How to Write a Screenplay

ANTAGONIST—The antagonist wants to stop the protagonist from getting what he wants.  To be a good antagonist, the character must be most effective at exploiting the protagonist’s flaw.  If the protagonist is greedy, the antagonist will tempt him with money. If she is selfish and vain, the antagonist will offer her glory.  The antagonist is not just “a bad guy.”  He is the “bad guy,” designed to push the protagonist to his worse.  A great antagonist will be unrelenting in his manipulation of the protagonist with his weakness.  A protagonist can only be as great as the forces of antagonism that he or she faces.  The protagonist should not possess the means to defeat the antagonist at the beginning of the story.  Only through the conflict, insight from other characters and an eventual self-revelation and growth can the protagonist manage to defeat the antagonist.

FOIL CHARACTERS—A foil is a character who stands in distinct contrast to the protagonist to help clarify him or her in some way.  The foil will often face a similar dilemma to the protagonist, but will make a different choice.  So, if your film is a tragedy about a character whose greed destroys him, a foil character may choose love over greed to reveal the protagonist’s consequences or loss.  In movies where the protagonist does achieve his goal, his success is thrown into sharp relief by the failure of a foil.  An antagonist is the ultimate foil, but there will often be characters who contrast with the protagonist in a less extreme way.

CONFIDANT—A confidant is a character in which the protagonist confides.  In romantic comedies, it’s usually the best friend.  These characters allow the audience to know what’s on the mind of the protagonist and allow for an organic way to reveal exposition.  Tonto is a confidant to the Lone Ranger.  His presence is essential to understanding the masked hero.  In Cast Away, the character is alone on the island, but the writers thought that a confidant was essential, so they made an inanimate object the confidant.  Hence, Wilson, the soccer ball.  Because the protagonist shares how he thinks and feels with the confidant, the confidant is in a prime position to eventually illuminate the protagonist’s flaw, to point out his failings. 

DOUBLES, DOPPELGANGERS AND SHADOWS—Often, two characters will represent the exact opposite of each other.  Taken to the extreme, this is the classic “evil twin.”  In stories like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, splitting a whole person into their two distinctive elements can be a powerful thematic tool.  In Star Trek, Bones and Spock are doubles—one is all emotion, the other is completely devoid of emotion.  Another creative way to employ the doppelganger is to have a character travel through time metaphorically.  If a 20 year old alcoholic meets a 60-year-old homeless wino, figuratively, it enables the character to meet a possible future version of himself.  Luis Bunuel’s entire film, That Obscure Object of Desire, is based on the concept of a double to the point that he actually cast two different actresses play the same character.

MENTORS—A mentor is a character who acts as a teacher or guide.  There are cliché mentors: the old wizard, the wise owl, the friendly teacher.  But mentors can come in many different sizes and shapes.  A mentor could be the boss that chews out the main character, yet some little piece of what he says resonates, and helps the character solve a problem.   Often mentors will give a physical gift to a character to help them.  However, as Joseph Campbell pointed out in reference to Star Wars, not just the physical tool is important.  There must also be a psychological aspect given —an idea, a commitment, an understanding—which helps the character.

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