Creating the Characters for my Train Heist sequence

Some people have asked me about the origin of the Train Heist storyboard I did. Boarding this sequence from a list of story beats, is originally an internship assignment done at Pixar. The objective of the exercise is to keep the audience oriented during a big moving action sequence and to create some original characters. Clarity and character are two of the most important things in storyboarding, so this is really a great exercise to hone your story chops. 

Now, I did not intern at Pixar, but I got this exercise through Pixar story artist Christian Roman. Christian also gave me some feedback that really helped me to push the sequence. I wanted to share how his notes helped me in creating my characters. If you are working on characters for your own projects, it might help to see how I ended up with these guys. 

Before I started working on my sequence I sat down and thought about what I wanted to do with these characters. With single sequences like this I like to think of it, as if it is a scene from a feature film. So I start by thinking about the scene's function in the larger story. In this case I imagined that the main character is a regular guy, maybe a farmer or a shopkeeper, who is in desperate need of money, which leads him to rob this train. The other robber is a real outlaw, in the film he would probably start as a mentor character and then change into the villain. I also thought it might be funny if the characters were older men, like in their 60's or 70's. 

So I did a first pass of this sequence that I then shared with Christian. He came back with some notes. One of the things that he mentioned was that he still felt the characters were a bit generic. He couldn’t really tell me much about their personalities, apart from them being older. Maybe there was a way that I could make them more specific? He advised me to think of it as an improv game, where you use occupations, emotions, or character traits to develop a character. (We often talk about is improv. Christian is a very experienced improv actor, he even teaches a class at Pixar. I’ve been taking improv classes and I really enjoy how they have helped me grow as a story artist.) 

With this in mind I went back to my original idea and wondered what I was really trying to do. I noticed that there were basically two ideas competing with each other. On the one hand I have the more serious idea of a regular guy working with an outlaw, and on the other hand I have the more comedic approach of senior citizens as outlaws. Now I still like the second idea, and it could be very funny to do a train robbery where the robbers are old men. But I felt that I was more interested in doing a this as an action sequence than making this a comedy thing. 

So I decided that I should change the main character. Instead of him being an older guy he should be this really naive, young guy. This way the difference between him and the older experienced outlaw would be bigger. It helped me to make the two robbers more distinctive both in their appearance and in their behavior. Now the young guy, is a clean, somewhat clumsy fellow who really doesn’t want to hurt anyone. The outlaw became this huge hairy barbarian who craves action and enjoys being the bad guy. 

I also changed the guards in the money car. In my first pass, they were just two clerks playing 20 questions. They weren’t exactly hard to defeat. When I came up with that first idea I was thinking of the train robbery in The Assassination of Jesse James. (I love that film) But since I wasn’t trying to make an atmospheric art-film here, I figured it’d probably be better if they were more of a threat to the main characters. So in the second pass they became gun-toting tough guys who are ready for a fight. 

Once I changed the characters things clicked into place. Making the main character young and naive made it easier for me to put him into trouble. Making the other guy the most extreme outlaw on the other hand, helped me to make his actions bigger. In my first pass the outlaw was being clever and he talked his way into the money car, but this guy just blows the door open with a stick of dynamite! 

Sometimes I find that I am still a bit too careful in my approach. What this process has taught me about developing characters it to use those improv lessons: Have fun with it! Make bold choices and stick with them. 

If you are interested in developing characters for your own personal projects check out the (free!) Pixar in a Box story course. Although it’s intended for kids I find this course an amazing way to learn! Plus you get to work with Christian as your teacher.