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PRESS ROOM
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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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