The fact-based screenwriter’s toolkit: part 2
Expand your screenwriting toolbox with these five techniques for dramatizing real-life events...
Following on from the first part of the article, here are five lesser-used tools for dramatizing real-life events, with examples.
1. Documentary techniques
Borrowing from the documentary form can add weight and realism to fact-based stories. Incorporating elements like talking-head interviews, direct-to-camera addresses, handheld camerawork, and narration increases authenticity (or the sense of authenticity) – and even offers the chance for satire.
Examples:
American Splendor (2003): Blends real interviews with comic book author Harvey Pekar and dramatized scenes to combine documentary-style filmmaking and with a biopic.
American Animals (2018): This story of four college students who attempt a rare book heist intercuts interviews with the real men involved in the heist.
I, Tonya (2017): Uses mock-interview segments with actors as the real people, parodying documentary conventions while still conveying testimony
Parkland (2013): The chaos surrounding the JFK assassination is shown from various POVs, using ensemble storytelling and a handheld camera to achieve a docudrama tone (that’s a bit too heavy on the ‘doc’ side).
United 93 (2006): This account of how passengers on United Flight 93 foiled the 9/11 terrorist plot was shot in near-real time with documentary realism.
JFK (1991): Oliver Stone’s version of the events surrounding JFK’s assassination incorporates documentary-style recreations, grainy footage, and newsreel inserts to blur fact and speculation.
2. Re-enactment scenes
Restaging real events or moments of cultural creation blurs the boundary between historical record and artistic interpretation. Used for realism, irony or commentary, these scenes are often combined with other documentary techniques to heighten the realism and take viewers into the heart of the story. This technique is most often associated with music biopics but can be found across the genres.
Examples:
Being the Ricardos (2021): Restages moments from I Love Lucy to explore the personal and professional pressures behind one of TV’s most famous couples.
Love & Mercy (2014): Recreates Brian Wilson’s studio sessions while recording Good Vibrations, capturing the creative genius and instability behind the music.
The Social Network (2010): Restages key legal depositions and boardroom showdowns, dramatizing conflicting accounts of Facebook’s origin story.
Frost/Nixon (2008): Uses actual transcripts to re-enact the televised interviews between David Frost and former US president Richard Nixon.
We Were Soldiers (2002): Reconstructs the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang with meticulous attention to real events and geography, turning a historical account into an immersive cinematic experience.
Ed Wood (1994): Lovingly recreates scenes from the B-movie director’s low-budget films, highlighting his creative passion and delusion in equal measure.
3. Composite scenes / composite events
This technique offers the ability to condense multiple events, often taking place over several years, into one or more representative scenes. It allows the writer to maintain tight pacing without sacrificing important detail or key developments. Sometimes combined with composite characters, this technique is often used in procedurals and biopics to shorthand lengthy investigations and life events.
Examples:
Spotlight (2015): Merges multiple interviews, discoveries, and editorial meetings into composite scenes that capture the team’s investigation, which in real life, took years.
Selma (2014): Condenses numerous marches, meetings, and speeches into key composite events that maintain historical momentum without overwhelming the narrative.
The King’s Speech (2010): Streamlines years of speech therapy into a small number of sessions to show the evolution of the relationship between King George VI and Lionel Logue.
Erin Brockovich (2000): Combines various witness encounters into singular confrontations that dramatize the scope of the environmental case.
All the President’s Men (1976): Merges phone calls, interviews, and newsroom discussions into streamlined encounters that convey the essence of the reporters’ persistence.
4. The meta-biopic approach
This advanced technique offers a more abstract and creative way to interpret real-life events or a subject’s life. When done well, it can result in a unique and memorable script. The meta-biopic approach often goes hand-in-hand with an unconventional narrative structure, such as fragmented storytelling or chaptering.
Examples:
The French Dispatch (2021): Inspired by The New Yorker, Wes Anderson’s film uses fictionalized reportage to create a quirky anthology that reflects on the art of journalism.
The Disaster Artist (2017): Recreates the making of The Room (2003), known as ‘The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made’, while exploring authorship and delusion.
I’m Not There (2007): Uses multiple actors to embody different aspects of Bob Dylan’s life and legend, transforming biography into an exploration of identity.
Adaptation (2002): Turns the challenge of adapting Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief into the plot.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993): Fragments the pianist’s story into vignettes that mimic his music’s complexity, questioning the coherence of any single ‘truth’.
5. Narrative voice via documents
Incorporating documents, letters or other actual written communication adds authenticity to fact-based stories – particularly procedurals. Unlike using documents purely as research material, this technique brings fragments of the real communication directly into the drama, such as newspaper headlines or excerpts from a report. Just be aware of any copyright issues.
Examples:
She Said (2022): Uses real emails and recordings to recreate the investigative process behind breaking the Weinstein story.
The Report (2019): Centred on a real Senate investigation, the film turns compiling a classified report on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program into a tense narrative about persistence and ethics.
Spotlight (2015): Integrates court filings, letters, and public records as active story elements, showing how research becomes revelation.
The Post (2017): Weaves newspaper copy, memos, and typeset pages into the storytelling, making the act of publication itself the drama.
All the President’s Men (1976): Uses phone records, notes, and typed reports to drive the plot, giving the written word dramatic momentum.