Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
If you put a sidetrack in your game I _have_ to explore it. So if I spend 10 extra minutes doing that, by the time I get to the next plot point that's ten more minutes I've had to forget what happened previously, or notice plot holes, or decide the game is boring because the plot is not advancing and quit playing it; all things you never want your audience to do.

And all things that happen far too frequently.

What do extras used in background noise count as? Like seeing people mulling around in the background in a chick flick where the primary focus is a single male and female at a coffee shop? Nobody else really matters, it just sets the scene.

Are they considered props? Ultimately they don't do anything to affect the story, they serve as atmospheric noise. I think this is about as close to neutral as you can get. If you start to focus on a character, no matter how little they interact with their surroundings they affect the story and if they affect the story they become an antagonist of a protagonist. But if those characters do not interact with any of the primary focus characters and they are not the focus of a scene or of the movie as a whole then I don't see how those labels can be applied.

Cases where crowds become antagonists or protagonists: The Matrix, Wedding Crashers, V for Vengance and many others

But then there are lots of movies that don't actually have the crowd act in any way as a part of the story, where do those fit?

Quote: Original post by M2tM
What do extras used in background noise count as? Like seeing people mulling around in the background in a chick flick where the primary focus is a single male and female at a coffee shop? Nobody else really matters, it just sets the scene.

Are they considered props?

Yes those don't count as characters, they are human props/scenery.

Quote: I don't ever buy into universal rules like "there are no neutral characters."
People always try to come up with principals like that and I just throw them out the window. So my stories may end up weird, but at least they're not boring and mostly original.

hmm... didn't realize this discussion got so much responces. Anywho, it's not so much a rule as it is a matter of fact now that I understand it.