Introduction To The 14 Types Of Movie Characters - Eric Edson [Screenwriting Masterclass]

In the first two weeks of the Fall semester, California State University, Northridge screenwriting professor Eric Edson presents PowerPoint lessons to the entering first year grad MFA class. In the second class he covers 6 of the 14 character types. Here is an inside look at a portion of the lecture.

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In the first two weeks of the Fall semester, California State University, Northridge screenwriting professor Eric Edson presents PowerPoint lessons to the entering first year grad MFA class. He begins with the Hero Goal Sequences story structure paradigm. His second lecture is about the 14 character types found in movies. Here is the opening 17 minutes of that lecture.

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#writing #screenwriting #screenplay

[Sophia-wvyf]

Eric Edson is the best teacher for screenwriters! 🥰

[FlyingOverTrut]

Just finished my second reading of The Story Solution, great read. I'm sure I'll read it several more times throughout my life.

[incompletesentience]

To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech. Then ask two questions: 1) How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and 2) How important is that objective? Question 1 rates the poem’s perfection; question 2 rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining the poem’s greatness becomes a relatively simple matter.

If the poem’s score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness.

A sonnet by Byron might score high on the vertical but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great. As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows, so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry.

[givelove]

I received some great advice from this video. Thank you Film Courage!

[thebicycleman]

Professor at 8:43 " You cannot do that in visual story telling, that is a quality only available in novel.
Tarantino: Hold my lens

[howardkoor]

In some of my favorite movies, the protagonist is the antagonist as well. Examples: Ground Hog Day, Rain Man, Good Will Hunting

[Damacles]

Thank you for all your hard work and generosity in posting your videos! Will there be a part 2? As always, I buy your guests' books.

[adorablegodzilla]

No side trips. (Witcher writers) "Hold my beer!"

[GridironMasters]

If folks want to hear that they don't have to follow any rules or principles then they should stop listening to writing teachers and just write what they want.

Structure, convention, expectation, repetition and pattern are all around us in the arts and in other areas. How close you follow these or how far is up to you but know that there will be consequences and limitations because of your decisions.

Learn the conventions and the patterns and learn to be intuitive and organic. It will serve you all well.

[jackspde]

I wonder what he thinks about TV series, because you can definitely take side journeys and develop several characters

[CornerTalker]

Atmosphere Characters: "You wanna buy some death-sticks?"

[thereccher]

Hhhm, what about search and rescue plots? The characters that they have to rescue pretty much kick start the plot when they get in trouble. Do they help or hurt the hero?

[enerzise]

It is quite obvious some people miss the great value in these videos.

[Digildon]

I didn't understand a bit why the character can't change categories.
There is an adversary agent, the hero persuaded him and now this adversary agent has become his side kick.
The interest is precisely in the characters changing over the course of the story, isnt it?

[nickhinrichs]

Does someone by chance at all have the “definitions” for the other character types he didn’t talk about? I would appreciate it greatly if someone had that info

[robotempire]

How can movies be objective? Of course we bring our own experiences and thoughts into a movie! We bring our own experiences & feelings into a movie, and these help shape what the movie “means” to them. For example, I’m a single dad to a teenaged daughter. I can tell you two movies that hit differently for me because of my particular emotional experience of them: “interstellar” and “inside out”. Both of these films spoke to parts of my life and my kid’s life I’ve never seen on film before. And I’m sure there ar loads of people with similar stories. Of course movies are as subjective, in the same sense of the word, as novels. Come now.

[poffilms]

Why is it that a hero must be there??? In real life every character is grey. Who came up with concept of a hero?

[charlespeterson]

The Spanish Civil War. The rebels were the loyalists. Franco came from Morocco, as I remember, a Republican, fighting to reestablish The Republic. In any case, I am sure you write better screen plays than I.

[futurestoryteller]

The main character of "Psycho" changes twice, once literally to a different character, and once functionally within the story, and this is in part because of their subjective viewpoints, being conveyed selectively to the audience. So that one movie kind of flies in the face of most of the things he teaches here. The problem with the movie he's describing seems to revolve more around the possibility that characters' roles change for no reason. If the mom just stops trying then the audience is left to wonder why she would give up now. Often the most logical reason for a character to change roles is somebody dies.

[yhwh]

after reading the comments idk if i should watch this