Basic concept
The concept of character development begins with the assumption that when the movie starts the audience knows little to nothing about the characters on screen. This may not always be the case, however. Over the course of the movie the audience learns about the characters by their actions and what other characters say about them.
What is usually revealed
-backstory
-family members
-friends
-secrets
-love interests
-hobbies
-where they live
-job
-any information that helps place the character within their reality that the film has created
Slow reveals
With a slow reveal of characters and their development the audience usually finds out more about these people without the directors direct intent of trying to make the audience understand. In other words, the camera acts as a character itself and places the audience in the action in order to interpret what they will about the characters.
Fast reveals
On the opposite side of the spectrum you have narration that talks about the characters when they are first introduced into the film. These reveals tell the audience directly the information the director wants them to know about this character in a more straightforward way.
Instances where a lack of character development is OK
In a lot of cases when a character isn’t properly developed the audience can be frustrated in wanting to learn more about what their actions mean or why they act the way they do. Here are some examples when a film can get away with avoiding character development:
A franchise: where a character’s basic personality is known. Usually the follow up movie goes deeper into the character to keep things interesting.
A minor character: that does not bare being made more round as a character.
A well known stereotype or archetype.
Bibliography
(In writing this page I did a lot of backround research and did a lot of interpretive work and rarely quoted anything directly or indirectly, this is why there is a lack of sources used within the paper itself. I hope that makes sense.)
http://www.pgtelco.com/~slmiller/characterdevelopment.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_character#Dynamic_vs._static
http://fullcircle.comicgenesis.com/characterdevelopment.htm
http://characterdevelopment.net/
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