I Want to Be Happy

Author: Michael Culbertson

The 2018-19 academic term marks my second year at one of the high schools here in Winston-Salem. I previously served with ESL* students last year, and I was more than happy to return to both new and familiar faces.

I brought my filmmaking expertise to the high school through writing and storytelling exercises. This year, I tried to elevate the experience by giving real industry tips on how to craft a memorable story. There’s a set of questions most screenwriters start with when developing a character:

1. Who are they (name, origin, etc.)?
2. What do they want?
3. Why can’t they have it?

It appears basic, but it’s a fundamental tool in establishing a conflict that’s interesting to watch and fun for the writer to create. A story cannot exist without conflict, or it’s no more interesting than real life.

I tasked some of the ESL students at Reynolds to create their own character from scratch using an online tool to create visuals of their character. I gave the following prompts:

1. What is their name?
2. What are their parents’ names?
3. Where were they born? Where do they live?
4. Do they have friends? If so, how many?
5. What is your character’s problem?
6. What do they want?
7. Why can’t they have it?
8. What are they going to do about it?
9. What will they do to get it?

It’s this template that pushes the narrative forward in most feature films. The ESL students provided many unique and creative example, but one that stood out to me came from a girl who I’ll refer to as Jane.

Jane created a boy who is about to graduate high school. He has friends, he’s active in extracurricular activities, and stays on top of his assignments. In a seemingly perfect situation, what could that character possibly want? 

Happiness.

His struggle was, even though he was surrounded by positive energy, his mind was plagued with suicidal thoughts; a feeling of emptiness that those factors in his life couldn’t fill.

I found this very moving because the conversation around mental health has been growing in recent years. Jane assured me that she’s not going through this, but that she can recognize that just because someone smiles on the outside, doesn’t mean they’re smiling on the inside. Most students went the route of a physical object: the character wants money, a new house, shoes, phones, etc., but she chose a want that can’t be visibly seen. As a screenwriter, the character work here gives me chills, and it just proves that this school houses talented and gifted minds.

*ESL: English as a Second Language