The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… Based on a True Story?
16 
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… How to Write a Movie in 21 Days
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… Taking a Turn for the Words
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… Just Keep Typing
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… The Resident
- The Screenplay Diary: “Between Love and Orgasms”… Based on a True Story?
[/media-credit]The El Capitan Theater
Every writer, no matter the genre, will eventually run into (or run over and fall into) that giant sucking sinkhole of creative quicksand… alliterative pun full intended… the, “how close is too close?” question. Mulling this over for a solid five minutes before I began writing today’s entry in The Screenplay Diary, it got me to thinking about something you see in the super short TV trailers for films about to be released (or released straight to DVD).
Something I now call, “the source tag”.
“A true story”… “Based on a true story”… “Inspired by true events”… “From an original concept developed by”… “Stolen from the intellectual property of”… Seriously, where does it end? And where does a writer have to draw the hard line between life informing fiction, and autobiography?
You tell me when you figure it out, because I have no idea.
As with pretty much anything I’ve ever written that has ended up read in publics places, the crafting of personal words usually find their way into the light because of very personal experiences. Personal, that is, unless they are the very personal words of some other “character” in the story. And sometimes, a story that’s too close can take on an unanticipated (at least for the viewer) element of extreme Cinéma vérité.
For the sake of once such character, this Screenplay Diary marks the end of one in particular which has dominated the last several of entries. For all who have been regular readers here, it’s time for you to say goodbye (for now) to the character of Buddy.
INT. WAREHOUSE – Late Afternoon
Buddy sits at his computer in the dispatch office. Robbie enters, and flops into a spare office chair, never looking up from texting. Buddy’s desk phone rings.
BUDDY (on phone)
Yes? Sure… be right there.
(mutters, half in Tagalog)
Ina fucker.
ROBBIE
Who’s that?
BUDDY
Randall.
ROBBIE
The big boss? What’s he want?
BUDDY
He’s going to fire me.
ROBBIE
He can’t do that!
BUDDY
He thinks he can.
ROBBIE
What are you going to do?
BUDDY
I’ve got peek-chures. Sa aking lock-air.
ROBBIE
In your locker? Pictures of what?
BUDDY
Peek-chures of Randall giving me my job back.
And maybe a raise.
ROBBIE
No really. Pictures of what?
BUDDY
Ang pinakamahusay na hindi mo alam. Best
you don’t know.
Robbie stops texting.
ROBBIE
Seriously, why?
BUDDY
Because then, I would have to kill you…
and the goat.
The desk phone rings again. Buddy answers it.
BUDDY
I’ll be right there… Randall.
See you later Buddy. And see you all later too. Next time… a love story.
The Screenplay Diary: "Between Love and Orgasms"... Based on a True Story?,
Blogger, screenwriter, bloody awful poet. A writer of too many beginnings, and not enough endings. View My Profile
Tags: based on a true story, Between Love and Orgasms, Between Love and Orgasms (the script) on Facebook, Bill Friday, cinema vérité, Cracked.com, Friday On Friday, It's Always Friday, straight to DVD, Tagalog, The Screenplay Diary, the source tag
Next time a love story? So Buddy and the goat live happily ever after?
I like your writing. Maybe I missed it, but where did you decide on Tagalong and are you using it properly?
Buddy and the goat have an adversarial relationship… much like Buddy and Randall. And why Tagalog? Because Buddy speaks Tagalog… Duh!!! And there is no right or wrong way to use Tagalog
Oh, silly me!
Gotta admit, I’m going to miss Buddy.
So, you’re going to write a love story that’s “based on a true story”? And we all know (even Urban Dictionary does) that “based on a true story” really just means that everything is fabricated. This only leaves me to deduce that you’re writing a RomCom.
Would you like to speak on that Mr. Friday?
Only the readers are going to miss Buddy. I’m still going to see him five nights a week. And everybody knows that everything you read in Urban Dictionary is all true… after all, it’s the internet! Oh, and who says a love story can’t be written about Randall and his goat?
Uh-huh? No one… that’s who!
Uh..ME? (See above.) ROFL
So this is a RomCom about a man and his goat? Can Tom Hanks play the man while Meg Ryan plays the goat?
I’m thinking a few working titles could be…
“The Goat’s Got Mail”
“Sleepless (in self-defense) in Seattle”
“Goat Versus the Volcano”
(and for the tens of loyal Meg Ryan fans who remember one particular Non-Rom-Com she did that almost ruined the career of Mark Rufalo)
“In the Goat”
Feel free to add…
Does it have to be a play on a movie Meg Ryan already starred in? Because here’s what I’ve got:
“Four Goats and a Funeral”
“My Best Goat’s Wedding”
“There’s Something About Goat”
“Bridget Goat’s Diary”
“The Goatbook” (my personal fave)
I won’t even ask for royalties.
“The Goat Whisperer”
“Goathog Day”
“Goat, Pray, Love”
and Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in…
“Goat”
Uh oh! Would love to be a fly on that wall.
Nice installment. I must now go and put the roast in the crock-pot. 
Or a flea on that goat.