Original subtitles

- One of the most useful things

you can do for your talent in advance

is to break down their characters in detail,

and share that information with them.

This will allow them to incorporate your direction

while researching and preparing their roles.

To break down your characters,

you're going to need to write a detailed background

for each one.

If you look on the right,

this is an example of a role-playing game character sheet,

where you break down each personality trait a character has

and assign it a number.

You want to do something similar to this

when you break down your characters,

but maybe not with the sheet itself.

You want to include information on your character's past,

their upbringing, individual quirks of their personality,

any details that you can think of

that will enhance their character on the screen.

One important question to answer is,

what do other characters in the story

think of your character?

That's definitely going to influence

how they fit into the overall story.

Once you've determined what the other characters

think of the character you're doing a background for,

what does the character say about himself in the script?

When the character talks about himself,

is it coming from a place of depression?

Is he an egomaniac?

All of this will influence what the character

is going to deliver.

Acting coach Uta Hagen has nine questions

every character should ask themselves

as they go through a scene.

Who am I?

What is my character info and my basic traits?

What time is it?

And that can mean time of year, the time of day,

and even the time period they're in.

Is it medieval times?

Is it in the future?

Where am I?

What country am I in, what building am I in,

and what room am I in?

What chair am I in?

What surrounds me?

You want to know all the inanimate

and animate objects in your environment,

and how they're going to influence you.

What are the given circumstances?

What has happened before this moment,

what is happening now,

and what's going to happen after this moment?

What is my relationship or relationships?

My relation to other people,

events that are occurring around me,

and even the things on the table in front of me.

What do I want?

This is an important one.

What is the character's need and objective?

We'll talk more about finding those a little later.

And what is in my way?

What are the obstacles I have to get through

in order to obtain that objective?

And finally, what do I do to get what I want?

What do I have to do physically and with conversation

in order to achieve my objective?

There will always be more questions

about characters and scenes

that will come up during the production process,

but taking this crucial step

and time to break things down

will make the rest of your job a lot easier.