Screenwriter needs your help

[AMVC]

Hello

My name is Andrew and I am 27 years old. I studied screenwriting at the National Film & Television School a couple of years back and have been trying to find my way in the writing world and in life. I'm just a normal guy, I live in London on the breadline, I work as an early morning cleaner, I recently defaulted on a massive loan, and I love writing.

Between working on another project I have spent the past year researching and structuring a story framework about a man falsely accused of rape. Now has come the time when I can dedicate myself wholeheartedly to the false rape allegation script and I need your help.

I care about every story I write, but this story eclipses all that has come before. I have read practically every thread on this board, every ordeal, and believe me, empathise isn't a big enough word. I feel your experiences like it happened to me in a former life. My conviction is that stories find you, not visa-versa, and this story has become so important to me.
That said, reading words is one thing, hearing them pour out of a mouth is quite another.
I MUST meet men that have been falsely accused of rape and have an opportunity to sit down with them and just talk. Writer to accused, man to man, stranger to stranger, soon to be friend to soon to be friend, however you wish to phrase it, I cannot and will not write a single word until I do. Real stories come from real people, I need to absorb as much information on this subject matter as I can and then use my capabilities to tell the world yours.

If you would be willing to meet me and share your experiences please send me a PM and we can go from there.

Moreover, if you are the partner, relative, or friend of a falsely accused man I would also dearly like to meet and hear your experiences as well.

Should anybody reading this like to comment in the thread please feel free to do so; ideas, advice, grievances, et cetera, are all welcome.

Thank you

Andrew

[AMVC]

Hello again everybody

Ignorantly I believed that I could just post a thread requesting to meet a guy falsely accused of rape and hey presto I'd get what I had asked for. Needless to say that hasn't been the case.

Some friendly, sage advice has led me to rethink how I will gain peoples trust and respect on this forum and prove that I am who I say I am and my intentions are not disingenuious or coming from a bad place.

I am not directly employed/linked to any media organisation, production company, publishing house, et cetera. Most of the folk I know in the film industry are students(mostly producer types) I went to film school with, like myself they're trying to make a name from themselves, unlike myself they're getting paid.
Writing takes so much yet gives so little back. If you're hankering to be a screenwriter set aside the next ten years, get your head in the work, and hope lady luck will give you a wee kiss on the way.

I will be writing what is known as a spec script. That means that I will spend a year or so writing and rewriting it and then I will send it to producer types to see if they are interested in taking the project into futher development. Naturally I get no money for doing this unless they like it.
I have another script that has been rewritten numerous times and the producer and director team(students from my year) I have been working on it with are going to send it out to do the rounds shortly. If it's poorly recieved it's poorly recieved; what can ya do? Try again is the answer.
Life is about overcoming adversity and pain is an interesting route to travel in life.

Inasmuch anybody that would be willing to come forward to meet with me would only be helping me craft the character, making them a real human being in the context of a screenplay that may one day be realised on the silver screen.
You would not be interviewed in a formal setting, I imagine it to be a conversation between two guys kicking back in a pub. I swear that this is all that I am asking for and do not have alterior motives. I am just an ordinary guy that needs to speak with somebody that has had an extraordinary experience.

I can offer no financial gain nor credit, the only reward I can offer is that perhaps one day you'll watch a film about the plight of a guy falsely accused of rape and you can say to yourself I helped the man who wrote that. Not much I know, but thats all I got.

Having spent over a year(A night in the pub after the Nottinghill Carnival '08 is when it all began) researching and making my story notes I will be gutted if I don't get this opportunity.

This story is important and should be known. I'm the man to make it known because I care.
I care about men falsely accused of rape. I'm a man. This could happen to me. A couple of months back I was thinking about all the themes that my story was trying to illustrate which steered me to thinking about the authors(my) point of view. It was blatant, this script would be my defense if I was ever falsely accused of rape. I would provide the police with my story and research notes, the various drafts of the script, the details of anybody else who knows about the project, this thread, and so forth.

If you're sat there, the shell of a man who once had dreams but now just prays for life to go back to the way it was before, if thats you and you want to help me I'd urge you to take a massive risk and trust a stranger. I'm not all bad.

Anyhow, I'm going to stick around and post in threads if I feel I can give suitable advice as an outsider looking in.

Soldier on, stick out the struggle, and the good times will taste all that much sweeter.

Peace

[RFLH]

Good luck on this.

I'm not sure that anyone will come forward - this is such an emotive issue. Those touched by it remain hurt and raw for years.

It tears families apart and the stigma never leaves - it follows you for the rest of your life. Your thinking changes, your reactions and emotions.

You no longer enjoy life in a carefree way, although having said that the media makes a very good job to tell people that there are sex offenders waiting on street corners, on computers and never trust a relative, after all most offences are commited by a family member.

Most chaps just want to keep a low profile and not to be singled out, left in peace to try and cobble together the broken threads of their former lives.

[friday]

you could ask if anyone on here would be happy to answer questions via pm, thus keeping absolute anonymity (no names, no faces). maybe ask if anyone who would be happy to do so could message you?

[Rights Fighter]

The majority of people who post on here in relation to false allegations of sexual offences are either recently accused looking for support and advice in the event of a trial, or the poster is the wife, partner or family member of somebody who is already in prison.

Either way, their cases are still before the law in either a trial or appeal capacity so they cannot talk to you in any event.

They do not know you either - so why should somebody whose life has been completely disrupted, fragmented, tossed about and gone through and are possibly still in hell, trust somebody who posts on a public forum that they are in dire straights themselves but would like to hear from people whose own lives are in worse various straits of disarray?

What other members decide to do is entirely up to them. I certainly would never advise somebody in this predicament to confide in a complete stranger who clearly has his own problems.

No offence intended.

[AMVC]

Firstly, Thank you all for the replies to my last post. It felt good to get aknowledgements from members.

you could ask if anyone on here would be happy to answer questions via pm, thus keeping absolute anonymity (no names, no faces). maybe ask if anyone who would be happy to do so could message you?

This is something I had entertained but in the spirit of honesty it would be a disappointing second best, albeit we don't always get what we want so compromise is an option here.

The majority of people who post on here in relation to false allegations of sexual offences are either recently accused looking for support and advice in the event of a trial, or the poster is the wife, partner or family member of somebody who is already in prison.

Either way, their cases are still before the law in either a trial or appeal capacity so they cannot talk to you in any event.

They do not know you either - so why should somebody whose life has been completely disrupted, fragmented, tossed about and gone through and are possibly still in hell, trust somebody who posts on a public forum that they are in dire straights themselves but would like to hear from people whose own lives are in worse various straits of disarray?

What other members decide to do is entirely up to them. I certainly would never advise somebody in this predicament to confide in a complete stranger who clearly has his own problems.

No offence intended.

No offence taken RF.

Obviously I am a complete stranger and do not know anybody here so I see trust and want as the key issues.
I ask myself what other options do I have? I can't waltz into a police station and inquire about the contact details of men who have been false accused of rape. I am unaware of any support groups for men enduring the aftermath of a false accusation(which I find disquieting). This forum, to my mind, is the only glimmer of hope I have, that is why I am here.

If somebody decides to trust my words and meet with me they will do it because they want to.
Films gets watched, films get critiqued, films get discussed, films get remembered.
If I wrote this script and a few years from now it was in your local cinema it could change lives. A female with a wicked streak in her heart, having watched the film and the pain a false allegation leaves in it's wake, might not ever do that to a man should she feel the want to. If she hadn't seen it she may be the cause of another life crushed beyond repair.
If I could know that it would save one mans life in the future then Lord knows it would all be worth it. "He who saves one life saves the world entire."

"Clearly has his own problems"?
We've all got problems, the test is overcoming them.

You're biggest fear will be the rescue of you.

Thanks again for the replies. Please keep submitting questions and advice, it's so welcomed

[friday]

even if you get no replies the forum has a large number of posts from people who have been falsely accused and shows the pain and aftermath of the accusations whether they reach court and result in a conviction or result in no further action. if i was in your position i would be reading all the posts in order to get an idea of what the falsely accused and those closest to them go though.

[AMVC]

even if you get no replies the forum has a large number of posts from people who have been falsely accused and shows the pain and aftermath of the accusations whether they reach court and result in a conviction or result in no further action. if i was in your position i would be reading all the posts in order to get an idea of what the falsely accused and those closest to them go though.

Hello friday.

As I mentioned in my first post I have been coming to this forum for over a year and I have read nigh-on every thread, on all the boards.
I have digested all that reading and it has helped me no end. If it wasn't for this forum I wouldn't have been able to create the story I have in place at the moment, in fact I would have probably not pursued the idea due to lack of research material.

In hindsight I wished I had registered an account when I began coming here, and even perhaps made a thread outlining who I am and my plan, but because the boards are public I didn't think to do so. Nevermind, here now.

Thanks for the reply.

[AMVC]

Hello folks

Every false allegation experience here and the world over share certain traits the acused man/spouse/girlfriend/family member will be affected by.

In my research I have found that some are more predominant than others, some are more complex, some are more rare.
It would be very helpful to me if members could tell me what emotion/feeling/thought overpowered all others in their experience?
This could be just one word, or you may want to answer in more detail to explain why.

Take care folks.

Andrew

[Stellifier]

Andrew,

We have communicated before on here, but I think it important for you to understand there are different emotions at different stages of the ordeal.

So there's the initial emotions when you first get arrested by the police, the emotions you feel between then and the "official" end, then the emotions you feel after that point in time as you try to get on with your life. Then there's a whole heap of different emotions depending on what is happening in your life at that point in time that bring it all back.

For me personally there wasn't any one particular emotion that overrode all others - they just all came at once and hit me like a steam-train - I became a "broken-man" in an instant. I remember the first day when I was arrested and taken to the police station and put in a cell at 19 years of age until they were ready to interview me and I don't mind admitting I sat that there and sobbed like a child. I couldn't string a coherent sentence together or even have a logical thought in my head. I also remember a policeman coming in and just saying "don't worry lad just tell the truth" - best advice I could ever give anyone who finds themself in the same situation.

So if I cast my mind back to those 6 months between the start and when it "officially" ended I remember these emotions vividly:

Shock
Disbelief
Powerless/Helpless
Confused
Scared/Fearful
Angry
Suicidal
Vulnerable
Worried
Depressed
Ashamed
Paranoid
Resigned

Sorry if I'm hogging all your questions!


EDIT: As I re-read this, a big feeling that occured to me that I'd missed was that it was all very "surreal". Maybe it's how I look back on it now but it was almost as though they had the wrong person, it couldn't be happening, it must be a mistake. Not sure if this comes across as I mean it, it's just surreal seems to be a good word to use. Could just be how I look back on it as I said, but perhaps worth noting.

[AMVC]

Stellifier,

No need to mention that we've communicated before, I keep an eye out for your screenname and look forward to reading your posts

The surreality you remarked on is something I'm unsure if I've read before. Retrospective or elsewise its food for thought.

If you want to hog all my questions hog away. I have identifed synchronicity regularly in my life and I believe I see it here.

I have a question for you about anger if I may. How did this manifest itself? Did you find yourself doing anything out of character?

Thank you.

[Stellifier]

Andrew,

Well I understand the context behind your question about anger, but to be honest my character had completely changed then anyway so everything I was doing was 'out of character' - my whole sense of "self" was altered forever. However, as I said in first post, my emotional outlet was really food. I didn't particularly do anything to release my anger if that's what you are alluding to.

As I also tried to relay, the emotions were almost concurrent, I'd go from one emotion to another in seconds or minutes. So it wasn't that I felt angry for days on end. I'm also quite a calm person generally - not prone to fly off the handle.

I don't want you to think that how I felt was a generalisation of all falsely-accused though, I imagine others in a similar situation will feel different emotions depending on the circumstances and their own personality. What I would say though is that even though I was angry at times I wastoo emotionally drained to do anything about any of the emotions I felt - the "broken man" symptom.

Without wanting to point out the obvious, the anger was about how she could just get away with doing such a thing, how was it possible that someone can just make an accusation without any proof or evidence and for that to be believed. Anger that I knew my life would never be the same. Anger that I knew she was lying. Anger that I also knew from friends that while I was barely functioning as a person, she was out living it up as she had always done - the centre of attention, which is what she wanted I guess.

A stronger sense of anger after it was finally over that there were no repercussions whatsoever for her - almost that I should feel "lucky" it didn't go to court. Whilst I realise that a trial would have been a terrible experience I do sometimes wonder what it would have been like.

[Saffron]

Again, well-written Stellifer. Just to add my own thoughts:

I also used food as an outlet, but in reverse. I just didn't eat. It made me feel sick. I lost well over a stone - went from being a slim, healthy 9st to a rather skinny 7st 10lbs. That was a Size Zero for me! I think it was because there was almost nothing I could control in my life apart from what I put in my mouth. I drank to excess (which is probably why I wasn't even thinner!) and suffered completely erratic mood swings - laughing crazily at nothing one minute; breaking down and sobbing my heart out at a film the next. (Mary Poppins was a case in point. Once I also saw a man put a protective arm around a lady in the street one day, and that made me lose the plot as well.)

I felt like my life was over. It sounds dramatic and unneccessary, especially as I wasn't the one in prison, but I couldn't ever see my life being the same again. And it certainly hasn't been the same.
Can't write anymore.

[Stellifier]

Thank you Saffron.

I can only slightly relate with what it must have been like for you as a partner to someone wrongly accused and therefore wrongly convicted - as I was still living at home it was my parents who stood by me unconditionally. It was my mum who used to cry mostly because of the sheer hopelessness of the situation. But it was also her who had to carry on going to work as if nothing happened and put on brave face for the world. I felt so guilty and sad that she went through that but yet in someways it brought us even closer together and certainly my appreciation, pride and respect for my parents could not be greater for how they supported me back then.

It must have truly been awful for your husband to have to go to prison, something in someways I am grateful for (I still don't know whether I feel grateful or angry it even went as far as it did)- although it seems plainly wrong to me that it is mostly down to sheer luck whether a man ends up in prison or not. To be honest I had no influence on the outcome of my case really it just kind of happened around me and "luckily" was stopped by the CPS before going to court - but who knows what would have happened had it gone that far? I'm not sure I would have made it through prison though - I was having suicidal thoughts on a daily basis let alone to be found guilty of it, so kudos to your husband for having the stregth to get through it for his family.

Luck is very strange concept isn't it - was I lucky for it to be stopped before it got to court? Well yes, even though I knew I was innocent I also knew there was absolutely nothing I could do to prove it. So really it was pot-luck as to whether I ended up in prison or not. That is the most difficult thing to get your head around - "there but for the grace of God go I" was my first thought when I read about the situation with your husband. Probably what helped me was that I had known her for a long while and so there was a history among the circle of friends we were in that eventually went in my favour.

I really hope that you find the strength to cope with the bad days, it's so hard to force a positive emotion through to block out the negative ones but hopefully over time you will find it a little easier to. 15 years on I still think about it daily (obviously a lot more since writing on here but it is quite liberating for me personally to be able to finally communicate my feelings even if no-one knows who I am), BUT these negative thoughts are much more fleeting nowadays and I try hard to not allow them to dominate who I am or what positive things I have achieved since that awful period in my life.

Please know that time will help you - it won't make it go away completely but it will eventually become a more and more easier to get through each day.

[AMVC]

Thank you for the responses Stellifier & Saffron

I wanted to check back in sooner but I've had to rewrite something else and it got me spent. I haven't evaporated, I'm still here, and I'm once again 100% focused on this false allegation story. *muted cheers*.

Another pop quiz if I may...

Stellifier, as you wrote in your 'My Story' thread, you moved away to start afresh, leaving your family and friends behind; what led you to believe this was what you had to do? Did anything trigger the notion, or was it gradual?

Saffron, forgive me if you have commented about this elsewhere, or you plain just don't want to, but could you tell me a little about how the period when you "drank to excess" and "didn't eat" affected your reationship with your son?

Take care.