Ultracondensed characterization
Dec. 4th, 2013 04:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magibrainRandom question, but I need it for reasons research.
If you had to sell me on two characters – gen or ship – and you only had 500 words or a 30-second video clip to convince me that they were the best no seriously really... what clips or works or excerpts of works would you point me toward?
I am going to think on this and see what I can come up with... after I sleep for a while.
(Context is that I'm playing with a story-in-the-background-of-a-story in one of the things I'm working on, and I want to pick apart some mechanics of what makes for minimum effective doses of getting people engaged with characters.)
If you had to sell me on two characters – gen or ship – and you only had 500 words or a 30-second video clip to convince me that they were the best no seriously really... what clips or works or excerpts of works would you point me toward?
I am going to think on this and see what I can come up with... after I sleep for a while.
(Context is that I'm playing with a story-in-the-background-of-a-story in one of the things I'm working on, and I want to pick apart some mechanics of what makes for minimum effective doses of getting people engaged with characters.)
no subject
Date: 2013-12-04 06:00 pm (UTC)In Casablanca, in the "Marseillaise" scene at Rick's, the reaction shot, where he nods, which is maybe two seconds, sells the character.
Or in Star Wars:ANH, where Han says: "Sorry about the mess."
Stargate (two unrelated moments, obvs):
Jack: "We'll find her."
Daniel: "We get paid for this, right?"
Terminator 2: "I came back in time for you, Sarah."
My favorite of all, of course is Leslie Howard's "Captain of Murderers" speech at the end of Pimpernel Smith. It's the romantic in me.