Amanda stands alone on her front porch with the last
few years of her life thrown at her feet. Ever so gently,
she crouches down and reaches for the precious papers.
Her eyes well up as she’s left to collect her innermost
thoughts.
CUT TO:
INT. DEAD LETTER OFFICE—NEXT MORNING
Thomas lays amongst bags of letters, sound asleep.
Sunlight streams into the office. Particles of dust
highlighted like crystal.
He pries each eye open with some difficulty, rolls his
head to one side, and scuttles backwards. He quickly
smoothes over his eyebrows.
Amanda sits on a pile of letters, calmly watching him.
Thomas’s bike is parked behind her.
They say nothing, merely contemplating each other’s
presence.
Thomas opens his mouth but Amanda speaks first.
AMANDA
I followed you. From my house.
Silence.
THOMAS
It was an accident. Everything that happened was
a mistake.
AMANDA
How did you get my letters?
THOMAS
I work here . . . in the office. I didn’t mean any
harm. Everything just happened so quick, I wasn’t
ready.
AMANDA
Who are you?
THOMAS
My name’s Thomas.
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AMANDA
OK, Thomas. Tell me, what’s happening?
Thomas lets his hands drop.
THOMAS
It went all wrong. They didn’t understand. I just
wanted to give them something to believe in.
AMANDA
It was you.
THOMAS
I was giving it to them. Everybody needed
something and . . . it was all I had to give you.
AMANDA
What does that have to do with me?
Thomas shifts in his pile of letters and looks down.
THOMAS
I’ve always had this dream, and it’s ridiculous
because it’s a direct rip-off of an old Fred Astaire
film, but it’s mine . . . because you’re there. We’re
dancing in the sunlight of a snowstorm. And, I, I
couldn’t let that die.
Amanda timidly looks at his face.
AMANDA
How do you know me?
THOMAS
I used to deliver to your house. I tried so hard to
speak with you, but when I saw what he did to you.
Amanda looks away.
THOMAS
I hated coming there; I hated not doing anything
when I saw him hurting you. But when I left, you
started writing.
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AMANDA
You were reading them.
THOMAS
It was the only way I could know you. I wanted to
give you your miracle. But they didn’t understand
what it was supposed to be.
Amanda crawls over and removes Thomas’s beard and
hat.
AMANDA
My husband didn’t die. He took everything and
disappeared.
A letter shoots out of the duct and soars into the air.
THOMAS
I know.
The faint strings of an instrument.
AMANDA
He took my life.
Five more letters fly into the air. In seconds, hundreds
of letters are shooting out of the duct. CLASSICAL
WALTZ MUSIC slowly fades in.
THOMAS
I just want to try.
AMANDA
I don’t know how to start.
THOMAS
You already have.
Amanda takes Thomas’s hand. He inhales her clean
scent.
They slowly embrace.
Letters fly everywhere, like snowflakes.
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Step by step, they begin to waltz across the floor like
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Two people who have
never known love just found it.
In the background, the sound of POLICE SIRENS can be
heard.
THE END
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Actuality
in docudrama, 172
Adaptation
myth and fairy tale, 49–50, 62–63
structuring, 50–51
Aftermath, 93
Age, 143
L’Age d’Or (Buñuel), 117
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Herzog),
188, 191
Alien 3, 102
All About Eve (Mankiewicz), 153, 154
All Boys are Called Patrick (Godard), 3
All That’s Left: Speculations on a Lost
Life (Hurbis-Cherrier)
voice case study in, 218–219
All the President’s Men, 56, 115
Allen, Woody, 11, 162
comedy and, 81
Andersen, Hans Christian, 198
Anderson, Lindsay, 3, 171, 198
Anderson, Paul Thomas, 162
Anecdotes
in storytelling, 99–100
Annaud, Jean-Jacques, 117
Annie Hall (Allen), 11
Another Story (Shapiro), 42–43,
200, 257, 259–269
narration in, 146
Ansty, Edgar, 2
Antagonist. See also Characters
definition of, 48
dramatic action of, 54
hyperdrama case studies in,
201–202
identifying, 52–53
main character and, 131–132
as motif in docudrama, 175, 177
as motif in experimental
narrative, 211, 213
as motif in hyperdrama, 193, 195
as motif in melodrama, 158, 159
polarized characters and, 91
Antonioni, Michaelangelo, 207, 208
Appearances, 43–44
Archetypes, 136
catalysts and, 137
Aristotle, 10, 39
on dramatic action, 48
on recognition, 48–49
Around the Time (Bertelson), 184
The Art of Fiction, 59
Aspects of the Novel (Forster), 9, 127
Author’s voice
in docudrama, 174–175
in experimental narrative, 209–210
in hyperdrama, 191–192
Autumn Moon (Law), 212–214, 215
INDEX
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Autumn Sonata (Bergman), 156
“Bad” (Jackson)
music video for, 223
Bailey, George, 192
Bastard Out of Carolina (Huston), 157
Battle at Elderbrush Gulch, 1
The Bear, 117
The Beatles, 207
Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau),
19–20, 76
Before the Rain (Manchevski), 216
Beginnings
in dramatic strategy, 123–124
Behavioral characteristics, 132–133
repetition as, 136
Behavioral polarity, 120
Believability
in characterization, 135–136
Benton, Robert, 154
Bergman, Ingmar, 120, 156, 200
on images, 26
on revision, 79–80
Bertelson, Phil, 184
Bertolucci, Bernardo, 208
Besfamilny, Helen, 183
The Best of Intentions, 120
Bierce, Ambrose, 92
The Big Sleep, 41
comedy in, 81
Bird, Antonia, 158
Blackmail (Hitchcock), 103
Blaise, Clark, 94
Bonnie and Clyde, 37
Boogie Nights (Anderson), 162
Boorman, John, 189, 190, 192, 198
Borden, Lizzie, 117
Bowery Boys, 1
The Boys of St. Vincent (Smith), 157
Brakhage, Stan, 2
Breaking Away (Yates), 154, 155, 156
Breaking the Waves (Von Trier), 172,
188, 191
Bresson, Robert, 62
on sound, 29
Brest, Martin, 3
Brighton Blues (Besfamilny), 183
Brittania Hospital (Mercer), 117
Brothers Grimm, 198
Brown, Jeffrey D., 11
Buñuel, Luis, 2, 117, 187, 188, 207
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
37, 56
Butcher Boy (Jordan), 188
Calendar (Egoyan), 206
motifs in, 210–212
Calvino, Italo
on storytelling, 15
Camelot (Logan), 198
Cameras, 102–103
Cameron, James, 153
Camille Claudel (Nuytten), 173
Campion, Jane, 206
The Candidate (Ritchie), 171
Capra, Frank, 192
Carver, Raymond, 92
Cat People (Tourneur), 31
Catalysts, 44–45
archetypes and, 137
in hyperdrama, 199
identifying, 53
as motif in docudrama, 175–176,
177
as motif in experimental
narrative, 211, 213
as motif in hyperdrama, 193, 195
as motif in melodrama, 158, 159
“Cathedral” (Carver), 92
Cavalcanti, Alberto, 4
Celebration (Vinterberg), 172
Chabrol, Claude, 4
Champion (Brown), 11–12
Chandler, Raymond
on screenwriting, 22, 70
Chaplin, Charlie, 1, 11, 187
Character (Van Diem), 158, 172
motifs in, 159–160
Character qualities, 90
Characterization strategies
behavioral, 132–133
believability, 135–136
comedy in, 137–138
complexity, 136–137
dialogue and, 142
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. clean
scent.
They slowly embrace.
Letters fly everywhere, like snowflakes.
342 Writing the Short Film
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Step by step, they. ridiculous
because it’s a direct rip-off of an old Fred Astaire
film, but it’s mine . . . because you’re there. We’re
dancing in the sunlight of a snowstorm.