Building Characters

In screenwriting school we used to put a lot of emphasis on the process of creating a character. We already talked about the complexity of human beings (5000 traits... remember?), and this complexity makes it very difficult to build a character that will be distinctive and accurate on one hand but realistic, "round" and deep on the other.For example, you want to portray a neurotic and edgy person. But if his / her reaction to every thing that happens is a panic attack, then it gets boring, unreliable and unreal. Because real people aren't like that.I was sitting with this guy today having lunch. He is usually very quiet and shy, speaks with a low voice and doesn't like to express his opinions in a crowd. But suddenly, during that short lunch, I discovered how opinionated he really is, how he challenges or criticizes almost every little thing and doesn't just accept things that are told to him as they are. Only he doesn't make any noise about it. Most of it comes out in quick, almost unnoticeable flashes which may escape the normal eye. This internal paradox between one side of a person and another is fascinating, and this is what makes a brilliant character.I think that when you scratch people's surface, you discover many contradicting traits of this sort. We all have those to some extent. And still, somehow, when creating a character, there is a very fine line between portraying a round, interesting and diverse person, and just creating a mosaic made of pieces of different traits that don't add up to a real live person..I guess learning how to do find that balance is where the secret lies.