Available as a download.
Adaptation from a novel to a film
Following the screenwriting course on Future Learn, I am describing the process that sets out the characteristics and motivation of the hero of this tale, Ned Merrick.
Ned’s major actions are to:
- Complete the obituary of prizefighter Jem Belcher
- To locate a series of people who knew the boxer and know about the “sport”
- To become involved in a world that is alien to him
- To bail out his quixotic friend Saul Crouchman who invariably leads him astray
- To achieve an interview with a magazine publisher
- To avoid marrying his employer’s daughter
- To court Jem’s ex-mistress
- To achieve his ambition to become a writer.
What are Ned’s wants and needs?
- To write for a living
- To conform, that is at odds with events around him
- To please his father
- To earn praise from his employer
- To win the love of Jem’s mistress, Hannah.
Ned’s Personality.
- Conformist
- Cautious
- Law-abiding
- Imaginative
- Essentially kind
Ned as viewed by a stranger
- Diffident
- No remarkable characteristics
- Modestly dressed
- Well-spoken.
Physical Features
- Pleasant looking
- Nondescript
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