Word Excercise (list words around a topic) Works as a starting point, gets you thinking and writing. Use key words and can expand upon this. Good for essays and writers block

 

Snow

arctic fox

berries

winter

magic

nymphs

ice

wind

holes

tunnels

cave

white

stalactites

see-through

hard

stone

diving

deep

raw meat

blubber

frozen

floating

deep black sea

crashing

cracking

tundra

caverns

iceicles

desolate

ice wind

frost bite

clouds

ominous

looming

fear 

cold

death

scraps 

bone

inuit

ancient

un-changed

hardship

 

 

- Then played consequences; can focus on their appearances or values

 

Green eyes with snake iris, orange and green hair, massive ass jowls, turquoise and black dessert scarf, red with gold tattoo skin, and is 9 years old. Name: Zlaxiet

 

 

Then looked at a poem; The Face in The Mirror by Robert Graves. Graves wrote this poem in response to his reflection in the mirror when he was and old man.

- Can be interpreted in different ways

- Gives a lot of information and backstory - character features, hints at what person might be like

- Description of features and imagery

 

Then wrote poem in response to character from the consequences game. 

 

Regal, the premature prince

Born unto the throne as his parents departed.

His snake-like eyes pierce hearts with false malice, portrayed only out of fear.

His jowls quiver. They impart the image of age and wisdom,

Though he is but a child. 

His tattoos bear the symbol of royalty, gold etched into red

forced onto him at birth,

As is the price of a prince

 

 

 

- Ernest Hemingway had the iceberg analogy: the poem is only 10% - 90% is in the writers head. 

- How people react to things, tells you a lot about the character and the personality

 

 

 

- Post-it excercise is about action and reaction. 

Write a place and disasterous scenario, then swap post-its. Write how character react to scenario. You learn about character reactions. Sometimes on set you have to comrpomise a character around what the crew want. Putting them in different scenarios can give you new and diiferent ideas about a character. 

 

Mind map character, with their ideals, beliefs and how they can be represented with appearances, e.g. political actavist can have scar from a protest. Or tattoos to show gang or family loyalties. 

 

 

 

Following this class, I watched a Stan Winston DVD on character writing which helped me further develop my understading of character writing specifically in relation to prosthetic creatures:

 

 

 

 

 

- Draw and research characters, mood board pinterest etc, and then create them.

jcole@aub.ac.uk (for essays and character writing)

 

I didn't have the materials to re-create my character in class, so I re-created parts of it on myself at home.