With all the recent success for true story dramas including Oppenheimer, Maestro, Nyad, Ferrari, Irishman (among many others), it’s an exciting time in the marketplace for non-fiction. If you have found a story that truly inspires you and know it will make a great film, sometimes it’s hard to know where to start to make that happen.

The easy part is finding the right story, the hard part is knowing what to do with it. Whether it’s a book, a newspaper or magazine article, a documentary subject, or even if it’s the story of someone you’ve met or are related to, understanding how to get the rights and put the project into motion is paramount. To cover all your bases from the legal aspects to development to filming to distribution, you need someone who has been in the trenches time and time again. And we've got just the person, one of the most experienced independent film producers working today, to help you make sense of it all.

Jim Young of Animus Films has created a successful career working in the true story space with films such as The Catcher Was a Spy (Paul Rudd) based off of the life of Moe Berg, Life of a King (Cuba Gooding Jr.) based off of the life of Eugene Brown, The Man Who Knew Infinity (Dev Patel) based off of the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, Lovelace (Amanda Siefried) based off of the life of Linda Lovelace and the upcoming The People vs. Vegas Dave based off of controversial gambler Vegas Dave. Jim is a leading independent non-fiction producer, with almost two dozen films under his belt. And now he's bringing his extensive knowledge exclusively to the Stage 32 community.

Jim will take you through the steps of acquiring the rights to a particular article, book or other printed material about, or the life rights of, a given person (or persons). From there he will cover writing and developing the script, getting buttoned up legally to avoid pitfalls in the pre-production and production phases, and help you navigate the process of releasing and distributing the film. He will provide real life case studies using some of his own films as examples to help you gain real world experience and make the process painless.

PRAISE FOR JIM'S TEACHINGS:

"Jim was an excellent educator. He really broke down the process of getting life rights in an easy to understand way and opened my eyes to some huge pitfalls I need to avoid along the way. Great examples from someone who's actually doing it right now, which is important. Thanks Jim!"

-Jonathan R.

• Finding a Story Worth Telling
• How to Acquire Life Rights  
• How to Acquire Book or Article Rights
• Tips During the Script Development Phase
• Clearance and Legal Steps - How to Get Buttoned Up Legally
• Things to Accomplish During the Pre-Production Phase
• Production Phase Ideas
• Steps to Accomplish before Releasing the Film
• Critical Elements to Have in Place for Distribution (an essential list to have!)
• In-depth Q&A session with Jim Young

• Screenwriters looking to acquire rights to non-fictional properties or who have been hired to write a true story adaptation
• Producers developing a project based off of a true story
• Producers looking to gain a better understanding of potential legal issues that may come up when working with a story based on a true story
• Directors looking to understand the development process behind a non-fiction script
• Directors preparing or interested in shooting films based on non-fictional material
• Directors interested in submitting a non-fiction film to film festivals
• Actors wanting to gain a better understanding of the importance of staying true to a non-fiction script
• Sales Agents looking to understand crucial elements needed in order to prep the film for distribution
• Sales Agents interested in understanding the domestic and international markets for distributing films based on non-fictional characters
• Distributors looking to understand the elements of purchasing and distributing a non-fiction film
• Entertainment attorneys who would like to brush up on the elements needed for a non-fiction project before it goes out for distribution