Production Notes - Scene 13 - The Letter

The real heart of the film, this is where we see Stephanie read her late husband's final letter before he was killed. Lance would have written this letter the day after he told the story of Dieppe to Devin, Cooper, and Alex -- and it's the one he refers to in the scene with the military postal runner.

JazzX gave me two separate readings for this scene. The first reading was one he called an "unofficial take" - one he practiced when he was quite tired. In the end, I went with that take, as it fit with how I imagined Lance's demeanor when he wrote the letter - tired, his mind racing, thinking of their upcoming anniversary.

One of the final lines of the letter includes the phrase "All of My Love". This is a hat-tip to the music that plays in the scene that follows.

Visual editing you may not have noticed:

• There is actually an important visual connection here to the flashback sequence in Scene 9 (The Big Adventure). Stephanie is wearing the same dress as the day they first met; and has her hair down, just as they did that day.
• In the high-resolution version of the film, she has a sad look on her face as she's driving back from town. This expression on her face was lost in the online version.
• As she reads the letter, the camera slowly pans around her in a clockwise direction. The thought bubbles of Lance writing the letter pan around him in a counter-clockwise direction, intended to depict her imagining him in the past.
• In the flashback of Lance and Devin talking in the barracks, we can see their lips moving. I used the same silenced lip-synch technique as in Scene 5. The dialog I used to lip-synch will remain a mystery - let's just say I had fun with it. ;)

Sound editing you may not have noticed:

• The dialog in this scene included a reverb effect, produced in Ulead VideoStudio.
• Each time the camera switches back to Stephanie in the cabin, we hear the rain and the clock ticking again. The rain noise was heavily adjusted for volume, getting more quiet when the camera is inside the cabin.

Riley Entertainment