Taken from the script "The Rising Man"
#1 CHARACTERS - AUDIENCE EMPATHY
Audience empathy for the protagonist is created early in the story when in the first flashback, we see his people arrive like mistreated cattle, you could have him abused and disregarded, this will help the audience care about our hero, his dreams, and his primary objective.
The first act of the story shows our hero at a moment of weakness, when all hope is gone and he is at his most vulnerable (this is good), empathy is generated when he is helpless.
I suggest our hero should show a moment of weakness in his private moments, when he lets down his defenses and reveals himself to the people who know. That way, when the protagonist invades this privacy, this will create tremendous sympathy, plus generate more hatred for the antagonist.
The audience care about our hero when he is unjustly mistreated. The injustice done to him establishes the appropriate audience reactions. This injustice is accompanied by brutality, which creates sympathy. Our hero's suffering, sensitivity and vulnerability are all revealed in the first act.
Abandonment also generates audience empathy. When our hero is sent into exile, you could show him being abandoned by the very people he looked to for his salvation. These people have already shown a lack of trust, so this will be accepted by the audience.
In total, our hero is shown in situations where he suffers from jeopardy, terror, neglect, but his loneliness can be increased for greater audience empathy.
|
