book to script similarity issue

there are so many scenes and ideas that are similar and that one can say they've seen before that you can definitely write that scene without one thinking you stole it. but you must change the details: the character's name, personality, the military branch, etc...

they do it on Law and Order "ripped from the headlines" every week.

One thing you can do is get more accounts - using one person's published account in your script is pretty close to plagiarism, but talking to a dozen or so vets about their experiences about getting lost and using them to create a composite is research!

The internet its great for this - you should be able to find a message board somewhere filled with vets - just say that you are writing a screenplay set in the area, and are interested in accounts of getting lost in the desert.

Remember to save all of these recollections in a folder on your PC .. if someone later decides that your 'lost in a sandstorm' scene is copied from their script (that you've never even heard from) it might be handy.

In fact, you could even start by posting a request in the 'Research' sub-forum here .. I know we have a few Iraq vets who frequent these boards.

Mac

when you hear someone tell a story that intrigues you just ask, "hey, can i have that story?" you'll be amazed how many people say, "sure, why not" without even thinking that they should be compensated. just relax. don't act like you'll become rich and famous from their story. most people are just flattered that someone thought their story was cool.

yeah, why not? it's easier than you think. don't make so much of it.

When you say "I'm writing a scene like 'A' - do you have any experiences to share that could help me make this scene realistic?" you ARE asking permission.

When they tell you, they are certainly giving you implied permission to use it.

Don't sweat it too much. Just keep notes.

Mac

Mac H. said:

When you say "I'm writing a scene like 'A' - do you have any experiences to share that could help me make this scene realistic?" you ARE asking permission.

When they tell you, they are certainly giving you implied permission to use it.

Don't sweat it too much. Just keep notes.

Mac

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Okay, Rylenol -- a lot of people are giving you advice here, and that's fine. Advice is free.

But what it's important for you to realize is that the folks here who are giving you that advice *are not lawyers* -- and what you are really asking for, though you may not realize it, is legal advice.

I am also not a lawyer, but I will tell you this. It is not legal advice, which, not being a lawyer, I can't give you.

It's more of an anecdote.

Back when I was working at Laurel Entertainment, we were developing a movie based on the first all-African American tank battalion that was put into combat during WW-II. Now, our goal, in developing this project, was not to focus on any actual person, but to develop fictional characters and to develop a story in the context of the actual events involving that battalion.

Well, as it turns out there's not only a lot of archival material available about this particular group, there were a good many survivors that we wanted to talk to. They have their own veteran's association.

So we wanted to set up interviews with all of the survivors and talk to them about their experiences.

In order to do that -- and in order to move forward with this project, we got signed "life rights" from every single surviving member of that tank battalion. Those life rights documents gave us the right not only to use their recollections, but more specifically, the right to *fictionalize* those accounts as we saw fit -- and they couldn't sue us if we did.

Why did we go to all of this trouble?

Because that wonderful anecdote that's just between friends when everything -- like your script -- is up in the air -- a couple years later, when that anecdote has been incorporated into a real character, who may be very different from the real person who told it to you (and maybe a person who isn't going to like the person you incorporated that anecdote into) -- now sees it on the big screen with his wife and kids -- and his kid says, "Hey dad -- didn't that same thing happen to you? - I didn't know that you were also sleeping with Iraqi prostitutes like that guy did in an earlier scene" -- and he doesn't like it, and promptly sues you, and the studio and everybody he can possibly think of for a zillion billion trillion dollars.

And that's going to be tough on you, because you will have promised, in the contract, that *you* signed, that every single thing in the script came straight out of your imagination - only, in fact, it didn't, and that you'd indemnify the studio in case you misrepresented anything else -- which, in fact you did.

So when people give you advice, that's always great.

But my advice, which of course, is just more advice is -- be careful about advice.

As a rule (more advice) -- you will be safe if you are *fictionalizing* something that has appeared in *multiple published non-fiction sources* -- that is, a story appears in a ton of different, independent newspaper accounts.

That's how shows like Law & Order come out with shows that fictionalized versions of stories that are in the news. They aren't spot on, but they are close enough for them to be recognizable.

So if you have a lot of different first-person accounts of soldiers' experiences in the desert, or in a sandstorm, or whatever -- there's nothing wrong with your writing a *fictional* account of a soldier in a comparable situation.

But you have to make the point to make it different enough, to change the details, to change the characters, to make it specific to your story.

NMS

RylenolFlu said:

Thanks so much for your advice for NMS, that has helped so much. Just a question, I have found this one vet who has offered to talk about his experiences. Would it behoove me to find a life rights contract if that is even available for an unpublished and non-studio person?

These legal issues appear to be so tricky. Okay, so say I read a published novel or memoir, and I get inspired by it. For example, I read a memoir of a soldier in Iraq titled "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell", it's pretty brilliant. Now, it reads somewhat like a narrative, but the chapters are based on random events. Intellectually, how am I able to use what I've learned in this book and adapt it into a screenplay without actually purchasing the film rights? Is it really just a matter of changing names, locations, and specifics?

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Regarding your first question -- it is always better to get something in writing. There are books that contain standard agreements -- things like releases and rights agreements. I wish I had the exact name, but if you do some web-searching you can probably find it, or find some standard contracts for life-rights that you can download.

Much of the issues that you are going to face will have to do with the sorts of questions that you ask. Background questions - how are units organized, how are patrols sent out, how do you do a "search and enter" -- do they teach you the language? How do you communicate? How do you tell friends from enemies? How do you deploy your forces when you hear gunfire? Can you recognize friendly from enemy fire -- are always going to be best, because they will not be specific to him (and you'd be surprised how just the general information of how real people in real situations go about doing things will spark your thinking).

The more prepared you are, the better. The more closely you *listen* to what he says, and are prepared to ask new questions based on what he says, the better.

That's not to say that you don't want to listen to his specific story -- the point is, unless you're looking to tell his story, you need to make it clear that your goal is to gain general information about the war and the experiences of people fighting in that war. His experiences, what he saw, what he did, what he felt. It's all good -- but it's all intended to be background. Raw material.

Regarding the book -- a book -- even a non-fiction book -- is not a news story and a different standard applies.

What it comes down to is this -- you can't just adapt this guy's book by changing the names and altering the specifics a bit.

What you have to understand is that if you found this book to be exciting, moving -- something that would make a good movie, so did a lot of other people, and that means that there is a very good chance that this book has already been optioned by someone else and, very likely, a script is already being written (but for the strike) or may have already been written.

Very often, these books make the studio rounds when they are in galleys -- before they've even been published or reviewed. If the book was optioned or bought then, the script might already be finished.

Now -- three possibilities.

One, the book was reviewed, bought or optioned -- in active development.

This means that you don't want to be making your own "unofficial" screenplay version of the book.

Two, the book was reviewed, bought, or optioned -- and is no longer in active development. It's already dead.

This means that you certainly don't want to be making your own "unofficial" screenplay version of the book.

Three, the book was reviewed, and nobody wanted to buy or option it.

This also means that you don't want to be making your own "unofficial" screenplay version of the book.

This doesn't even address the fact that, as an ethical matter, you don't want to be making an unofficial version of someone else's copyrighted material.

It is one thing to be inspired by the descriptions of real incidents. But you have to write your own movie.

If someone describes being in a sandstorm in a war that takes place in a desert -- well, that's something that isn't unique to one soldier in one place at one time. It happens to a great many soldiers.

But the specifics of that one man's descriptions -- what he felt, what he did, what happened to him in that one place at that one time, and the way he conveyed it in his book -- belong to him.

You have to look at this book as simply one of potentially many sources of research. You want a scene taking place in a sandstorm? Surely there must be many first hand accounts of such incidents. Probably embedded videos and home videos showing what it's like.

The more research you do, the more of *general* understanding you will gain of what the experience of being in that place is like.

With that as your foundation, you will then be in a position to tell your own original story, placing your own original characters in that grounded world.

Then you won't have to worry about just changing names and places and adjusting the incidents of somebody else's story -- because then the story that you will be telling will be yours.

NMS

RylenolFlu said:

Thanks so much for the clarification NMS. My story doesn't revolve around the book the guy wrote, rather, it is only two specific scenes where the similarities may be a little too close for comfort. I found a life story contract, now, I found a vet that is willing to chat with me online about his experiences and is willing to assist me in my research by providing insight into military lingo and happenings. If my correspondence, through email, shows that he was willing to help me would this be as valid as him signing a life story contract? He seemed to be willing to help me as long as I show the war for what it is, whatever that means could be debatable but he seemed very much willing to help me.

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Once again, I'm not a lawyer, but you can always pretty much count on this:

Nothing that isn't a written and signed agreement is going to be as good as something that is a written and signed agreement.

Why people are shy about these things I'll never know. You just have to be up front about it -- for legal reasons, I need all the people I interview to sign this release.

NMS