In the project 'Any resemblance to existing persons is purely coincidental’ graphic designer Vanessa van Dam and photographer Martine Stig team up to investigate the conventions of telling a story. The starting point is the classical way of telling a story - the Hollywood film scenario - and how this construction determines the way we put the things we see and experience in order. The project tells two different courses of one story. Van Dam and Stig create two versions of the fictive character Mr. Wood, whose identity is dictated completely by chance. One version is set in Los Angeles (Hollywood) and one in Bombay (Bollywood). The method they use to create the stories consists of a detailed questionnaire that leads to a search throughout the two cities. Within ten days a character appears. The Los Angeles and the Bombay scenarios obviously unfold differently. The result is a mixture of maps, photographs, drawings and text. It can be placed somewhere in between an alternative travel guide, a manual for writing film scenarios and a criminal investigation method.