Relatable Charcters

What Makes a Character Sympathetic? This Video Essay from Screentakes Explains

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/06/what-makes-character-sympathetic-video-essay-screentakes


"But instead of being concerned with making your character likable, perhaps a better approach would be to make them sympathetic"

"One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating multidimensional characters that your audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by."


Is making you're character "relatable" and "likable" the right way to go? In this article from No Film School, the author discusses why we end up liking the characters of a movie, even if they have a dark side. 


Jordan Belfort, Michael Corleone, Jake LaMotta, and Henry Hill. What do these characters from iconic films and tv shows have in common? Bluntly, they're all scumbags. They represent the dark side of humanity. Violence, drugs, anger, hateful, vengeful. All the list goes on. But why do we like them? Is it because we find them relatable? Not necessarily. Being a relatable character doesn't mean you can connect with the audience. Not everyone has suffered some type of tragic loss. Not everyone has trained in a secret organization of skilled assassins and of course not everyone is a billionaire that fights crime at night in an ultra cool suit. Like Batman, most characters aren't relatable. The audience, however simple sympathizes with them. 

Even if the characters are total scumbags like the bunch listed above, the writers use the exposition part of the story to make you feel connected with the characters. Sympathizing with them and making the audience rooting for them to make the right choices. So instead of making characters that are relatable, make characters that the audience can connect with in a sympathizing way. 

The Distribution of Stories

History Of Storytelling 

http://www.storytellingday.net/history-of-storytelling-how-did-storytelling.html



"The Storytelling history is quite ancient, lost in the mist of time. Nobody knows when the first story was actually told. Did it happen in the gloomy recess of a cave around a flickering fire told by primitive hunter? Well, we may never know." 

"Today, stories are an intrinsic part of our societies and culture. Movies, books, music, news media, religions, architecture, and painting, you name it and the influence of storytelling is to be seen in all aspects of our life" 


A short essay about the theories and analyzing facts to what made humans discover storytelling and how it has shaped our destiny forever.

Storytelling is the chain that binds all humans together. We all tell stories. Stories of wonder, stories of joy, stories of laughter, stories of horror, and stories of sadness. It what makes us human. Since the first story ever was told humans have invented the ways we tell them. From word of mouth, to the written language, and the visual image humans have integrated this form of art in our every day lives.

In the turn of the century, several notable figures innovated a new way to share stories. Like dreams projected in reality, films showed a new path and created the foundation on how media is being distributed. The distribution of stories has created new pathways in the form of news media, movies, tv shows, music videos, and commercials. We all have a story to share.