Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Reality Rocks My Boat

I was reading this true story today and I was reminded of the post-Oscar inspiration I was feeling Sunday night, the feeling that juices up your "Yes I Can" a few notches. While sitting up after the show and feeding my daughter a bottle, I was running through story ideas in my head and one idea floated to the top, an extrapolation of the actual experiences of a friend of mine. Since this friend is more than capable of writing out and publishing her story if she wanted to, I've never pursued the idea of putting it to paper myself, but still the idea came back, mostly fictionalized but with the one anecdote I first felt made her story potentially cinematic the only remaining thing specific to her actual experience. The circumstance would be generally the same, but beyond geographic specifics necessary for the story, the rest would be fiction.

I tucked that idea away Sunday and thought of it again today while reading the Cougar Ace story and thinking someone must have snatched up the film rights to the article already since it lays out a macho team of mercenary adventurers on a dangerous mission right at the outset. That led me to thinking about my friend's story and whether or not to arrange for the rights to put elements of her own and her family's life experiences onscreen. Have any of you ever thought about or done something like this? I'm sure the specifics of what to do legally are obtainable, that's not what I'm concerned with. Rather, I'm interested in the dynamic such an arrangement brought to your relationship with your friend or acquaintance.

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