Character Turns (8 minute read)
Welcome to Issue #24!
I'm starting a new round of pitches this week. I'll fill you in on the new stuff I learned on the other side but for now I'm still in prep mode so this is going to be a little shorter than usual.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Character Turns
The other day I was watching a lecture by Rod Serling where he talked about how the writer’s job is to put characters in situations and have them react as their nature dictates. He gives the example of a Quaker pacifist who is constantly getting bullied until one day they decide they’re not going to turn the other cheek. Then he gives the inverse example of the neighborhood bully who finally, one day, sees the humanity in one of his victims and unclenches his fists.
In either case you have to make the audience believe that moment when you get to it. You have to start them in one place and lead the audience on the journey so that the moment the character turns their back on something fundamental to their nature the audience understands why. But more than understand, they have to feel it.
It sounds simple but how many TV shows or movies have you seen where a character makes a turn that we just don’t buy? The writers may think they’ve put all the pieces in place but the end result doesn’t move us in the way they hoped or just flat out doesn’t make sense.
The first moment that comes to mind of someone doing it right is the “O captain, my captain” scene in DEAD POETS SOCIETY. (Shout out to Gale Hansen!) When those kids stand up on their desks you know exactly why they’re doing it, what the personal stakes are for them, and what they’re turning their backs on. You don’t just “get it” on an intellectual level, you feel it. Everything’s working in harmony in that moment, the performances, the direction, music, editing, but the real magic comes from the cumulative effect of every scene with Mr. Keating and the boys that came before it. The math adds up.
Contrast that with the end of Daenerys’s arc in GAME OF THRONES. It was dramatic, it was visually spectacular, but for a sizable portion of the audience the math just didn’t add up, at least not in the moment. If you looked back afterward and talked about it with your friends you might start to see how the pieces were laid out that could get her there. I’m sure the showrunners felt like all those pieces were in place and that there was a healthy dose of foreshadowing to go along with it. But for a lot of people it just didn’t land emotionally when it absolutely counted.
I had a similar experience with a show that I dearly love where after it was over I felt unsatisfied with some major character turns. Looking back I could see that the pieces were all laid out for me. It makes sense logically. If I was the showrunner I’m sure I could point to any number of moments and go, “See? It’s all right there.” But it still didn’t hit me on an emotional level and I’m not at a point where I can articulate why that is.
It may be that the turn didn't seem to connected to their fundamental nature as I understood it from the beginning. Instead it just seemed like the endpoint of a linear series of episodic beats. Some of it may just be my own expectations or affection for the characters. Some of it just may be my own nature or where I was that day emotionally, none of which the writer has any control over.
Trying to make sense of my reaction actually led me to a whole new appreciation for how difficult the notes process is. I joke about how pitches can be a bit of a Rorschach test where everybody sees the show they want and it’s not until you’re really in the trenches of development that you realize you were seeing a butterfly and they were seeing a pirate ship.
I was listening to The Huberman Lab podcast and he talked about how if you ask two people to picture a shade of blue they’re very likely going to be picturing two different colors. If two people can’t agree on what blue is how are six people on a notes call going to come to an agreement on what a satisfying emotional arc is? At every stage, every document, every cut, some things are going to work for some people and not work for others. It actually gave me a little more peace about the notes process.
Turns out that the seemingly simple task of establishing a character’s nature then taking them on a journey where they finally decide to go against that very nature and having that land on everybody at just the right time is actually really hard and very successful people, some of my favorite artists, get it wrong sometimes.
I’ve been on both sides. I’ve definitely been the person saying to the writer, “I just don’t buy it,” and I know the writer is thinking, “But it’s all right there.” I know they feel it, at least they do if they’re worth their Guild card, otherwise why turn it in?
I’ve also been on the receiving end of those notes and I've pointed out scenes and moments that I thought very clearly led to a character turn. Regardless of what I thought it wasn't working for the readers, and in the cases where those episodes got to the air they didn't work for audiences either.
Recently I've started using the phrase, “Building the case.” Like a lawyer, we’re making an argument to the audience. We’re trying to be smart and meticulous so that when that turn comes everything adds up in the moment. But as hard as we try, as much as we believe in it and feel it ourselves, it still doesn’t guarantee that our partners are going to feel it, or that the audience is going to feel it.
So what do you do? How do you maximize your chances for success?
I was listening to Ron Howard on The Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman and he talked about screening early cuts for his friends, family members, creative partners and ultimately the studio. He called it “the gauntlet of judgment” and he really pushes for people to be honest with him about how they feel because at that point he can still do something about it. His philosophy is, “Hear everybody, then listen to yourself.”
I thought that was an excellent way to look at it.
You have to do that, but you also have to accept that you might be wrong.
Not wrong, sorry.
You can do that and still not have it land the way you thought it would in the end.
I’m sure Ron Howard has more than one movie where the audience said, “We don’t get why the character did this,” and he’s like, “But it’s right there, plain as the nose on your face!”
Rod Serling On Writing — www.youtube.com An afternoon of questions and answers from the wonderful Rod Serling,
Ron Howard — Armchair Expert — armchairexpertpod.com Ron Howard (Parenthood, The Da Vinci Code, Happy Days) is a director, actor, and producer. Ron joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his personal and professional relationship with his brother, how instrumental his parents were in him becoming a child star, and his experience directing some of the be