Character Development
April 10th, 2006 : by Will MooreI have started working with the actors on character development. I will have a daily assignment for the actors that will be emailed off each morning and it’s my hope that by the end of the day the actors will have their assignment completed. These assignments are nothing more than my attempt to open up the world of the character to the actor. For example, today I asked each actor to define his or her characters super objective/spine of the story. A SUPER OBJECTIVE is what the character wants during the whole story; what he/she wants out of life. It is the one specific thing that a character needs more than any other, will sacrifice the most to have.
In addition to this I have broken the script down in terms of locations needed and figure that we are going to require a total of seventy locations. Now this sound like a lot, but 85% of the locations will be within a 5-mile radius (I hope). I have already spent two weekends scouting out potential locations and taken hundreds of pictures. Now I will look back through those pictures and attempt to match them up with what I need. I have two more location scouting trips planned and hopefully that should get the job done. Most likely, by the middle of this week I will begin posting notices on a variety of websites for cast and crew calls. Stay tuned.
May 6th, 2006 at 10:25 am
On my recent visit home Fagan was discussing the new movie and I have to tell you, it was a little funny to imagine my home town of Tivoli being featured in anything like this. After checking out the website and blogs I am now very excited to see how it all turns out. One thought that I had and wished to share was on the “character development” aspect. I have come to realize over the years that Fagan’s grandfather and mine are true-to-life COWBOYS. Not the dimestore, Clint Eastwood, bad accent types, but REAL cowboys. If you want to get a very pointed perspective on what a real cowboy looks and sounds like I would recommend a visit to the Museum at the U of H Victoria. They have an exhibit called Echoes that includes video and photos of the local cowboys discussing their real lives in South Texas. I think it gives a realistic view of not only the lives of the individuals, but also their relationships with other cowboys. The underlying theme of the exhibit is the acknowledgement that South Texas “cowboys” come in many races. The relationships between the races is made more clear and may offer some flavor to your characters.
Enjoy trip four to Tivoli. Wish I was there to see you prowling around town. Hopefully we will get a chance to meet on my next visit.
Good luck with the film and keep the location photos coming. It helps to keep me close to home.