Sunday

I think a good question for a scriptwriter to ask themselves when they write a scene for a film is 'who are we?'. I'm not trying to identify the place of our species in the universe, or answer a question related to the existence of consciousness. Instead, I'm interested in who the audience is meant to sympathise with in any one instant. This question needs to be asked and answered every time you're writing. It helps focus the scene, and clarify the roles of your characters. In many cases, filmmakers have lost and confused audiences because they failed to ask this question. It's not always answerable. Sometimes we sympathise with several characters, and sometimes with none. But it's important to ask it because it relates to knowledge and narrative, and the basic structure of the film itself. We can't readily sympathise with a character who knows more than us but isn't saying so - or who we know more than. They become alienated from us. We can't relate to them. Of course we've come along way from having characters who were universally likable, but there has to be some sympathy even for the most evil, or at least some sympathy with the logic of their decisions. What do you think?