Creating Three Dimensional Characters

Event Date: Saturday, January 17 2015 || Speaker: Marilyn R. Atlas || Check-in: 12:30 pm ||

What indelible essence does a writer/actor bring to his portrayal of a memorable character? It’s a conscious interweaving of a character’s thoughts, wants, goals, secrets, flaws and delusions — moving the plot forward in a true way that is DNA- consistent. We will explore and analyze several facets of the “evolution of personality” as illustrated in the best screen and television examples.

Handouts will be provided by the instructor.

**The deadline has passed and REGISTRATION is now CLOSED for this event. Please view our calendar for upcoming events.

Check-in begins at 12:30 pm.
Event starts at 1:00 pm.

No Refunds. No Credits.

MARILYN R. ATLAS, An award-winning producer and personal manager of actors and actresses, 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. In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market, Marilyn has 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.”

In live theater, Marilyn co-produced the West Coast premiere of the musical “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” by Ashman and Menken (the writers of both “Enchanted” and “Tangled”). She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” which was made into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Gallagher. Her additional credits as a producer in live theater include “Today’s Special” and “As I Sing.”

Earlier in her career, Marilyn served as Casting Director for feature films, including John Frankenheimer’s “The Equals” and “The Whiz.” She is a founding member of Women in Film’s Luminas Committee which supports the portrayal of women in non-stereotypical roles in film and television. Along with director and actress Dorothy Lyman, Marilyn founded ADT, a director’s theatre, and served on its advisory board.

Marilyn is a member of NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. She has spoken at their Writers’ and Producers’ retreats, the DGA-sponsored LA Asian Film Festival, as well as various other symposia for the Sherman Oaks Experimental College. Speaking at events such as Santa Fe Screenwriters Conference and Richard Krevolin’s USC Screenwriting Retreat, Atlas has covered such topics as: “Creating for the Actor: Carving Memorable, Inhabitable Characters” and “The Ever-Evolving Marketplace: What’s Hot, Why and for How Long…” Marilyn has also taught several actor workshops on creating “Multiple Viewpoints – One Core” for actors as well as “Acting and Auditioning for Producers.” Additionally, she was a guest lecturer in the Bill Cosby Writing Program at USC, where she also teaches a class on creating three-dimensional, non-stereotypical characters. She has spoken at the Texas Bar Association and was a guest lecturer at Whittier Law School.

Marilyn has been a guest at various colleges, including Skyline, Emerson, St. Mary’s, Stephens, the University of the Incarnate Word, and at the University of Texas – San Antonio’s Adalante Latino Film Festival. She has served as the professional-in-residence (in theater and film) at Ball State University, and was the speaker at the International Writer’s Conference at Hollins University (2010). She structured an intensive course at Skyline College in San Francisco covering the inception, development and promotion of a script in “The Business of Screenwriting: The Idea – and its Execution.” She has also been a guest at UCLA and USC, where she teaches a summer course on creating non-stereotypical three-dimensional characters for writers and actors.

Her clients have appeared in shows such as Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, 90210, Revenge, Hart of Dixie, NCIS:LA, True Blood, Dexter, Chuck, Castle, and Criminal Minds. In addition, her clients have worked on feature films such as Holes and Transformers.

Marilyn has been in development on pilots for Showtime and ABC Family.

In addition to Marilyn’s film/TV credits, she has sold (first time) novels “Chasing the Jaguar” to HarperCollins, “Hungry Woman in Paris” to Grand Central Publishing, the “Ave Maria Bed & Breakfast” to Hachette Publishing, and the “Last Ride of Caleb O’Toole” to Source Books.

Recently, Marilyn has been developing the “Brides’ March” for Lifetime Television as well as a limited television series. Atlas previously produced the musical version of “Real Women Have Curves” in Los Angeles in 2009 and is involved in the current development of “Real Women Have Curves” for 2013. In the fall of 2012 Atlas co-produced the play “Detained in the Desert” at the Guadeloupe Theater in San Antonio. For late fall 2013, she is also producing an untitled YA book for Lifetime to be made late Fall 2013 and is in development for “Lola Goes to Roma” with Dragon Tree Films. She is also featured in the book “Write Now!” from Penguin/Tarcher. In addition, Marilyn produced “The Choking Game” for Lifetime which aired in the summer of 2014. She is also co-writing a book entitled “Dating Your Character” to be published in the Fall of 2015 by Stairway Press.

Join us on the Third Saturday every month at:

CBS Studio Center
4024 Radford Avenue
Studio City, CA 91604

Free Parking — Enter the CBS lot at the main gate & inform security you are there for the Scriptwriters Network event.

You’ll be asked for your government issued photo ID, and then given directions to the meeting location. You may park in any available space on the lot (unless they direct you to a parking structure during special events).

As this is a professional event, we ask that you please arrive prior to the event start time.

Meeting Timeframe: 1:00 pm to approximately 3:00 pm

Please remember to bring a picture ID and your SWN Membership Card!

Any questions, email us at [email protected].