Assignment #2: Automat

​Logline: A young woman makes the difficult decision of choosing her professional ambitions over love.



​Treatment: It is nighttime, and a woman sits alone at a table in a Washington D.C. cafe drinking coffee. She is visibly nervous; she places her mug back on its saucer, and begins to drum her fingers on the table. She shakes her head, as if thinking better of it, and fishes into her pocket for a carefully folded up letter. She delicately unfolds the letter, and begins to read it; the letter is worn, and it is obvious that the woman has read this letter many times before. The camera zooms in on the letter; we see that the woman has been offered a position to be a writer at the Los Angeles Times. A young, handsome man, approximately the same age as the woman, enters the cafe; it is the woman’s fiancé. As the man walks happily over to the woman, she quickly and discreetly refolds the letter and slips it into her pocket. The man gives her shoulder a squeeze before sitting down; the woman offers a meek smile in return. The man takes the woman’s hand that is resting on the table, and makes a concerned expression as if to ask what is wrong. The woman reaches into her pocket and gingerly places the letter she had just been reading on the table. The man lets go of the woman’s hand and begins to read the letter. When he realizes that the woman has been offered a position at the Los Angeles Times, his eyebrows raise in surprise and he breaks out into a grin; he is happy for his fiancé. He jumps up from his seat and hugs her, but steps back cautiously when he realizes that she is not equally excited. He sits back down again, still puzzled. The woman points to the last line of the letter which reads: “Acceptance of this position will require you to leave your residence of Washington, D.C. and move to the Los Angeles area immediately.” The man sinks back in his chair, finally realizing the woman’s sadness. Wiping a tear from her eye, the woman fishes into her pocket once more: this time, she places her engagement ring on the table. Without saying a word, she picks up her suitcase, which was under the table, and heads out the door of the cafe quickly. The man sits at the table for a moment, and fingers the ring that the woman has placed on the table. We see the woman hurrying away from the cafe, suitcase in hand, headed towards an awaiting taxi. The man runs to the door of the cafe, waving his hands and calling after the woman. The woman does not look back.