FADE IN:

EXT. FRONT VIEW OF A RANCH-STYLE HOUSE (NIGHT)

[PRODUCTION NOTE: Filmed in black and white, slightly grainy.] Wide shot of house. Plastic lawn furniture is stacked up on one end of the porch. In the driveway is a new pickup. On either side of the ranch-style house is corn; tall, ripe, swaying slightly. We can hear crickets..

CLOSE ON PORCH. MAN is standing at the railing. His face is baby smooth, hair slicked back. He is middle-aged, his belly sagging a little. He is wearing dark pants and a white oxford shirt with a necktie un-done at the collar. His hands are in his pockets. His face is expressionless.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Wide shot of living room facing the front of the house. A couch, easy chair, side table, lamp (off), and a generic landscape painting are visible. Light for television (out of frame) flickers and lights the scene. We hear a muted news broadcast. The window had Venetian blinds, which are open. Outside is the man, motionless. Across the road, we see more cornfields, lit by the porchlight. The shot holds for a long time. In the field, a combine moves from right to left slowly, harvesting the corn. Its spotlights are blindingly intense. The noise is deafening. It passes.

EXT. DRIVEWAY

Shot across the hood of the pickup, towards the porch. We see the man in profile. The engine of the pickup is ticking, still warm.

EXT. FRONT PORCH

[TIGHT SHOT OF RAILING] Railing is cheap and rusting. We see through the screen door into the living room, light still flickering. We also see the waist of the man. He takes his hands out of his pockets and rests them on the railing. They are white, soft, and without any jewelry.

EXT. FRONT VIEW OF A HOUSE

Wide shot including yard, as in first shot of scene. We hear the combine return, deafening and bright, lighting up the whole front of the house. It takes a long time to pass. The phone rings inside the house. The man waits for a few rings, he turns, opens the screen door, enters, and lets the screen door shut behind him, making a metallic SLAP.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Shot from the front of the house. We see the man’s back, which is turned away from the front window. He is slightly hunched over, hand clutching an old-style telephone receiver in one hand. We hear him speak very quietly.

MAN: Hello? [long pause] Hello. [pause] Yes, this is he. [pause] Yes. [pause] Yes, I found my visit to be very pleasant. [pause] Oh, the salesmen were wonderful. Very professional. [pause] Very satisfied. [pause] Very satisfied. [pause] Yes, I would recommend them to others. [pause] [pause] Thank you, and you have a—
He is cut off, we hear a dial-tone. He places the receiver back down. He is still facing the wall. The shot holds. We hear the building sound of the combine outside and we see slotted light filtered through the venetian blinds play across the man’s back and the wall. His sillhouette is sharp.

EXT. DRIVEWAY

Shot over the hood of the pickup towards the porch. The man steps onto the porch and looks towards the camera. By this point, the engine of the pickup has cooled and has stopped ticking.

Cut to behind the man, looking at the pickup. The camera holds this shot for a very long time. The man turns and looks across the road, expressionless, looking older and more tired than earlier.

EXT. ROAD / FIELD

We see the man’s front lawn, this time facing away from the house, then a two-lane road with a broken yellow line, a ditch, a swath of corn stalks cut close to the ground, and then a wall of corn still standing after that.

EXT. FRONT PORCH

[Yo La Tengo’s “I Heard You Looking” is queued up.]

Tight shot on man’s face. He looks to his right, towards the pickup. Then across the road. He lifts his face a little and his eyes seem filled with an idea.

EXT. ROAD

Camera is following the man as he strides with purpose down the center of the road. He obscures the vanishing point. There are cornfields on either side. The man’s back is lit orange and flickers slightly. On one side of the road we see the combine stopped and a man running towards an orange glow behind the man.

Camera changes angle to in front of the man. We see an orange and yellow blaze on one side of the road. The man’s face looks confident, sure, younger. He is smiling.

Camera changes angle to behind the man, holds position. The man keeps walking away, getting smaller and smaller in the warm light.

Fade to black.