Film Treatment

 

              The Strike a documentary filmed by Lisa Boston Frye

                                                                      edited by Phillip Wright

 

              I am filming this subject because I am an operator on strike, and this is my life today.  I would like to show the operators as people and their cause as valid.  I want to reveal their humanity, their pain and their desperation.  But also I’d like to expose the solidarity of the union propaganda machine which causes people to meld with others of like focus and often results in the blurring of the individual.  This was accomplished here through the mass dressing in red tee shirts and by adorning identical picket signs.  Group and clannish posturing can cause the individual to lose his uniqueness, can cause him to turn ugly, can fester a mob mentality.  It is not a pretty sight.

              I would also like to have a memory, actual footage of history as it happens, of the phone company strike of 2000 from my own perspective, from my own eyes. 

              I have to picket anyway, I may as well make it interesting. 

              Opening shot:  My son Russell holds sign “The Strike”  turns it over and it is a picket sign.  Next sign “filmed by Lisa Frye” and its also a picket sign when its turned over.  Fade out.

              Traveling shot of power lines and telephone lines as I drive to work.  Phone lines lead me to the phone company.  Close up of Bell Atlantic sign.  Is this an establishing shot?

              Low angle shot of me speaking in front of Bell Atlantic, as operators wait and wonder if we will go on strike or not.  Close up.   (the camera doesn’t love me)

              Panorama shots of operators waiting outside building as they continue to wait, in the dark, for 12:01 am., the time the strike may or may not begin.  Pan of operators leaving the building and leaving the parking lot as strike happens.

              Montage of scenes of operators in the picket lines holding picket signs, etc. as music plays in the background, and Marvin Gaye sings  “What’s Going On?”

              My sister Pammy’s voice says my words in the background, “There’s a human element behind the picket signs - these people are your husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends.  We are moving along with the union machine hoping to secure our future.”  Close up of back of Security guards shirt as he closes the front door. 

              2 shot of Meg being interviewed by Channel 9 anchorwoman.  3 shot includes the cameraman.

              Match cut of policeman saying hi, to Chris Hanson as she is responding to questions from Manchester Union Leader reporter.

              Reaction shot of picketers as one operator yells for the “scab” to come out.

              Traveling shot of operators walking in picket line at night as I walk in the picket line.

              Reaction shot of operator leaving work as striking operators scream “scab” in anger.

              My voice is heard, “time ticks by...”  as operators continue to walk the line, in a pan traveling shot.

              Traveling shot of telephone lines, power lines as Jim Croce sings, “Operator.”

              American shot of my son, Russell, as he holds the last sign, The End, which turns into a picket sign again.  Fade out.