Using the story of a friend’s life
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I’ve looked through all your replies to rights questions, but didn’t see one
that quite answered mine.
A friend of mine tried to write a memoir a few years ago, but ended up with a hodgepodge of notes and thinly connected chapters. It never came together, but while trying to help him ferret out a through-line, I started thinking of it in terms of a screenplay. So I adapted it, devising an entirely new story to bind the fragments together. I haven’t told my friend because he’s hideously critical (I once dreamed he was a snotty French midget who made me carry him around on my back), so I don’t want to breathe a word of it until I have a half-decent script to show him.
In the meantime, I want to submit it for a contest whose prize is a month-long workshop, but they require that adapted scripts include written proof that the rights have been obtained. Do you think this sounds necessary in my case? My understanding is that since it’s just for a workshop, the sponsor organization isn’t in any position of liability anyway — am I correct in believing rights needn’t really come into play until money changes hands?
– Lara
There are two issues at work here. First is legal liability. If you were simply appropriating bits and pieces of your friend’s life from stories he told you, and constructing a new narrative, then I think you’d be relatively well-justified in thinking yourself safe. But the fact is, your friend wrote this stuff down. You read it. No matter how badly written it is, his hodgepodge memoir is his intellectual property, not yours. So if your script is based on the stuff he wrote, you need his permission. While it’s true that there’s not a lot of consequence to this kind of copyright infringement until money changes hands, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless, or okay.
The second issue here is moral responsibility. You’ve read through my other answers about copyright, where my standard advice is generally write first, ask questions later. I think you wrote in specifically to get the same counsel, and keep your conscience clear.
No such luck.
I think you’re a pretty crappy friend. So what if the French midget can’t write a good memoir? That doesn’t give you the right to make the movie version of wee Napoleon’s life without consulting him first. Does the title page even acknowledge that it’s based on his life? Or is that something that doesn’t matter “until money changes hands?”
My advice: tell him what you did, and show him the script. Maybe he’ll love it. Maybe he’ll hate it, and stop being your friend. I can’t say I’d blame him.
Articles
March 9th, 2005 at 8:24 am
Maybe some people think they’re artists and so they’re above common stuff like, say, ethics. Recently there has been a polemic in France about Arnaud Desplechin latest opus (yes it’s the kind of French cinema you’ll have to look for in art houses) : Rois & Reine (Kings and Queen). Desplechin’s ex-girlfriend was outraged for he used a great deal of her life in it. “J’aurais pu faire censurer le film, dit-elle. Ou aller casser la gueule à Desplechin. J’ai préféré écrire. Afin de rétablir les faits pour mes proches, à commencer par mon fils. Et puis pour décrypter le processus de création de cet auteur à la mode qui n’a aucune éthique.” So the polemic has been played up by the media then the critics lauded the movie on its artistical merits, and eventually it did pretty well at the BO (for a Desplechin flick: 1/2 million admissions).
March 9th, 2005 at 9:06 am
“I think you’re a pretty crappy friend.”
Ha! Too perfect. I was thinking the same thing.
I’m curious, though. [playing Devil's advocate] How do you suggest going about writing a screen-play based on a sadistic killer (e.g. Silence of the Lambs)? Do you contact this crazy to acquire rights to make a thriller or write it anyway without permission? Personally, I don’t know that I’d be comfortable paying a criminal for the terrible things he did just to make a story out of it.
March 9th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Cripes. Thank you for answering, but perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. I’m not trying to screw over my friend. He’s in fact a brilliant writer; he just wasn’t able to make the memoir come together. I’m intimidated about his opinion of my writing, and I don’t want to show him the script until it’s up to par, or at least nearly so. That’s why I was trying to get into this workshop, which seems a far cry from making “the movie of wee Napoleon’s life.”
March 9th, 2005 at 8:52 pm
March 9th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
I’m not sure what I’m missing. I’m trying to get into a screenwriting workshop, not make the actual movie. I just explained the situation to my friend and he said he was flattered and to go ahead, and I didn’t have to show him the script first. It seems like you all took a general scenario and populated it with soap opera backstabbers — whereas I’m a first-time screenwriter whose day job is at a nonprofit environmental organization. I don’t move in circles where people are constantly trying to rip each other off. My aim was merely to avoid the mortification of showing a crappy script to someone with very high standards. Which I have accomplished.
Alright then. Sorry I asked, it will never happen again.
March 10th, 2005 at 3:37 am
Lara, although you feel you have been judged harshly, I think you need to ask yourself why the criticism had the result of your telling your friend of your plans. The fact is that actions are more important than intentions, and while I am sure that your intentions were as honourable as you say they were, what the other posters were reacting to was your action: hiding something from your friend. For most people that feels wrong, no matter that you did not ever intend to screw your friend over. Telling your friend was the correct thing to do.
March 10th, 2005 at 7:16 am
I really can’t see what’s wrong with you here. Are we on imdb.com?
March 10th, 2005 at 7:51 am
Stephen — I get your point, but actually I showed it to my friend after a more reasoned conversation with a more seasoned moviemaker. The conversation here was too over the top to take seriously.
March 10th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Well Lara, as a self-proclaimed “first-time screenwriter” you have just made the “first-time screenwriter” mistake of taking things way to personal. Stephen pretty much said what the responses were in a nutshell.
On a related subject, I have a bud (who is not a screenwriter, but he is Italian) who I went to film school with. After the first semester of school he dropped out and went on to make video games (by the way check out Project Snowblind that’s his baby).
He had this great idea for a film, a romantic comedy. And it is really good, really original, and actually worth making. However I think the film should end one way, and he thinks it should end another. I have thought a lot on the matter (it’s been 7 years), and I continue to say to myself “the guy isn’t a filmmaker so he really doesn’t know why that ending just wouldn’t work.”
It has crossed my mind to just take the idea and rework it into something I’d like to see. But I’m not a dick. So I came to this conclusion.
Once the mad movie checks start rolling in on my own work, I will buy the idea off of my friend. ‘Til then, that’ll just sit on the back burner.
As a way Aside…
How do you move in circles? I wish to learn. Is it a spinning action or do you walk a line in 360 degrees? If so I wouldn’t want have someone who would stab me in the back in my circle.
:)You can’t tell me that there aren’t any soap opera backstabbers in nonprofit environmental organizations? There’s gotta be at least one who would stab the little french guy on your back just to get a chance to hug a tree for no money, I mean if it was his favorite tree and all.
Second Aside…
Bring back any interesting characters from Act 1 (even if their French) to tie up any loose ends in the Third Act. It bugs me to let a character hang ;) That’ll be my lesson for today and hopefully you can take the funny from it.
March 10th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Americo – Freaking hilarious. Thanks.
March 11th, 2005 at 7:45 am
Quit ragging on French midgets!
Americo, I think you’ll have quite a wait until those movie checks start rolling in. If your friend’s idea is so freaking great, why not option it now? You don’t need $10mil to option an “idea” from a non-filmmaker acquaintence. Share credit with him (seems like the ending would be your only true contribution anyway.) Two unproduced, non-working film fans should be able to come to a reasonable agreement on an “idea” (I noticed you didn’t actually call the thing a “story”. Lots of people have lots of ideas but they’re not the same as stories.)
March 11th, 2005 at 1:00 pm
Americo, I think I can help you here. Let me in on this script you’re so pumped about and I’ll tell you if it’s worth the time and money. ;)
Oh and I have a bridge for sale if you’re interested.
March 11th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
I don’t believe I’ve ever ragged on a French midget before. I’ve ragged on German midgets, Chinese midgets, and Polish midgets (otherwise known as the very tall). But never French midgets. I believe there is a plethora of material to use to rag on the French, no need to start on their midgets. I’m a strong believer in drawing the line ;)
As far as my buddy’s idea. Doing a romantic comedy is not at the top of my stack of things I wanna do at the moment. It was just that it’s a great idea for a romantic comedy. If I ever wanted to do one, that’s the one I’d want to do.