Characterization

in this video, we're going to talk about characterization, and

I'm going to break it up into a couple of

different categories.

First of all, we're gonna talk about static and dynamic

characters, and then we're going to talk about direct and

indirect characterization.

And all of this is to help you when you

are creating.

These characters were going to be talking about different ways

that authors are, um, utilizing their stories.

And what happens in their stories in order to, uh,

get across the character is a particular a particular way,

basically, and we can use those things when we're writing

in order to the effective writers and in order to

get across the message we want to get across.

So I want to start by talking about static characters.

Static characters stay the same throughout a story.

They do not generally grow as people, um, they basically

do the same things at the end of the story

is they did at the beginning, So I always remember

static characters because just like static causes like socks to

cling to other pieces of clothing in the dryer, a

static characters traits cling to that.

So think about it as being like a sock that's

clinging to a shirt and you go to put on

the shirt and there's this sock that stuck to it,

the traits air clinging to the character just like that

sock is clinging to that shirt, Um, and so the

streets are not gonna go anywhere throughout the story.

A dynamic character, on the other hand, changes as the

events in the story unfold.

So the end of the story that I dynamic character

accident different way than they would at then they would

have at the beginning of the story.

So they do.

Things are our savings, were treat people in ways they

would not have at the beginning of the story.

One of the dynamic characters I always think of, probably

the one that has had the most changed throughout the

story is if you have ever read or watched a

version of a Christmas Carol, Um, you know that Ebeneezer

Scrooge goes from being a very greedy, very, um, angry

person at the very beginning of the story, to being

very generous and very kind that at the end of

the story, So he's a dynamic character.

He's had a lot of changes.

Usually these changes are brought about by an event or

a person who harms or helps them in some way.

So again, with the example of a Christmas Carol, we've

got evidence.

Or Scrooge who has thes thes ghosts that show up

in the I would probably say that they mostly harm

him, but they changed him based on what, uh, what

they show him.

So, uh, that's a dynamic character is one that changes.

Direct characterization is really simple.

And that's why I that's why it's It's not a

very big slide here.

But what an author uses direct characterization, and they're just

telling you what a character is like or what emotion

they're feeling.

So an example of direct characterization would be if an

author says he was the meanest old man in town.

Or she felt great sorrow at the loss of her

friend there, directly characterizing those those characters because they're just

telling you pretty much everything about them.

So I always think about, um, I was think about

Mantis from guardians of the galaxy.

If you've ever watched guardians of the galaxy, um, she

just basically tells people how they feel, and I also

think about Drax, because Durex is somebody who takes everything

literally and just tells you everything literally.

And that's kind of like what direct characterization is just

telling you exactly how it is.

More often than not, authors use indirect characterization.

And when an author uses indirect characterization, they're basically showing

the audience what a character is like or how they're

feeling through their dialogue, their appearance, their treatment of other

people, their morals or their inner thoughts or their actions.

So I've had a few examples of each of these

things, and I'd like to go over them with you.

But just know that this is far more common, and

usually this is a lot more effective than using direct

characterization. You want to use a combination of both, but

generally this is a little bit more effective, a method

of creating characters.

So let's talk about first dialogue.

So when an author uses dialogue to characterize someone, it's

pretty easy to see how that works in practise.

Just by looking at some examples, Um, what a character

says can tell us a lot about them.

So I'd like you to think about what you could

tell about Bruce Banner is the guy in purple in

this clip, if you don't know, and Tony Stark, the

guy in the Blazer based on the clip that we're

just about to watch.

So let's go ahead and watch that clip.

We'll talk a little bit about it, all right?

So hopefully we've been able to wash the clip in

glass simply.

My counterpart in class has shown you that clip on

Dhe. You've been able to watch it, and if you

haven't, hopefully there's a YouTube link that you can go

to watch the clip.

Um, but basically, what happens in this section is that

you've got characters that are talking in a particular way,

even the tone of their voice or the speed at

which there talking should tell you something about who they

are. We've got Bruce Banner, who is kinda hesitant in

the talks, and he's also very like he's very to

the point, and he gets down to business and everything

and seems to have a little bit more gravity and

what he's saying.

And so because of that, we know something about him.

We know that he's a little bit more of a

serious person we know that he it is a little

bit were hesitant person.

He is a little more nervous.

Possibly. Where's Tony?

Stark is very quick with his speech, and he is

very irreverent.

He doesn't really doesn't really take a whole lot seriously,

and we can tell that just by the way, that

he's talking to Bruce Banner and by the way, that

he's treating the situation.

So so we can tell that by by the dialogue.

Now, I'd like to talk to you a little bit

about indirect characterization using appearance.

So when you already know who the good guys and

bad guys are, the love interest are the best.

Friends are based on how they look, because the author

is using appearance for indirect characterization.

So there's There's a lot of different ways that this

works, and I'd like to show you three examples just

as we could see kind of how well it works.

So in this example here, I think it's pretty clear

who the good guys and who the bad guy is,

and there's a couple of different ways we know I'd

like you to think about that just for a moment.

How do you know this is a good guy.

He's the bad guy.

I'm not gonna explain it, but you can kind of

see how that's being portrayed here through appearance I with

indirect characterization.

The next thing I would like you to try to

think about is who is the sidekick on the slide

and who is the love interest and how do you

know? Again, appearance is used a lot of times culturally,

in order to send a message or tell you who

the character is, we kind of know instinctually.

Then who the sidekick is and who love interest is

because of the because of the culture that were in

so just kind of think about the different traits of

these different characters and how you know who is him

and then what I would like you to think about.

Who's the villain who's It was a villain who is

the person that helps the villain.

And how do you know that this one is a

little less obvious?

As far is what traits make someone look like a

villain versus someone who looks like henchmen?

So I'd like you to think about that as well.

That's also very cultural we have, ah, expectation of what

a henchman is gonna look like and what it Dylan's

gonna look like.

Ah, and the artists here are playing with those expectations.

So they're they're using those expectations to their advantage so

that we know who is who in this situation.

So, like anything about how you know that I'm not

gonna I'm not gonna explain it, but I'd like you

to think about how you know that because that's the

use of, uh, appearance for indirect characterization.

So the next one I'd like to talk about is

indirect characterization.

Using the treatment of other people were other characters.

So I'm gonna show you another clip, and it's also

from a Marvel movie.

And I'd like you to think about what you could

tell about Fan knows who's the big purple guy.

You don't know from the clip that we're gonna be

watching so often my counterparts ableto toe load that up

and were able to watch it.

But if not, just go ahead and go to the

next YouTube link that is sent out to you.

That's labeled, uh, characterization treatment of others I believe on.

And that's the one that you wanna You wanna look

at here So hopefully again My counterpart in class has

shown you this This clip on dhe.

Hopefully you've been able to see a few things about

the treatment of of other people from Fan knows So

First of all, Santos is somebody that is a villain,

and it's pretty clear that he's a villain in this.

He's making some pretty awful choices about how to treat

people. But then he's also making this interesting choice about

how to treat the little girl about how to treat

Kimora. Um, and that should tell you something about him

as well, because he's more than one thing.

He's a complex character, and so you get kind of

both sides of him in this clip, and that's interesting.

And we get that through his treatment of other people.

That's how he's being characterized in direct.

So the next part I'd like to talk to you

about his endured characterization through morals or inner thoughts.

There is a, um, clip that I'm gonna show you.

It's a longer clip that is galactus in the Silver

Surfers Origin stories.

So, through the origin stories of both of these characters,

you should be able to see some morals showing up

on, and it should tell you something about who they

are. So let's go ahead and watch that clip, okay?

And hopefully you were able to watch the clip in

class. If not, it should be the third YouTube link

to take a look at if you're at home and

it should be labeled characterization through morals or in your

thoughts. So if there was an argument that I witnessed

online at one point and one of the like, really

nerdy message boards that I used to go on when

I was when I was a kid and um, this

argument was whether or not Galactus is a villain, it

kind of makes sense, um, to not think of him

as a villain, because is it really his fault that

he has to eat?

Um, really, it's, you know, everybody has to eat.

So what is he supposed to not eat?

And then maybe you not be able to live anymore,

so that kind of makes him a little bit more

of, ah, ambiguous character as far as whether or not

he's a villain.

So that's a characterization through through morals like I said,

you kind of have to think about that and think

about what that makes him on.

And that's that indirect characterization, basically, and it's it's kind

of the same with Silver Surfer.

You've kind of got to think, Does he have much

of a choice?

You know, um and does that make him a villain?

Or does that not make him a villain?

I don't think we could call him, Uh, I don't

think we could call him a hero, But is he

really a bill?

And either we really don't know.

That's because the characters have been, um, characterize indirectly in

a way that makes that question pop up in the

reader's head.

That makes him a little bit more of an interesting

character, so I kind of like those questions.

So the next part is indirect characterization.

Using actions.

I'd like you to think about what you can tell

about Steve Rogers.

He's the guy that tries to shield everyone grenade in

the clip above, so we'll watch the clip and then

we'll talk.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious what's going on here.

We're setting up Steve Rogers as a as a good

guy. I'm and as somebody who is braver than the

people around him.

Despite his appearances, his appearances say he's not a hero,

but his actions say he is.

So that's why he's Captain America, because he's this kind

of unassuming character.

But he's he's got these these actions that caused him

to be much more than what he is physically.

So, um so again, that's indirect.

Characterization through actions shows you who the character is just

by what they So that's about it for characterization.

I'd like you to think about with these different elements

of characterization how you can use these to your advantage

as you're writing their own stories.

I'd like you to think about the clips that we

watch today and how the authors are using those clips.

Um and oh, are how the authors air using those

those traits in order to characterize their their characters and

how they're communicating with their audience here.

Them. So, uh, and we're also going to be reading

some stories that have some indirect characterization in them, and

we'll talk a little bit more about those when we

get to

Characterization

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