🎥 Gretchen Goes to Nebraska — Scene‑by‑Scene Outline

Opening Sequence — “The Road Within”

Visual tone: Soft grayscale forest, hints of pastel color far in the distance. Dreamlike depth of field.

Action: Gretchen, a small girl with bright eyes, steps into a tall‑tree grove carrying a suitcase, lunchbox, and knapsack of personal treasures.

Symbolism: The luggage is literal but also represents memory, art, and her spiritual seeds.

Scene 1 — The Woman in the Purple Dress

Visuals: A “grandfather oak” dominates the frame; beneath it, a disheveled, middle‑aged woman in a faded dress hides in the shadows.

Action: They speak of fear, courage, and the limits of self‑sight. The woman’s trembling smile and Gretchen’s mingled compassion and unease set the emotional stakes.

Tone: Quiet intimacy mixed with the weight of unspoken sorrow.

Scene 2 — Letter from “Also Broken”

Visuals: Gretchen rounds a “corner” in the forest, the scene subtly tilting like a set piece on a hinge. She spots a scrap of paper on the ground.

Action: Close‑ups on handwritten words — flashes of imagery from the letter spill into quick montage: skeletons laughing, crystal music, seeds dipped in pride, endless mazes.

Emotion: A deep echo of shared fragility.

Pivotal beat: Her frustrated cry — “Do I have to take in all of this just to get to Nebraska?” — answered by a tiny bird’s drifting note: YES.

Scene 3 — Paradise Before the Fall

Visuals: The forest dissolves into lush emerald hills, lilac‑scented air, crystal lakes teeming with fish. Warm golden sunlight.

Action: Gretchen skips joyfully, until she spots a massive waterfall ahead.

Shift: A trickle appears underfoot, swelling into a flood that sweeps her toward the falls.

Scene 4 — Whirlpool of the World

Visuals: Overhead shot of Gretchen tumbling in a vast cataract — then spinning in a whirlpool where images flicker around her: ideologies, temptations, laughter turning from sinister to soothing, flashing screens, philosophies clashing like lightning.

Tone: Overwhelming, kinetic, a sensory overload representing life’s noise.

Scene 5 — The Golden Doorknob

Visuals: Darkness, complete and still. A single, transparent‑gold doorknob emerges out of the black.

Action: Gretchen touches it; waves of warmth and belonging flood her. The wall melts away.

Scene 6 — The Simple Man

Visuals: A humble man in work clothes stands amid infinite, child‑like paradise — animals roaming, skies lit with impossible colors.

Action: He asks, “Where are you headed, my child?” Their exchange reveals that Nebraska is not just a place, but the soul’s deepest longing.

Transformation: As he speaks, he’s robed in light and majesty — a King of Kings — then becomes an old wooden door.

Scene 7 — The Final Passage

Action: Gretchen rushes through the weathered door into the arms of her eternal Companion.

Visuals: They journey through impossibly beautiful lands — each step both familiar and completely new.

Closing Sequence — The Eternal Now

Moment: Gretchen pauses, accuses him playfully of orchestrating her arrival. His laughter shakes the land with joy.

Final words: A reminder that the journey began within, and the entrance was always through Him.

Visual fade: Hand in hand, they move toward a horizon that folds into light — joining with countless others’ dreams.