Thank you Neely Swanson and David E. Kelley Productions!

If you didn't make it to this week's speaker and the workshop you really missed it!

Thank you Neely Swanson and David E. Kelley Productions...

Neely Swanson, SVP of development at David E. Kelley Productions, gave a fantastic presentation to a packed house yesterday. David E. Kelley is known for character-driven legal dramas such as BOSTON LEGAL and ALLY McBEAL. Kelley has written more than 600 show episodes himself.

Neely proves that a mid-life career change is not too late to make it in Hollywood. Her husband Larry, a professor, was with us yesterday and is very proud of her. With his encouragement, Neely changed careers and started at the bottom as a temp assistant in legal affairs at Fox. After moving to Fox business affairs, Neely followed her boss, Pamela Wisne, when Wisne became an executive vice president at Kelley Productions. When Neely started at Kelley Productions it was a small company, and Neely made herself available to do anything that would help out, especially reading scripts and doing coverage.

Neely reads about 250 television script submissions and 47 novels in a year. She loves to read and reads everything herself, cover to cover. She looks at scripts primarily as writer submissions (samples), not for development. Novels are considered for development, but it's rarely bestselling authors. As writing samples, Neely doesn't read features, procedurals (e.g., CSI) or short stories, but does read spec episodes of current television shows, original pilots, and some plays. In all cases she's looking for character-driven and not plot-driven material (which is why no procedurals). There are few writer openings.

An outstanding one-hour dramedy spec (such as, UGLY BETTY) is the easiest way to get on Neely's Recommend or Consider list for a writer position. She does read specs for shows they produce, but says a BOSTON LEGAL spec is a handicap because such scripts are read with higher expectations. Neely reads novels as galleys, before publication. The one novel she picked up the rights to this year is Joseph Wambaugh's HOLLYWOOD STATION, a police drama.

Neely was very generous with us, sharing her inspiring career and work highlights, answering an hour of audience Q&A, and staying afterwards to take questions individually in the lobby. Neely gave precise instructions what type of material she would read and how it should be submitted.

Thank you to everyone at the BOOK OF Z reading...

Most weeks at ScreenplayLab, before the main speaker, we start with a workshop reading. It feels like a writers room as we test new material. ScreenplayLab only reads comedies or upbeat dramas.

Have you ever wondered what ScreenplayLab is doing at the start of the event, why we won't let you in the theater yet? Casting director Gabrielle Pantera is preparing her actors and they are busy highlighting their lines with markers. The actors are being reminded to be loud, enunciate, but not go big (that is, don't be a ham).

Mark Harmon (of NCIS), showed me how to look at the line on the page, flash memorize it, then look up and deliver it. When reading, be careful not to hide your face and talk into the pages. Because we read faster than we can speak, at a cold reading there's a natural tendency to go too fast. It's very hard for an actor to detect when his delivery is too fast, but you can tell because you'll start tripping over your own words. Just slow down. Remember: loud, clear, and intimate.

This week we read pages 40 to 56 of my new martial arts action comedy feature, THE BOOK OF Z. It's the story of a chiropractic college student pursued by power-mad ninjas in Koreatown because a Korean family has entrusted him with an ancient book. It's for audiences that like KUNG FU HUSTLE and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Because I was still writing pages on Saturday, the actors did not get the pages beforehand and had to read it cold.

Gabrielle Pantera: casting director
Jennifer Simms: narrator
John Stancari: Max, Tosso
Shereen Saiyad: Nichi, Officer Rodriguez
Jim McCaffree: Lot, Gasso,
Angela Floyd: Special Agent Smith
Joey D'Auria: Professor Barnes, Poh, Tommy, General Chew

Gabrielle cast some roles with ScreenplayLab regulars and some with newcomers. As we always do at readings, we first had the actors mention their latest news. Jennifer Simms was on the cover of the NEW YORK TIMES on Thursday for her role in MAD MEN. John Stancari just made the quarter-finals in the Page Screenwriting Awards. Jim McCaffree is playing weekly in murder mystery theater (DinnerDetective.com) and also in the short HOW WE MET. Jim is one of dozens of actors who signed agent representation as a result of a ScreenplayLab referral.

Shereen Saiyad moved to Hollywood recently. In the Philippines she's been in indie movies, won beauty contests, and was in the December issue of MAXIM. Angela Floyd can be seen daily on every flight AMERICAN AIRLINES donning the oxygen mask in the instructional video. Angela also writes sitcoms. Joey D'Auria is three of the voices in the animated THE MISTER MEN.

Except for the narrator, ScreenplayLab actors stand so they can move around and make eye contact. After the reading, our actors give feedback first, followed by those who raise their hands in the audience. We're different from other groups in that we don't allow critique. I believe constructive criticism is an oxymoron. When someone offers criticism he or she is tearing down the artist, not adding anything. Our feedback sessions are moderated to answer two important questions.

Question one: What did you like? As obvious as it may seem to the audience, what's good may not be obvious to the writer and sometimes there are surprising differences of opinion across the audience. It's important to know what's good so it won't get lost in rewrite, a pitfall encountered by many Hollywood scripts. Besides, it's encouraging to the writer to hear that he or she got something right. Quieting the inner critic avoids writer's block.

Question two: How would you improve it? Our audience is full of talented writers, actors and filmmakers. That you know how to elevate material is the difference between an artist and a critic. I often find, when going through this process with other writers' pages, that I give suggestions that I could use myself in my own writing. We all face similar issues in our screenplays, but it's easier to see when looking fresh at someone else's material.

The actors and audience were outstanding. People were engaged by the story and had many things they liked and many suggestions. Several commented that the short montages being used for exposition could be made more interesting. Other notes were how to make a couple of the scenes funnier and how to make the lead character more motivated and heroic.

How actors get in our casting database...

Casting director Gabrielle Pantera accepts headshots/resumes only through automated upload into her RisingCast database, not by mail or email. Actors can go to www.RisingCast.com and follow the upload link. YOU WILL NEED A SECRET PASSCODE FOR UPLOAD ACCESS. Email me or Gabrielle to ask what that code is.

What's ScreenplayLab?

ScreenplayLab is more than 1,800 screenwriters, actors, and filmmakers. Our mission is to nurture artists on a studio or network track creating upbeat commercial films and television. Each week we have fabulous industry speakers, workshops, and networking. It costs nothing to join and our events are mostly free. To join send an email to info@screenplaylab.com with the subject 'subscribe'. To enter a script for evaluation and possibly be read by actors in our workshop series costs $39.

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