PLANNING: Interviewing Our Character

For my character in my film opening entitled Gone, we decided to give our protagonist a questionnaire in order to develop his character further. We looked at an article written by Charlie Sierra about such questionnaires, and he quoted a book written by Pen Densham (an Academy Award nominated filmmaker) entitled "Riding the Alligator". In one of the chapters in the book, he provides a check list of questions every writer and director should ask of themselves when they are developing their characters. The purpose of this is to outline a deep understanding of your characters for both the actors and director, and for motivating your character’s choices or actions.

As my film opening features only one character in a world without anyone else, we decided that rather than a questionnaire interview, we would use a video diary of our character asking himself and answering the questions as if he is communicating through the camera to anyone who might find it, which is a creative way to handle the questionnaire whilst still keeping with the solitary theme of the opening.

Script:
DAY 10: 10 days since everyone disappeared. I've been running out of the food at the house and i'm going to have to find more. Everyone must come back. I don't know why they're gone.

DAY 37: 37 days since everyone disappeared. I've been looting the food from the supermarkets. Still no sign of anyone. I'm starting to lose hope that anyone is out here and that it's only me.

DAY 70: 70 days. All I can think about is my family. Where did they go. I'm so sick of living this life. No one is going to come for me. I'm going to die here all alone.

DAY 99: I've managed to recover slightly from my mental relapse. I might finally start to get used to nobody being here. Local food supplies are starting to dwindle though, and more and more animals are appearing around the area. Never hit me how tranquil it all looks.

DAY 112: My fires have certainly improved since this all started. I hunted for the first time, yet it felt strangely empowering to have killed the animal. Poor thing. It's been tough adapting to this world on my own, but I think that I can finally make a life for myself here.