True Stories 15: 00s—Almost Famous

From last week’s A Beautiful Life, to a look at another beautiful—albeit quite different—life.

Almost Famous [2000] by Cameron Crowe is a film about William Miller who, at age 15, gets a gig from Rolling Stone to go on tour with the rock band Stillwater and write an article about them.

True story? A 15-year-old going on tour with a rock band? Seriously? Well, it happened. Crowe went on tour with the Greg Allman band when he was 15 to write just such an article and the film is based on his experiences as a young rock journalist for Rolling Stone. And the main character in the band, Russell Hammond ,is said, by some, to be based on Greg Allman and by others to be based on Glenn Fry of the Eagles.

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk0XnyrENrE

Crowe has talked about how the film is loosely based on his experiences.

Think about that. Think about something in your own life that is, possibly, film-worthy. How do you flesh it out so that it’s not just a biopic of exactly what happened but something that works on multiple levels and adds richness to the true story--a richness that makes the story big enough to be a film?

Well, how did Crowe do it?

First, he focused on his main character, William, before the story starts. He gave us a look at his family life with his mother and sister [no father is in the picture] when he was about seven. So we get to see the values/restrictions he was raised with. We get to see his relationship with his restrictive but free-thinking-in-ways mother as well as his wild and crazy, totally cool and fun sister.

Second, we see how passionate he is about music. When his sister leaves home with her boyfriend, she gifts her younger brother all of her rock albums—which he keeps hidden from mom. Because to mom, rock music will just lead to drugs. But William loves the music and starts writing articles for small magazines about his rock music. So when Rolling Stone calls and tells him he should be writing for them, he’s over the moon. And his mother lets him go because she knows she should—she knows he’s following his passion.

Third, Crowe populates the film with rich characters. Russell, of the band, is fascinating. And Penny Lane, based on a real person, is even more so. [Pennie Lane, as she was known in the 70s music scene, formed a group of girls who would travel around with bands as their groupies. She is now better known as a philanthropist and entrepreneur.]

So when you think about it, it’s all about character. Sure, keep your plot moving, make it full of twists and turns, but do major work on your characters. And remember, even though what you’re writing is inspired by your life, you can do anything you want to make the story more compelling. Anything.

Crowe’s life story continues to be interesting as he’s now written Almost Famous as a Broadway musical. I’m seeing it in October and will report back!!

Next week, another person whose life was interesting enough to be the basis for a film: Erin Brockovich.

Copyright © Diane Lake

18Sep22

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com