepared man because who carries around a bag of sand with them at all times and my absolute favorite of the lot here is one that's maybe me reading into it a bit too hard but if this was intended its genius characterization it's this Indiana touches the light and it activates the Trap the only problem is that's rubbish like couldn't possibly activate this ancient trap so what's going on here well my head Cannon is that Indiana was already betrayed once he expects to be betrayed again so he made his other helper believe that light triggered the

Trap not the pressure pad he so happened to put his foot on as he put his hand into the light this means when the guy does betray him later and rushes back through the Trap thinking he knows what triggers it he's dead wrong I don't know if this was the intention from Spielberg it's entirely possible that some shot was lost in The Cutting Room floor or something but if this wasn't intended it's some badass characterization in fact this whole introduction works so well for Spielberg he reused it for Oscar Schindler we see his clothing but

not his face we see him scraping together a ton of cash then bribing a door man Building A Mystery around the man until finally we see his face at this the waiter asks here do you know who that man is I don't know he's a nobody but by the end of the first scene through deafly coaxing a colonel to sit next to him and exuding enough Charisma to make Tony Stark jealous he's become come the star of the show at the end of the scene an officer walks in and asks that very same waiter from

earlier who is that man that's Oscar Shindler this is all not just incredibly entertaining it shows off the protagonist's Charisma and fiery ambition wonderfully ultimately when you boil it down character introductions are an exposition issue how do you get across who they are to the audience in an engaging way and that ultimately brings us back to the issue of dialogue Oscar's intro is fairly light in dialogue as is Indiana's and Jax was totally silent and then you've got valerian's dialogue heavy intro being a travesty and then you got films like up which tell us about

Carl in what is easily the most heartbreaking intro of any film ever and that's a montage like what is the deal here well I think it comes down to how action-based character introductions they're just plain easier to write give a talented writer either and they'll Crush both of them but give a less able writer either and they're more likely to engage people in the beginning if they don't use dialogue dialogue driven character intros can be superb they really can be so long as the dialogue itself is superb and let's be honest a lot of amateur

writers struggle in that department here's one for you can you think of an example where they've opened a film without dialogue or narration and it's broken that adage of show don't tell other than the Star Wars title crws with literal text on screen I can't think of any examples here if you ban dialogue it forces you to show not tell and showing in your character's intros is a much better idea than telling but what does truly great character introduction dialogue look like well I'm in love with Tywin Lannister's first appearance in Game of Thrones because

tywin's introduction isn't him on some Grand conquest or strutting about Camp giving orders it's purely dialogue with his son as he skins a deer it's so simple but that Simplicity works like a charm here like firstly there's the symbolism the Stag is the symbol of house Baratheon and we see him meticulously taking it apart with precise cuts which is great foreshadowing as well as hinting at who Tywin really is then there's the juer position hold on this is one of those powerful men in all of Westeros why isn't a servant doing this for him he

should be above such things these juer positions are character gold it's inherently fascinating to see a character acting in a way opposite to how we expect them to if it's inconsistent characterization well that's a whole other kettle of fish but when we see someone who's the defense against the dark arts teacher specializing in combat but he's a stuttering nervous wreck too timid to shake Harry's hand or a ruthless mafia boss playing with a cute cat or a tech CEO who wants to commit genocide but he can't stand the sight of blood or a noble who's

happy to get his hands dirty and do a task normally reserved for the lower classes these ju depositions they add to the Mystique the the puzzle that is the character making us curious to see more of them as we unravel what makes them tick if you can reveal such a ju's position in your character's first scene they're prone to be instantly fascinating but forget the actions look at the dialogue it flows like a natural conversation that's perfectly Pleasant to hear yet with each subtle piece of subtext we piece together more and more about who this

man is oh it's dark Brave man terrible judgment kathyn Stark took my brother why is he still alive tyon Stark and that is superb dialogue they mentioned Ned Stark much earlier in the conversation so naturally it threw Jam for a loop it reveals what Tywin thinks and therefore cares about most he couldn't give a rat's ass about his son Tyrion but the political minations of what's going on and the supremacy of the Lannister house that's what's on his mind it also shows Jaime and Tywin are not on the same page here he cares about his

brother far more than Tywin cares about his son and if we see the rest of the clip why is he still alive it wouldn't have been clean clean you spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you I could care less what anyone thinks of me you know that's what you want people to think of you it is just perfection in the most subtle sub texy way we now know Tywin doesn't care at all for honor and is prepared to stoop to any low to achieve his goals we also know that Jamie

just like before doesn't see eye to eye with Tyron on this we also see how sharp and analytical Ty is he's clearly not just one of the most intelligent characters in the show he's Adept to understanding people and how the human mind ticks it doesn't get better than this although does it take the social networks opening lines did you know there are more people with genius iq's living in China than there are people of any kind living in the United States that can't possibly be true it is sain is the king of dialogue for a

reason this is such a real line like I've met people who speak like this they State these supposed facts in the middle of conversations often making them up on the spot or wildly exaggerating something they once heard you know like 3 years back because it helps B of the image they want to have they want to be seen as clever and well read doubly so for Mark see as he's talking about IQ and generally the only people who quote IQ statistics are the ones who care enormously about their own IQ that one line tells us

plenty but then there's her retort that can't possibly be true and the subtle arrogance from him stating something so CLE clearly wrong is reinforced when he doesn't pause for self-doubt he doubles down instantly when challenged we get a sense that he doesn't just want to be seen as clever it's going much further than that there's a real Touch of narcissism to him we're still in the title creu we haven't had the first shot of the film yet but we already know so much about him at later she points out a floor of his you're obsessed

with finals clubs you finals Club OCD and you need to see someone about it who will prescribe you some sort of medication you don't care if the side effects May the blindness Final close and finals Club he can't think of a good enough retort so nit picks her grammar the second she's done a normal healthy person would at least pause to think of a decent reply but the fact he attacks her so instantly with such a non-count argument betrays his deep insecurity so far you've only heard him say three lines yet just from that we

know that Mark is a massive ego he wants everyone to see him as a genius he's deeply insecure he will happily lie if it means achieving his goals and he has terrible social skills godamn that is some delectably dense Exposition as a side note this is why subtext is King it's not just about how stating things openly like this is a bit dull I'm haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me it doesn't challenge one to think in the same way subtext does but subtext when employed properly is actually a faster way

of delivering Exposition as these prior examples prove quite neatly if you write a two-minute dialogue exchange of the same quality as tywin's or Mark's introductions you can tell the audience so much more than if you were given a 4minute long narration sequence that's just bombarding the audience with information about a certain character that's the beauty of the device Mark's character introduction is superb not just because we learn about his quirks but because we get a sense of his wound of his weaknesses and wants it's one thing to tell us the traits of a character that's

mostly what we've been focusing on Captain Jack is Whimsical taiwan's callous and clever Indiana's a badass like sure fine we get it but if you want to get us to actually care you need to do something else entirely show us what drives them show us what hauns them a tenet of characterization is that if they have a wound or simply a hole in their life they're looking to fill that's a reliable way to get the audience on board with that character even if they're a bit un likable and of course it sets you up for

a fulfilling Journey where they then try and fill this hole the openings that successfully show the hole in the character's life they serve as another type of story hook we want to car on watching not because we want to see the Anarchy Joker will cause what this mysterious prologue is about we just want to see them find what they're after a take John Wick a big part of what made that first movie so unique in the action space is they didn't actually begin with a whizbang fight scene they knew better than that we open been

seeing John grieving over his dead wife and we stay with him for a while seeing him go through that plight helps us understand his character and invites us to Care then they build in it by him getting something that might actually help a puppy from his late wife there's nothing complex going on it's simple it's powerful and it very successfully gets the audience on board with JN as a person making it hit all the harder when his legs are kicked out from under him Pixar loves this type of character introduction they use it in so

many of their films when we first meet Wally we get [Music] this he looks longingly at a couple then simulates holding someone's hand how could anyone see that and not feel at least just a little bit invested in his character he's lonely this is identical to Luke's Moment In A New Hope choose the right object the right thing for them to be absorbed by in their Melancholy and sometimes that's all it takes to convey what they're suffering from and get the audience to care deeply about them or take Finding Nemo when we see the horrific

loss of his wife and eggs we completely understand Marvin and why he's so neurotic when it comes to losing his son or The Incredibles they hold off on showing Bob's wound for quite a while we see him in his absolute prime where everything's going great it's entertaining and it's not dis similar from Indiana Jones's prologue then Wham it's 15 years later and he's in a [ __ ] it job reminiscing His Glory Days wishing to relive them if a character wanted to be as badass as they once were we'd already be interested in that kind

of story but the fact we get a good taste of His Glory Days just makes us want him to get it even more partly because it bolsters our empathy but also because like that prologue was just so darn enjoyable we selfishly want more of the fun that is following Bob on his escapades sometimes you want to play your hand immediately like with Wally and Luke tell us their yearnings right away without the Preamble sometimes a slow burn of a prologue is the right call here like The Incredibles or up give the audience a nice bit

of backstory before the plot properly begins only after an opening of them as a far younger person essentially a different person do we finally get our true introduction to the character we're spending the rest of the story with now if you want to get the audience to sympathize with your character that is a reliable way to get them to care but what is quite a lot harder is getting them to empathize with your character and a film that does it in a very quirky way is Fight Club the protagonist is narrating and through the structure

of his framing or rather the lack of it that tells us tons about him because we keep ping ponging around one second he's about to blow up some offices and before we've had a chance to gather our bearings to understand the first thing about why he's doing that he tells us about that time he had his head stuffed into the tits of another man we're still men yes we're men but still the protagonist hasn't made up his mind no wait back up let me start earlier this all does a wonderful job at helping you to

empathize with his schizophrenia it's all over the place it's overwhelming and it's a great introduction to who he is so I'm probably going to get a bit of flack for this next one but I'm holding my ground here never give big introductions to small characters who won't be that important you're setting up a Czech off's gun to never fire it as an example he gets the most badass intro ever a 2 minute long sequence narrated by Sam Jackson Who by the way doesn't narrate anything else in the film they brought him in just to narrate

Hugo's intro and it tells us about how he betray the German Army and assassinated 13 officers we get all hyped up and in the next scene he get shot and dies what like he never even does anything for the plot either in the only scene where he has substantial screen time it's Michael Fender's character who gets all of the focus while Hugo is just kind of there like a bit disappointing if you ask me if he were merely any other side character no one would have minded but the big stylish intro gave us a kind

of Promise This guy's going to be a major player in this story get ready to see more of him Tarantino says to you and it turns into a bit of a damp squib not literally Hugo squibs work perfectly fine but you get what I'm saying there I'd say this is such a concrete thing I'm going to coin a rule here the closer looks first and well I mean like Only Rule of character introductions is the effort a writer puts into to introducing a character should be proportional to how important that character is to the story

take Suicide Squad 2016 they crap all over this idea and it's part of why the first half hour of that movie is purely character introductions it's far too much we get a monstrous amount of exposition at the start for these minor characters and while some of the intros are genuinely fun like Deadshot extorting a Mafia Boss there's a lot of Storytelling fat here that ought to be cut clearly James gun thought so too because he had the right idea with the sequel screw the lengthy powerp pointy introductions get it over and done with don't even

acknowledge the javelin guy or the woman from space should just have them appear they don't need an intro especially considering that they die in like the next scene after the sequel works so much better here because gun realized that it's practically impossible for people to come invested in dozens of characters given just a few seconds of introduction each so why bother you don't want to fall the Hugo stiglets issue of giving a great deal of setup around a character sincerely inviting the audience to be interested in them and then do nothing with them or you

know kill them off immediately so gun doesn't do it sincerely it's the perfect approach for a Suicide Squad movie it's good fun how the protagonist is introduced talking to his daughter and we think ah this must be where we see his sympathetic motivation and we're coaxed into liking the guy instead you're a terrible father hey I didn't ask to be a father in the first place I tried to lay off her but then she dragged out the paternity T [ __ ] you no [ __ ] you The Suicide Squad sequel has has far better

character introductions in part because the first Creator picked the wrong tone to do it with if the character is a joke treat them like one he's not a werewolf okay he's a weasel he's harmless I mean he's not harmless he's killed 27 children but you know we got him to I think he agreed to do this but whoever said you had to introduce your characters by showing them there are a lot of stories out there where they buildt a reputation an expectation around the character before we ever see them in Pulp Fiction Jew and Vincent

talk about marcelus Wallace throwing a man out of the window cuz he gave his misses a foot massage and they provide their commentary on why they think he did it then they go on to murder a bunch of guys in a flat for crossing marcelus that whole first scene is really our introduction to marcelus even though his first appearance is in the scene after it then you've got Silence of the Lambs as Clarice walks past the cells she sees increasingly crazy inmates building up to a man leaping about his cell like an animal saying something

that I can't repeat on YouTube else I'll be monetized we see the trend we know that Hannibal is coming up next and ask ourselves what could be more insane than that last one some part of us is expecting a demonic beast fluing at the mouth or something ridiculous and our expectations are broken in the most beautiful way possible when we see Hannibal simply standing there calmly waiting and looking like a normal man that is a Jun position much like Tywin skinning the deer or quirrel being a coward the combo of the film putting so much

effort into building up an expectation only to shatter that expectation the instant we first see him makes for a legendary character intro and again by this point he hasn't even opened his mouth and screw it who says you can't lie in your character introduction there are quite a few stories out there that lie to you in their intros and they do it to great effect Edge of Tomorrow was able to kill hundreds of mimics on only your first day in combat he speaks so confidently on the news that we think all right this is a

standard Tom Cruz character Ethan Hunt 2.0 only in the next scene we see his true colors you be on the beach with the first wave I do I do this to avoid doing that while it is an honor General I'm afraid of my have to decline he's a conniving coward the film hoodwinks Us by setting him up in a certain way only to then subvert that in the next scene some stories going for this approach will instantly subvert what they set up for the joke the best thing about Tony is also the worst thing he's

always working While others go for a slow burn take homelander in episode one he's made to look out like quite a nice guy copyright infringement is casting Vault 1.2 billion per year hey hey hey guys come on what star like going to think now what I do want to hear is who you saved this week it gets the audience to think well most of these guys are scumbags but at least Homeland is a decent bloke he's basically Superman he gives me hope for all the heroes in this world little do they realize is there are

more ways to introduce a character than you can shake a stick at what you really want to do is identify which one works best for your story and run with it it's a lot like how for years I've tried to hunt down editing software that's actually good for fiction and my search has brought up nothing like all of the major ones I canel them all on day one because they're made for emails and essays in mind not Fiction it's a niche in the market that annoyingly no one has bothered to serve but the other day

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they give automated story critiques to you it's obviously not quite as good as a real person's feedback but their AI has given me a lot of surprisingly useful pointers it goes beyond spelling if the scene's pacing is too slow or if I head hop or if a character just feels a little too flat it's uncannily good at recognizing when that happens and letting me know when I need to make a change there if these guys keep up the good job they're doing I'm going to be using this one for the rest of my life I'm

dead serious there and if you want to join me all you've got to do is click my link in the description try it for free and if you're happy with it you can then use my code closer 20 at the checkout for 20% off their yearly plan if you're serious about writing to a professional quality you've got to give this one a try it's well worth the price anyway thanks for watching keep writing and I'll see you guys next time on the closer look