On Saturday, May 1, members gathered in the DGA Los Angeles headquarters boardroom for Tools for Collaboration: Working with Writers in Film and Television. Presented by the DGA Special Projects Committee, the workshop featured Jeffrey Gordon, President and founder of Writers Boot Camp, a series of intensive courses on the fundamentals of script writing.

After an introduction by Special Projects Committee member Victoria Hochberg, Gordon proceeded to introduce the participants to the tools for script evaluation and development needed by directors in film and television to successfully bring stories to the screen. The workshop explored problems including: visualizing stories, how to handle differences in creative vision, and how to elicit productive work from the writer. Also discussed were topics such as how to break stories down into five story components, the problems of emphasizing content, the stages of development, the process of rewriting, and collaboration specifics for television. Upon registration, participants were sent handouts prior to the event that contained several single-sentence exercises. During the workshop, Gordon reviewed selected responses to illustrate how directors can build a common language with the writer to get the creative team on the same page.