Character work

Today our lessons were entirely structured around developing characters, and gaining practice on how to brainstorm character ideas. Our teacher knew that our creation of short film would give us the opportunity to delve deeper into the thoughts, actions and reactions of characters (in comparison to our As level opening sequences). And so it almost seemed like a necessity to keep character progression at the forefront of our development.

Our first task involved receiving a picture of a random individual and molding a character profile to fit with the image. You could make this person anyone you want him to be! Mine was an image of a young male of African ethnicity. This is my character profile:

• born in Sudan
•  name is Ugumbe
• single eligable bachelor
• works as a love doctor when he's not working amateur gigs at the local comedy club.
• owns a shelby mustang
• has a secret hatred for murrang
• aims to visit his family again within the next month, and his experiences back there will be life changing

task 2 - to create a possession that means a great deal to the character:

• A carved wooden horse

task 3- to narrate your character in a situation whereby he temporarily loses this possession:

'Ugumbe has just gotten back home from the comedy club. He briskly shakes off his coat and scarve as it's warm inside. He looks over over to a chest of draws in his bedroom and cracks a slight grin. He approaches the chest and opens it. His eyes widen. Frantically he sweeps the entire content of the draw out onto the floor , soon before yanking all the draws from the chest. Both hands clasp his head as he's in shock. seconds later, he hears a pathetic whine from behind him. He turns around to see a small carved, wooden horse jammed between the slobbery jaws of his dog, Boris.'

Task 4- to create a situation whereby your character has a secret he wants to share, but there's something stopping him:

 'Ugumbe meets with his brother at the local park. As they sit on a rusty bench Ugumbe begins to talk softly as he says to his brother that he needs to tell him something. His brother begins to break down. Ugumbe asks what's wrong. His brother seems nostalgic and begins to reminise over the time they had as kids before the civil war. How they would play with their carved wooden toys in the grassland. They both fall silent for several seconds. Ugumbe goes to open his mouth, but no words follow. His brother begins to talk of their parents death in the house fire and curses, for his hatred towards the rebels who supposedly set the house alight. Ugumbe's heart sits in his throat. He just can't find the words to explain that it was in fact him who caused the fire.'