Should I create a fictional college if students go missing in my script?

You are asking for legal advice, on whether you slander or libel the college in question, which even a lawyer would have to read everything you write about the college in order to provide you with advice.

I am not a lawyer. However, as you can see from the TV series "Suits", it is important to their story line that ALL the lawyers in the law firm Mike works at (Mike is the MC) graduated from Harvard Law, specifically. Mike is a fraud that has used hackers, forgeries and his own skill to pretend to be a graduate, and in their story fictional professors (and I think fictional students) of Harvard Law are blackmailed or corrupted into corroborating his story. (Harvard Law itself, however, is not presented as a routinely corrupt organization.)

So it obviously is possible to use a real (and famous) college, and even imply some fictional professors and administrators are bad apples and their information security leaves room to be hacked so frauds like Mike might exist.

But that is not legal advice; in the end it depends on the college, whether they choose to sue you for defamation or whatever, and whether your publisher's editor is willing to use a real name or not. So unless using an ACTUAL college is very important to the plot of your story (e.g. it MUST be an actual Ivy League college), I personally would set the story in a fictional private college and imply the status with who attends it and how much it costs.

That's the safe route, if the story can still work. If not, spend a day researching what exactly constitutes slander, libel, defamation, etc, use the real name but try to avoid those, and risk being rejected for what an agent or publisher regards as crossing the line. Be aware that a rejection letter may not tell you that is their reason for rejecting you; doing so may constitute legal advice on their part, which they will refrain from giving. They would likely send you form letter A1, something like "Thanks for considering us. Unfortunately this work is not a good fit for us at this time."

posted about 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Amadeus‭

3166 reputation 2 1399 614 37

It may not matter (to you)

There is one thing you must separate: What the story is about AND What a future movie/TV movie will make it. Don't worry about such details. The difference between the on-screen adaptation and the story depends on a lot of things that have nothing to do with your story.

The biggest question I have is "how important is the location to the story?" By that, I mean how much does the exact location matter to the plot? "A college in New York" may be sufficient over "Columbia-U" for many location. Unlike if you story is like the Da Vinci Code where the locations are crucial, don't worry about the specific of the location.

Directors will move things based on their schedules and availability of locations. Write a good plot and a good story rather than focusing on the specific locations. "A coffee shop" is better than "the Starbucks on 5th". Most screen plays are about characters doing something rather than the exact location. Let the director worry about those details.

Write your story so it is the best it can be. As what pointed out, but consult your attorney and/or the school itself to get their position about it.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

JP Chapleau‭

65 reputation 0 9 13 0