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Feature Cut reference

A 90-minute film, written one track at a time.

This 23-song storyboard shows how a fixed sequence can carry a sustained narrative from departure to return.

Monochrome artwork of a samurai facing a raven
The permanent cover for this Feature Cut example.

The shared score

The artifact doesn't confess

A man disappears on an evening train. What remains is a briefcase, a promise, and a score that keeps opening deeper rooms.

23 songs · one sequence · unbound narratives
  1. 01

    Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven

    A man and woman walk to a train in Antwerp, Belgium; he carries a briefcase and newspaper, kisses her goodbye and promises to return that evening.

  2. 02

    Sudden - Interpol

    That evening, the train returns his briefcase and newspaper but does not return him.

  3. 03

    Light Years - The National

    By morning, stations, borders and languages have multiplied the distance between them. A force of his presence is missing.

  4. 04

    Possibility - Lykee Li

    She sits frozen, looking out the window from his chair in the living room clenching his picture and favorite sweater.

  5. 05

    Colorblind - Counting Crows

    Months later, she notices his face in an image of a crowd among strangers in the newspaper he left behind.

  6. 06

    How Are You Feeling? - Ben Howard

    Family members and neighbors and the local officials repeatedly ask about her health when she asks about his whereabouts.  Not clues revealed, not a trace.  She feels nothing.

  7. 07

    October - U2

    On the first cold day of October, the investigation is quietly closed.

  8. 08

    Ever the Actor - Interpol

    Inside the briefcase lining, she finds a passport bearing his photograph and another man’s name.

  9. 09

    House Where Nobody Lives - Tom Waits

    The passport leads her to a distant house containing furniture, dust and no inhabitants.

  10. 10

    Man of the Hour - Pearl Jam

    An old man next door recognizes the photograph, calls him his son and dies  in a rocking chair on the porch before saying more.

  11. 11

    Breathe Me - Sia

    She collapses in the empty house and wakes beneath the observation of strangers.

  12. 12

    Otherside - Perfume Genius

    After returning home, letters in his handwriting begin arriving without postmarks.

  13. 13

    It Can Never Be the Same - The Cure

    Each letter describes their life accurately but remembers her by a different name.  she is confused by the resurgence.  It is tortuous inside.

  14. 14

    ALONE, PART 3 - XXXtentacion

    She gives birth to a son who slowly acquires the missing man’s face.

  15. 15

    Beautiful Hell - Adna

    Mother and child construct a good life , his father's a disappearance is never discussed.

  16. 16

    Laura - Bat for Lashes

    Years later, the son discovers every letter was addressed to a woman named Laura.

  17. 17

    The Rip - Portishead

    He tears open the briefcase completely and finds a second compartment his mother never discovered.

  18. 18

    Pyramid Song - Radiohead

    Inside lies a hand-drawn map of tunnels beneath the station where his father vanished.

  19. 19

    Wot’s…Uh the Deal - Pink Floyd

    Decades pass while mother and son disagree over whether the map is evidence or inheritance.

  20. 20

    In the Night - Beck

    After her son leaves to start his own life, the telephone begins ringing at the same hour each night.

  21. 21

    Martha - Tom Waits

    On the final call, she finally answers, an elderly man addresses her by her real name and asks to meet at the morning train.

  22. 22

    Hope There’s Someone - Anthony and the Johnsons

    She waits on the original platform until someone in an overcoat and scarved face places a familiar briefcase beside her.

  23. 23

    Catacombs - Mussorgsky

    The train departs; the platform is empty except for the briefcase, still closed. The credits start to roll as the music plays loudly.

No official interpretation

The score holds. The story changes.

Use this as a map of pacing rather than a model to repeat: assign each track a narrative unit, stay in sequence, and write toward the final note.

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