Dating Your Character: A Sexy Guide to Screenwriting for Film and TV

Dating Your Character: A Sexy Guide to Screenwriting for Film and TV, is based on the principle that interesting characters actually are co-creators in the writing process. It s organized into some of the standard stages in an evolving, romantic relationship, launched by a couple of chapters that encourage you to take some personal inventory: - Casting Your Ideal Character - The Meet Cute - The First Date - Serious Dating - Moving In Together - The First Fight - Making A Commitment - Hitched Or Ditched On the way to a kind of trust and growing intimacy, the structure of the book traces the first flush of excitement, any awkward hiccups in communication, and the recognition and reconciliation of your different POVs. Most books approach character development using a winnowing process involving general categorization and list-making. But, not much in the way of a truly in-depth synthesis of the collage of facts in the character s biography. The DYC method doesn t start from the outside in. It doesn t layer physical descriptions onto archetypal outlines, then color in the flaws and motivation to make that thumbnail sketch more personal. DYC focuses on the importance of the individuality of characters: their eccentricity, drive, and relative "basis in fact" inspired in part by people you know or you yourself.

An award-winning producer and personal manager of actors and writers, Marilyn R. Atlas is equally at home in the worlds of film, television, and live theater. Among her credits as film producer are Real Women Have Curves for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, A Certain Desire, starring Sam Waterston, and Echoes, which won the Gold Award at the Texas International Film Festival. Recently Marilyn produced The Chocking Game for Lifetime Television based on the YA book CHOKE. In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market, Marilyn served as a production consultant on the film Call Me. She was also involved as a producer in the development of the MOW Nightwalker and Playing for Keeps. She previously produced the musical version of Real Women Have Curves in Los Angeles in 2009 and is involved in the current musical development of Real Women Have Curves for late 2016. In the fall of 2012 she co-produced the play Detained in the Desert at the Guadeloupe Theater in San Antonio. Atlas continues to develop projects based on books and true life stories for television. Atlas has long been committed to the portrayal of women and diversity. She has guest spoken at various writers conferences and colleges - in 2014, Marilyn spoke in the International Conference Writers in Italy. Elizabeth Lopez attended Vassar College, majoring in English Literature. She was a screenwriting fellow of the L.A. Latino Film Festival and has had several articles published online and in print for entertainment-oriented magazines such as Gideon s Screenwriting Tips. She started her Hollywood career as a story analyst for talent managers and production companies, including Vincent Cirrincione & Associates and The Little Company. As VP of Literary Development at Marilyn Atlas Management, she has been managing writing talent. She has taught screenwriting classes at the Ojai Writers Festival and at The Writers Store. Devorah ( Devo ) Cutler-Rubenstein s passion for storytelling and art brought her to Cal Arts where she earned her BFA in Film/Art from California Institute of the Arts. Most recently she completed her Masters in Professional Writing at USC, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. Over the years, Devo s done everything from helping writers of short films on the way to production to editing novels and non-fiction books for the publishing markets. As a dramaturge, she founded New Play Productions with RADA s Gillian Eaton to develop, produce and co-direct domestic and world premieres for the stage. Then, she partnered with producer/actor Mary Saxon for four domestic premiers, which garnered several Drama-Logue Critic Awards and made the LA Times Top Ten list. Several of her projects were optioned and adapted for the screen. Simultaneously, Devo launched a career in the executive movie ranks, and became Director of Literary Affairs at Columbia Pictures TV, and spearheaded Columbia Pictures NY Playwright s Workshop. As Director of the Story Department at Marble Arch Productions, she worked on such TV projects as the Emmy award-winning Friendly Fire and features, including Muppet Christmas Carol and Zorro The Gay Blade. She then lent her talent to help launch major re-releases of foreign and domestic Kurosawa and Capra classics as VP of Marketing for Connoisseur Video. She made her filmic directing debut after winning the prestigious Discovery Program Award (others who won that year were Griffin Dunne, Christine Lathi and Rob Lowe). She co-wrote the critically acclaimed Peacock Blues, starring Poppy Montgomery and Bill Forsythe, which aired on Showtime s Stories From The Edge. The 35MM featurette was a selection for a number of festivals, including the NY Film Festival, winning Audience Favorite and Best Short Film at the Moondance International Film Festival.