good screen-writing book?

[Keith Loh]

Josh, the meaning behind such stock questions like "what does the character want?" is to urge the screenwriter to make each scene raise the stakes for the viewer. That is, to make the viewer care what is happening on the scene and care all the way to the end of the film. With the long play feature form, you are asking the viewer to commit, over 90 minutes or more, to caring about the character(s) and sticking with the story.

When you think about films with very poor characterization most of the time the problem is because what the character does A) doesn't make sense or B) doesn't have any importance for the viewer.

Many films that are not successful are because they makers don't care enough about their characters to make them believable. The situations may be familiar but what the characters do is either cliched, insufficiently motivated or even counter to the logic of the story.

In a short film, these things don't really matter because the arc of the character is again short. In that case you can usually rely on situations and on the audience filling in a lot of the information for themselves. Over the course of a feature you have to put a lot more work into it.

[Josh Bass]

Alright, guys, thanks. I appreciate it.