Each editor was a fresh agent with no record of any other. States 1-4 received a sheet of the twelve excerpts (below) plus a list of what is spoken in each. The control received the same excerpts on a shuffled, relabelled sheet with no list. Excerpt letters in the control row are mapped back to the collection's letters. State 4 gave the same answer as state 3, so the film plays states 1, 2, 3 and the control.
| state | shots (excerpt, in-out in seconds) | the editor's reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A 0-4.17, G 0-3.15, C 0-5, F 0-6, J 0.8-3.8 | The voices chain into one mock-didactic question about what can be made from raw matter (plastics, then 'make out of this?' over street sweepings, then the carpenter's stool, then 'Seats' in an empty hall) until the talk stops and a mother and child walk silently toward the camera like the first audience arriving. |
| 2 | A 0-4.17, G 0-3.15, C 0-5, F 0-5, J 1.5-5.5 | A hand draws a line from nothing and two voices ask what this stuff is and what anyone can make of it, the carpenter's stool and the man setting out 'Seats' answer with work, and the mother and child walking toward the camera in hiss are who it was all made for. |
| 3 | A 0-4.17, G 0-3.15, C 0-5, F 0-6, J 2.2-5.2 | A hand's drawn line asks what plastics are and the sweepers ask what anyone can make out of this, then the answer comes as work (a stool, then a man setting rows of seats) before the talk stops and a child walks toward the camera in hiss, the one thing here nobody manufactured. |
| 4 | A 0-4.17, G 0-3.15, C 0-5, F 0-6, J 2.2-5.2 | A chain of spoken questions and answers runs from the drawn line through the swept slum street to the carpenter's stool and the man setting out 'Seats', then the talk stops and a mother and child walk silently forward as if arriving as the audience for those chairs. |
| control | A 0-3.6, J 2-5.2, H 0.7-2.7, L 3-5.6, G 0.4-2.4, C 0.6-2.4, B 0.6-2.6, F 1.6-4.2, D 2.2-4.2 | A hand draws a line and the film follows it through a day of small repeated gestures, from a child's first steps through dressing, kitchen, sweeping, hammering and bowling, with each downward stroke handing on to the next until a man stoops among empty chairs and a woman stands alone in an open field. |
The collection: