Movie True Story

F

FutureDVXUser

Well-known member
Hey,

There was a famous killing (it was a slaughter actually) somewhere in Jersey a while back... Al though I can somewhat describe it since I was there, I can't remember the name of the town it took place in... (But I do wanna record footage of the town... I know I'd need the towns permission for that though...)

I forgot what it's called but my aunt knows about it... Well, she knows what it's called and all the dirty details about it... (How? I dunno... She reads a lotta stuff) But from what I remember it was pretty intense...

What I was wondering, would I need permission to make the movie with all the facts and stuff at the beginning and end of the movie? Maybe I can do a search on it and pull up some old articles... (When I find out what it was called, my aunt is never really available...)

And the title, I forgot what they named it, but when I find out, I wanted to use that title... Do I have to go to the News Papers/ (or whoever named it) to get permission on it?

I wanna write it and than make it... A short movie... Like... 20 minutes maybe... give or take... So I thought I thought this is the appropriate section for that... I'm sorry if this might not be the right place to post something like this...

Please let me know when you have a chance...

Thanks
 
bump

Do I even need permission to make a movie on a true story? If I wanted to shoot on the location, I just need the towns pemission right?

Please let me know...

Thanks
 
Exactly. No one owns history. But depending on where you are shooting, you may need to gain someones permission. Also, for writing about a true event. Get a timeline happening, it'll help.
 
[disclaimer]I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. What I'm about to say should not be considered legal advice, but rather personal opinion[/disclaimer]

Of course, you would have to get permission to use any locations, regardless of whether they have anything to do, directly, with the story. Locations require permission/release, period.

Regarding the story itself, I believe you would have to get permission from the people involved (especially the victim(s) and/or the family of the victim(s) ) before you could re-tell the story.

I would recommend doing some research into copyright law. Also, there are books that talk about legal issues in relation to screen writing...it might be worth looking at a couple of those to see what they say.

Sorry, I couldn't be of more help.

Peace,
Larry
 
I think Larry is right. You might be able to rename the people but keep the events the same, that might get you around the permission problem, but you could still say it is based off of a true story.
 
I, as well, am not a lawyer, but Ill give you some advice that I received when I was tinkering with the idea of writing a 'based on...' screenplay. And what it basically comes down to is a lot of grey areas.

(again this is all based on what Ive been told - Im not an expert myself)

As far as the people are concerned, you may or may not need permission to depict the characters. There is what is called an expectation of privacy (or something of the sort). It protects a normal person from having a huge movie made detailing their personal life without their knowledge or consent. People who live their lives in the public eye (millionaires, actors, famous people etc.) dont have this same luxury, freeing them to having works based on their lives. Whether or not this particular murder qualifies as this I dont know - the case itself most likely got a lot of media atttention, but at the same time victims of crimes have plenty of rights (a good thing) which may prevent you from being able to do this without their express permission. Even if it does qualify, you have to be careful about how you portray real people - for example you couldnt take the police chief and make him an alcoholic domestic abuser if it wasnt documented to be publicly true (defamation of character).

As far as the story, it depends on how true to the details you want to tell it and what youre basing it on. If you are basing the events that will take place from one source (such as an in depth article or book) then this would qualify as an adaptation and you would need the rights from the original author. If you do your own research and then make up your own story hypothesizing what happened that wasnt expressly documented, then you may be free without securing any rights, but you would have to be careful about any specific incidents that you read about in your research and how you recreate them (compared to how they were conveyed in the story).

Theres nothing you can do that will make you safe from being sued. The family of the victim, any police depicted, authors of related material etc. can always sue you for your portrayal of their characters or to claim that you directly stole their story - it just comes down to whether or not they have a case. Of course it sucks to think of it that way, but if you do the right research and make a good impression on those who you do talk to (especially any family of victims or those who were directly involved in the investigation) about rights etc. it can make it a much better situation.

A possible solution would be to take some of the information and create a fictional killer and victims that were different enough from the originals that you wouldnt need to secure the rights. Even with this, though, youd have to be careful not to just change the names - because if thats all thats changed, the real people could possibly still sue you for portraying them in a bad manner (if they feel it was known that that 'fictional' character represented them).

Again, a lot of grey areas and nothing you can do can prevent you from being sued - just make sure you cover your back. Its easier when youre doing a short - low budget can fly below the radar sometimes, but if you make it big you might have to watch out.

Sorry this ran on so long, and someone will probably correct most of what I just said, but thats the advice I received.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

Take the titanic for example. The fact: The size of the ship, the name, the date it took off, the date it crashed into the ice berg, the captain of the ship, etc.

Than on the boat, there was an original love story to follow a plot. (I'm sure it was original).

That's kinda what I'm lookin' to do. Have original characters and dialogue for a simple plot, but base it on the date of the crime, the name of the crime, and the events that happened.

Also, maybe the events took place in this community, but I will shoot in another community. But I still want footage of the place the events actually took place. You know what I mean?

So basically: My characters and locations will be original, but it will be based on the crime that happened, with facts of the real life crime before and after the movie.

Any other advice would def. be of help.

Thanks again guys.
 
Why not fictionalize the crime you are interested in? Put it in a different location, different dates, different characters?
 
Because than people wouldn't think it really happened... I want it to be like a Son of Sam / Texas Chainsaw Massacre / Zodiac Killer... The fact that people would know the events really took place on a certain time and date would make them say, "I can't believe something like that really happened..."

The thing is, this isn't really a popular world wide story... It's just a small town Jersey fact with a really creepy lookin' abandoned area...

I still gotta talk to my aunt because I wanna get down there this weekend or next weekend and talk to the town and maybe I can cut a teaser trailer this weekend...

In real life it took place on a regular street with houses and stuff, but my aunt lives in this trailer resort type thing... And thats where I want to shoot the actual movie...

I have to see, from all the info I gathered here, I'll make a visit to the towns municiple building first and see what I need to do... I probobly wont need insurance because no actors will actually be at the location... Nobody will get hurt unless I trip like a reject...

Thanks again...
 
[Disclaimer] I'm also not a lawyer but I've seen Super Troopers once.[/Disclaimer]

Silence of the Lambs and Texas Chain Saw Massacre both were based very loosely on a man named Ed Gein (Silence of Lamb's Buffalo Bill is said to be based of of a few serial killers), both have different character names then Ed Gein and completely different stories then what really happened.

Some movies that are like the above, will say "Based on Actual/True Events" before the movie starts. They also promote it heavily to be "Based on true events". Some people even thought The Blair Witch Project was real footage because of the way they advertised it. I think making people believe it really happened in some form or another isn't a problem.

Now, in a movie like Elephant, they based it on real events (the Columbine shooting) but all the names of the characters were fictional... so they did what I think you are going for... if I remember I don't even think they mentioned the schools name... but who knows what kind of permissions they did or didn't get. Now I get that this was popular enough so they wouldn't even have to say it was Columbine and your incident isn't. Well, that is were your advertising would come into play.

Basically what I'm getting at is people change the names of events, characters, places all the time but they are still based off of fact and they proudly tell us that.

I do think you would be all right with getting some footage of the locations, it's a public building right? Just avoid the name of the building and any logos and you should be fine, IMO.

Now like someone above said, even if you change the name of the event, people, place date, if some one get's a hair up their arse and wants to sue you because a character in your movie happens to remind them about what happened, they could. They might not win... but a few thousand dollars in legal fees might hurt you.

Good luck though, I've actually thought about doing something like you're doing in the past.
 
I'll have to see... I'm sure if the town allows me to shoot and stuff they'll be able to help me out and let me know about anybody who may be linked to the event...

You gotta see how I plan on doing this...

I'm gonna write the movie in my version... As if I wrote what happened in real life... my own characters, my own sub plots, my own slasher, my own reasons, my own locations, my own outcome, etc...

But in subtitles, before and after the movie, I'm gonna put what it is based on and what really happened... Where it really happened, why it really happened, what the real outcome was, when it really happened, etc... This is specific event is what sparked the movie I wrote/made/whatever, ya know...

So it's actually an original film based on true events, ya know? But I want to incorporate the facts...

Thanks again for the advice...
 
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