Treatments Based on "True Stories" Excerpt from Writing Treatments That Sell by Ken Atchity & Chi-Li Wong 'Tis strange-but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction. - Lord Byron, Don Juan True stories drive the networks' Movies for Television schedule and capture the imagination of motion picture filmmakers. The ongoing appeal of reality-based drama, coupled with a continual need for product, makes this an ideal area for the unproduced writer to break in. Being able to say that your treatment is "a true story," "based on a true story," or "inspired by a true story" gives your story immediate marketing strength. Yet to make it a sale, even the true story must have all the story elements outlined in previous chapters: *a heroine we can root for; *clearcut act breaks, with sufficiently dramatic twists, turns, and cliffhangers; *and a satisfying "up" ending. Every week we are pitched projects that may be in actuality "true stories," but are not truly stories in dramatic terms (as audiences define a story), with a compelling beginning, dramatically orchestrated middle, and conclusive end. Sometimes we can doctor them up enough to make a sale, but more often they're hopeless. "I was attacked physically in court by another woman," "My husband tried to kill me," "I was standing in the bank when the robbery went down"--So what? These are a distinct piece of action, isolated and momentary. An incident does not a story make. Real life seldom conforms to the neat, single-thrust impact of a well-made movie, with the appropriate positive or uplifting outcome. Often real-life events and situations just go on and on, evolving or dissolving rather than resolving. A true story may be more effective as a documentary or a news item than as a ninety-six-minute TV movie or two hour motion picture. Often a true story achieves its most dramatic and effective portrayal as a segment of "Hard Copy," "60 Minutes," or an article in Playboy, and trying to adapt it to the movie format will stretch it too thin. Keeping these cautions in mind, true stories can be a strong source of potential film material, feasible for even a beginning writer. In television many of the most effective true stories depicted are not about legendary or well-known figures, but rather about everyday individuals caught up in situations that bring out their courage and humanity, or their villainy (like "Small Sacrifices," about an Oregon woman who may have murdered her three children in 1983; or movies about serial killer Ted Bundy; or about Rasputin, the mad monk who dominated the royal family before the Russian revolution). The possible sources for real-life story material are indeed multitudinous. How To Get The Rights To A True Story In many cases, you can submit a treatment for a true story that is drawn entirely from "public domain" (the legal term that describes intellectual property that is not under copyright, trademark, or other private claims and is therefore available to the public). All court proceedings, because they are by nature part of the commonwealth of the state or federal government, are "public domain." Nearly everything involving celebrities is public domain, with the exception of materials that may be libelous; one of the downsides of fame in this country is the sacrifice of your right to privacy. If the characters you're interested in writing about are dead, there's no need to obtain rights to their stories--unless you're using written material that the public has no access to, such as diaries or letters that belong to the deceased's family. But until an incident involving a non-celebrity has become part of the court process it is private domain, and rights should be secured before you can deal with it in a television or motion picture treatment. With or without the help of an attorney, you may have to track down the people involve, get to know them, and obtain the rights to their story; either by optioning those rights, or by exchanging them for promised compensation that will be paid by the ultimate buyer of the story. If the incident you're researching is a true crime, for example, desirable rights include: *the victim's rights *the perpetrator's rights (in which case you'll need to research how the "Son of Sam" law applies in this case) *the victim's family's rights *the leading law enforcer's rights (District Attorney, police detective, sheriff, etc.) *and the rights of anyone else involved who could possibly assign rights to someone other than you and your eventual network buyer. But just how do you go about tracking down these story rights? The investigative instinct is nothing more than applied common sense. Coupling common sense with determination and focus, you can discover the information you need. Start by calling the journalist who wrote the article that tipped you off in the first place. Let the writer know how his or her article affected you. The writer may be willing to give you all the information you may need to write a treatment or you may need to get him on your team as a co-writer. Talk to the police. Check court records. Use the library reference desk for leads on how to track a source. When you get a phone number, call and tell them exactly why you're interested. You'd like to write a TV treatment of the story, and want to know if they'd be interested in cooperating. If they agree to meet with you, your next mission is to get them comfortable enough with you to give you the rights to use their information in the treatment. Based on a true story If they won't cooperate, you're not yet defeated. You can still write a treatment that is "based on a true story," changing the names, the locale, and some of the events to "protect the innocent." The degree to which you "fictionalize" the facts is what determines whether a story is "based on a true story" or "inspired by a true story." If your research has yielded enough information, you may even prefer to write a "based on" story to writing the strictly "true" story because not only will you avoid the rights hassle you may also free yourself to create a stronger story, "unconfused by the facts" but true to the dramatic essence your instincts recognized when you began this project. Fiction vs Reality Fiction, as we know, isn't the same as reality. Instead, dramatic fiction, by suspending our disbelief, gives the impression of reality--what Aristotle, in his Poetics, described as an "imitation" of action that may not be "strictly true" but is "more philosophical than history" because it is true in a poetic, or universal, sense. In many ways, as audiences, we prefer the "poetic" imitation to the reality. Well-wrought poetry and fiction have definable shape, satisfying closure. When you read a good book or see a good play or film, you walk away with a feeling of having experienced something definite, something conclusive. Unfortunately, life itself doesn't often provide such a well-rounded feeling. Look for stories with enough flesh on their bones to make a full-length movie, but take the development executive's critical approach and search for the seven acts immediately--or invent them. You may find the track of a story in a magazine or newspaper article, a radio or TV documentary or news show, a police blotter, a case file, or something you overheard on the train you took into work this morning. Research If the seven acts aren't immediately obvious to you, it's time to begin the process of research. Find out as much about the event or situation as you can, enough to convince you that there is a full story involved with hero, villain, and dramatic and interesting complications. Truth can be stranger than fiction, but fiction is not strange--it's recognizably dramatic and makes sense to the audience, whereas often truth doesn't make sense. In developing a true story, more often than not the writer needs to take dramatic license and reshape events and characters, adding plot to the events that already exist in fact. Dramatic fiction is a mechanism, something created; consequently it has mechanical parts. New writers often make writing fiction too complicated, trying to put in more ingredients (for example, including every relative just because they existed, whether or not their involvement in the story is dramatically necessary or not) than are necessary. Often, with "a true story," the challenge is removing all those details so a clear storyline emerges. "Less is better," as Robert Frost said. The elements of drama for the "true story" Once you have your true story you're ready to adapt it for the specific needs of television. We receive many stories in which there is only a good opening and/or close-but no twists, turns, and cliffhangers in between. We also get interesting stories that are well developed but have no likable characters in them. The main character must be developed in such a way that the audience can relate to her and her problems ("That could happen to me or to my child!"). A character is constructed from only a few elements. But what do you do if you're writing about a real-life person? Let's look at the elements of fiction and drama from that most difficult--and most challenging--perspective. How True is a True Story? No FCC rule governs the definition of a television movie advertised as a True Story. Each network has its own definitions. It's a case of different words for a basic concept, generally an issue for the network's Program "standards and practices" department and what they feel comfortable with in regard to their network. The definition only becomes a legal issue if a true story contains fictionalized segments that may be considered by the subject or family of the subject as defamation of character. There are no clear-cut lines when a true story becomes something else. Broadly explained, the favored "based on a true story" means there is no fictionalization or a very insignificant amount of fictionalization. "Inspired by a true story" means there is a some significant amount of fictionalization and the weakest "suggested by a true story" is predominately fiction. A. Developing A True Story Because a true story isn't necessarily good drama all on its own, maintaining your focus on being "truer" to the treatment(by concentrating on the dramatic elements of storytelling) than you are to the original source will assist you in its adapting. You have much less leeway to do this with a true story than you do with fictional material. Even to maintain that your treatment is "based on a true story" requires considerable allegiance to the actual events. But generally you will want to consolidate or amplify certain characters and situations to increase the emotional impact of the story without sacrificing the overall authenticity and spirit of the event that inspired you. The first four elements to look at are: 1. Character Your non-fiction subject must be transformed into a believable fictional character. Recognizing the difference between art and reality, you'll have to simplify the real character until his motivation becomes dramatically clear and compelling. Fictional characters are simpler and less complicated than real people, which is why we love stories so much. The protagonist's motivation must be clearly visible in the treatment, since it is the engine that drives your screenplay and energizes every aspect. 2. Action Dramatic action isn't just "plot." Creating powerful dramatic action comes from recognizing and embracing your story's natural pattern or shape, and allowing a compelling rhythm to emerge. Because of TV's seven acts, it will be necessary to restructure the chronology of events so that the most exciting ones will serve the need for an involving beginning, a climactic ending, and, of course, the cliffhanger pacing forced by station breaks. Each scene must dramatize your hero's motivation, and must show conflict. If a scene shows no conflict that moves the story forward, cut the scene, or conflict it up! 3. Setting/Background Just as audience identification with the hero of your story is essential, commercial impact is served when the audience can identify with the story's setting--its time and place. Contemporary stories which take place in urban or suburban America are so prevalent on television because they are relatable to the largest audiences. Limiting your setting is also beneficial because it puts more pressure on the dramatic situation to be in a restricted place (Aristotle called this "the unity of place"). Not to mention the budget benefits of concentrating the drama in one location or at least in one city. 4. Point of View/Tone of Voice The three Amy Fisher television films provide a perfect example of how the same story can find a different point of view in which to retell itself: 1."The Amy Fisher Story": This account took an objective viewpoint, drawing from a variety of sources to dramatize the relationship between Amy and her married lover and her subsequent attack on his wife. 2."Casualties of Love:" The 'Long Island Lolita' Story" told from the Buttafuccos' point of view portrays Amy Fisher as a fatally attracted teenager who nearly destroyed a happy family. 3."Lethal Lolita--Amy Fisher: My Story": This account is Amy's story, portraying her as an incest victim who gets involved with an opportunist who drags her into an illicit affair and prostitution, until she is driven so insane that she attacks his wife. and the secret 5th element: 5."The Hook" What is it about your story that will lure the buyer and ultimately the viewer? Good story ideas can be stated in a single sentence (usually the one that ends up in TV Guide), known as the story's "premise," "hook," or "concept." The "hook" most often follows the formula we've discussed, What happens when a woman like this meets a situation like that. The hooks in the following television movies are apparent. *"Billionaire Boys Club" Based on the true story about a group of rich preppie friends who commit murder. *"Burning Bed": A true story about an abused wife who murders her husband. *"The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom": True story about a Dallas housewife who hires a professional hitman to dispose of the the mother of her daughter's chief cheerleading rival. B. Checklist before undertaking a true story When choosing a true story to write and sell consider the following: *Can it be done for network television? If a true story has elements that are very sexual or very violent the networks will pass. They rarely buy unhappy endings, or stories in which all the characters are distasteful. Networks generally also pass on stories on purely minority subjects requiring primary minority casting; that is simply not their audience. Try the secondary cable networks instead. *Casting. Will the TV movie's subject attract a feature-star or popular, well-liked mainstream TV star? Are the two main characters parts that would excite or challenge an actress or actor? *Has it been done before? If you're selling a true story that's been done before you have to sell what's different about this particular murder story, kidnapping story, or stalking story. This is called the "new take" or "new angle' on the story. *Is this story high-profile? Any item with national news exposure that captures public imagination is a potential movie for television sale. *Is this an internal or an external story? Buyers, like audiences, want dramatic action, not just "internal" stories dealing with the heroine's state of mind. *Scope of the Story Factual stories that involve a cast of thousands are more difficult to follow in a two-hour format--not to mention being impractical from a budget standpoint.

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