12 ChaPter 1 From idea to Cinematic Story whom she doesn't know, to help her pull off the meal. In the end April completes the Thanksgiving dinner, forms a new family of friends, and manages to reconnect with her mom before her mom dies (resolution) (Figure 1-5). A lot of Pieces of April to me is about the family you're born into but also the family you find, and it was the family you find that really compelled me to write this particular story. (From an interview with Mark Pfeiffer, The Film Journal, November 2003) n Figure 1-5 In Hedges' Pieces of April (2003), iconoclastic free spirit April (Katie Holmes) attempts to reconnect with her estranged family by preparing a Thanksgiving meal. Pieces of April shows that while the terms "hero," "goal," "conflict," and "action" sound hugely dramatic, they actually work for films of any size and any subject. You don't necessarily need to conceive of a film like Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Indiana Jones (hero!) has to obtain the Arc of the Covenant (goal!!), and with the Nazi Army after it too (obstacle!!!). You can use these same dramatic principles on just about any scale project and with any degree of subtlety, such as a young woman who wants to connect with her mother by cooking a Thanksgiving turkey, or even a little boy