When we watch films and series, we mostly remember the actors and directors. And almost never think about who writes these sparkling dialogs for heroes or comes up with such a twisted plot
Meanwhile, all this is done by scriptwriters - such as David Edward Kelly, known for many popular TV shows.
From his pen came scripts for the series "Palisade" (1992-1996), "Hope Chicago" (1996 - 2000), "Boston Lawyers" (2004-2008), "Lake of Fear" (2007) and many others. In addition to writing scripts, David several times became an actor in various projects, and is also the producer of more than a dozen films and TV shows.
In addition, he created several television programs that are broadcast on all four leading commercial television networks in the United States (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC).
Biography
David Edward Kelly was born in Waterville, Maine in 1956, raised in Belmont, Massachusetts, and attended Belmont Hill School. His father is Jack Kelly, a member of the US Hockey Hall of Fame. David himself played for the New England team in the 1972-1973 season when his father coached it. He was also the captain of the hockey team at Princeton University, where he received his education in political science.
Already at that time, Kelly's writing gift showed up: in his first year at the university, he wrote a political science article about the plot of John F. Kennedy about the murder of Fidel Castro in poetic form. And when he was writing his dissertation, he presented the Bill of Rights in the form of a play. Moreover, he attributed his character to each amendment: “The First Amendment is a loud guy who will not be silent. The Second Amendment guy is his collection of weapons. Then the 10th Amendment, which is said to be left to the states to decide. So he was a guy with no self-esteem. " He was also a member of the Princeton Triangle Club Club, a theater studio that has hosted many celebrities, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Russell Wright, Joshua Logan, Wayne Rogers, Clark Jessner, Jeff Moss, Nicholas Hammond and Brooke Shields.
In 1979, Kelly graduated from Princeton, and then received a Ph.D. in law from the University of Boston Law School, where he wrote a comedy play for Legal Follies, played by law students at Boston University.
Despite the obvious gift of writing, David still did not understand what he wanted to do, so he began working at a Boston law firm. He was mainly involved in real estate and petty criminal matters.
Screenwriter career
In 1983, Kelly was again drawn to writing a script: for the sake of a joke, he sketched the plot of a legal thriller, which hit director Bob Clark in 1986, and in 1987 he shot the film “Heavy Fire” (1987), in which he played the main role Judd Nelson. The film failed, and the lead actor was even nominated for Golden Raspberry for the worst male role.
However, this did not upset the young screenwriter. He began to gradually move away from legal practice and move on to the path of writing, and he did pretty well. Gradually, his scripts became more and more professional, and he gained fame in directorial circles as a good writer.
Often, as a beginning specialist, he had to write in collaboration, and then, as people who knew David say, all the partners ran away from him. He does not tolerate amendments to his subjects, and cuts pieces written by other people mercilessly if he does not like them.
Over time, he began to write scripts for TV shows, and his skill increased from episode to episode.
The peculiarity of compiling stories from Kelly is the combination of episodes with several storylines. The episode may include a separate plot, plus other plot moves that either began in the previous episode or will be continued subsequently. And some will continue throughout the season. Thanks to this, viewers are rarely confident that this storyline is the main one or it will appear a bit later. And whether what seems like a simple incident will turn into the main plot point. It is these screenwriter’s cunning and clever tricks that attract the audience’s attention to the series - they seem to be constantly solving a crossword puzzle with many intersecting lines.
In addition, Kelly complements her stories with political and social issues. One of these methods is the conduct of provocative court cases. His scenarios cover the whole spectrum of contemporary problems: from the guilt of tobacco companies and arms manufacturers to participants in suicides and killers. Another way is to strengthen the character’s social relationships with serious problems - such as feminism, sexuality and divorce.
Odaako instead of moralizing Kelly seeks to raise moral and ethical issues so that the audience themselves think about them. And so that they themselves draw conclusions. However, he does not go into moralism and maxim, remembering that with the help of TV shows people often relax and are distracted from their problems.
He writes so that while entertaining, he touches the edge of the problems of society. Whoever touches this will think about it. And who is not - will miss the ears and will simply follow the plot.
The best film in the script Kelly consider the picture "The Secret of Alaska" (1999), and the best series are the following: "Big Little Lies" (2017-2019), "Boston Lawyers" (2004-2008), "Heavy Monday" (2013-
), "Practice" (1997-2004), "Goliath" (2016-
)
