2016 Austin Film Festival and Conference Schedule

Creating a compelling story from scratch is always a challenge. This is why writing something based on true events —with a built in beginning, middle, and end—can be appealing to screenwriters. This can yield its own set of challenges, however: How do you condense these often complex and unwieldy occurrences into a tight-knit narrative, complete with structure and nuance? how do you form a visually interesting and cinematic story when real life can often be anything but? Panelists will discuss their strategies on balancing truth, fact, and fiction while capturing the essence of real-life subject matter that, as a result, continues to live on in our memories.