What is more difficult: following one or many characters?

Started by SHAFTR, January 15, 2004, 03:28:07 AM

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SHAFTR

Do you think it is more difficult to write a Magnolia like film that follows numerous amount of characters and their interactions

or....

a Punch-Drunk Love like film that follows one character.

For a long time I thought the ensemble would be tougher, but I think concentrating on one character is tougher.  I can think of half stories for many characters....thinking through an entire story for one character seems to be tougher.

Thoughts?
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cron

Quote from: SHAFTRDo you think it is more difficult to write a Magnolia like film that follows numerous amount of characters and their interactions

or....

a Punch-Drunk Love like film that follows one character.

For a long time I thought the ensemble would be tougher, but I think concentrating on one character is tougher.  I can think of half stories for many characters....thinking through an entire story for one character seems to be tougher.

Thoughts?


Depends on the scope you want to get.     For all the Magnolias we have,  there's Rat Race's (new version)    and for all the Punch Drunk Love's  , we have  Mr. Deed's (errr... new version)

It all depends on how skilled a writer/director is.
context, context, context.

Gold Trumpet

I'm going with many characters, definitely. My main reason is that with many characters you gotta worry about placement of all the characters and realize how much you can have a character really stand for only when they only appear in a few scenes. An example would be with Boogie Nights and many of the smaller characters who really have scenes that are of great dramatic importance. William H. Macy with the murder of his wife and then his own suicide. The scene is given a dramatic punch, but the movie quickly moves on and forgets the impact. I just felt the movie was tossing to the side something that should have been more impactful.

TheVoiceOfNick

I think writing many characters is more difficult... you have to make sure you fully develop the character in less time than you would normally have to develop a character.  Also, you have to make sure that each character has his/her own voice... you can't write 12 characters that all have the same intentions and psychological likenesses.  They need to all be different, and that's difficult for a novice writer to do.

©brad

i think it depends. a lot of writers will tell you (including PTA) that writing ensemble pieces w/ many characters is actually easier, because when you are unsure about a certain scene of if something isn't working you can simply cut to someone else. however, with one protagonist, you're always on him, and you have no choice but to flesh it out and make it work.

i would say that an ensemble piece would be more difficult to do successfully. how do you tell a story w/ many different ppl and make it balanced and well-structured? it's tough.

Raikus

I think it's harder to write an ensemble piece.

I think it's harder to direct a single story.

If you're writing, the story has to account for all the characters and, like GT mentioned, you have to make them each stand out when doing so. Having a non-linear story that interweaves is very difficult but the payoffs are massive.

If you're directing, you have to make the one story shine its utmost. It also usually means you're solely dependent on the linear story and a handful of actors to bring the whole thing (story, acting, feeling, style) to the forefront. Again, making a single storyline work pays massive dividends.
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