PLANNING: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

'Hot seating' is an effective exercise in which an actor is asked specific questions as their character's background, behaviour and motivation. We were inspired by an article written by Charlie Sierra about building the back story to film characters in which he quoted from Riding the Alligator, a book written by Pen Densham, an Academy Award nominated filmmaker. One of the chapters in the book gives an outline of the questions that an actor should ask themselves about the character that they are playing, in order to have a greater understanding of the character for both the actor and the director.

To prepare for this exercise we wrote a script comprising of questions to ask the protagonist (Joe) and his responses. This made the video more fluid and professional. For our interview we asked questions such as: 
- What are your views on the homeless crisis?
- Do you believe in spirits?