Presents a master-class turning a short story into an effective film ... analyses in painstaking detail two parallel scripts made out of the same story [Nikolai Shpikovsky's Banner (Znamia) as Leonid Leonov's Feast at Zhimunka (Pir v Zhirmunke)], and ... explains why one works better. [Also imagines at length adapting Ambrose Bierce's The Affair at Coulter's Notch. Describes excitation and compression of the plot through the use of imagery as found in: Honore Daumier's and Michelangelo's depiction of movement, and the works of writers Tolstoy, Edgar Lee Masters, Ford Madox Ford, and more]--