CALENDAR LETTERS : SPEED SKIMMING

How heartwarming to read that 26-year-old Ellen Collett, director of development at Gail Ann Hurd’s Pacific Western Productions, reads an entire screenplay in 15 minutes, and between phone calls.

Though it may represent six month’s work or more to its author, a quarter of an hour of her valuable time seems adequate for a fair hearing for any script, especially if one skips stage direction, action sequences, block speeches and odd-numbered pages.

Perhaps my fellow screenwriters and I can cooperate in an effort to cut down Collett’s work load by avoiding sending our material to Pacific Western.

GORDON MITCHELL

Writer/Producer

Har D. Har Productions

Studio City