Idea for a Screenplay *

A man sits on his porch and reads aloud to the yard, to some plants and to some birds, his feelings of paranoia, anger and jealousy beginning to lift.

One small bird in particular hops back and forth excitedly to his syllables. The man, continuing to read, watches the bird carefully, for a very long time. The man begins to think that both (A), the bird comprehends nothing in his text, in fact the bird cannot hear him at all, but simply is naturally happy and would hop excitedly about whether the man sat reading to him or not, and also (B), each syllable penetrates the bird in the most inexplicable manner.
 

* Story takes place in St. Louis sometime in the spring of 1997. Film will have no soundtrack to speak of, and no stars… actors playing both man and bird will be unknowns. Shot in black and white, hand-held super 8. Running time: approx. 257 minutes.