Character biographies

[Kosh]

When I wrote my first screenplay I followed Syd Field's DVD to the letter and wrote numerous character biographies, circle of being, etc. But I ended up throwing most of that stuff out when I did the rewrites. Now that I'm on my second screenplay, I pretty much see the whole movie in my head. My step outline consist of detailed paragraphs instead of five words like Syd suggested and I pretty much have development of my characters all in my head now.

Should I still write out Character biographies, or are they not needed?

[-XL-]

Only you can answer that. Do you find they help, even a little? If so then carry on. If not, then don't waste your time

[StephieM]

What XL said. The purpose of character biographies is to know your character, know what they feel, how they would react, get in their head, be them. If you can do this without a biography then don't worry about it.

Steph

[xhouseboy]

When I wrote my first screenplay I followed Syd Field's DVD to the letter and wrote numerous character biographies, circle of being, etc. But I ended up throwing most of that stuff out when I did the rewrites. Now that I'm on my second screenplay, I pretty much see the whole movie in my head. My step outline consist of detailed paragraphs instead of five words like Syd suggested and I pretty much have development of my characters all in my head now.

Should I still write out Character biographies, or are they not needed?

Let's say best-case-scenario your screenplay gets picked up and goes into preproduction. One of things you may be asked for by a producer, script editor, etc, is character biographies. This also helps the casting director when visualising the roles, especially the peripheral roles. So they're always handy to write out and have at hand. Although if the script ever does make it that far, I'm quite sure the adrenaline will be flowing and the character backstories will leap on to the page. But writing them at that stage can still be a bit stressful, as your mind will probably be preoccupied with all the other suggested rewrites as director, producer, actors, etc, also add their input to your script.

[nganok]

I agree with X - Some people like them, especially a new writer. I think they are better used in your rewrite process, where you can get deeper into who a character is and put finishing touches on the script to reflect those traits.