WITNESS by Earl W. Wallace William Kelley Pamela - Screenplay.com

EXT. LANCASTER COUNTY, PA. COUNTRYSIDE – DAY
TITLE SEQUENCE
The faces of several young children are presented in CLOSEUP, as
they walk TOWARD US across a ploughed field. On the SOUND TRACK,
the haunting SOUNDS OF A GREGORIAN FUNERAL CHANT. The CAMERA PANS
UP to the faces of older brothers and sisters, then to parents and
grandparents. These are not familiar faces, but faces from another
age, strong and open. All are dressed in the distinctive clothing
of the Amish.
EXT. COUNTRY LANE – DAY
Through the last traces of early morning mist another group of
black-clad figures make their way down a lane.
EXT. COUNTRY LANE – DAY
An Amish buggy, black and highwheeled, stark against the
landscape, appears, a spirited chestnut in the traces.
Framed in the glass window of the narrow buggy is the stern figure
of an Amish man in black topcoat and flatbrimmed hat, his bonneted
wife in muted colors, the face of a boy, attired like his father,
peering out.
The horse's breath smokes on the frosty air, the buggy CREAKS on
its springs, and there's the rhythmic CLIP-CLOP OF HOOVES on the
pavement.
ANOTHER LANE
Two Amish buggies reach a crossroads, join a procession of three
others. They disappear as the lane wends through a leafless
thicket of hickory.
VALLEY
A BIG SHOT... now the procession numbers almost a dozen buggies...
it is headed toward a distant farmhouse.
BARNYARD
Where literally dozens of carriages are parked. The horses have
been taken from the traces, removed to the shelter of the barn.
EXT. LAPP FARMHOUSE – FRONT PORCH
As the black clad mourners begin to move into the house (women and
children presumably first).