How to craft a script in a language that can’t be written

“My old way of working was irrelevant,” Sian Heder writes of crafting “CODA,” a film about a Deaf family. I watched Alexandria sign a line of Ruby’s, “Do you want me to die here?” and the sign for “die” didn’t capture the anger I wanted the character to feel. We played around until Alexandria found, “This is killing me.” Throughout this process, Alexandria took notes in ASL gloss — a form of notation for ASL that uses English words along with diagrams and drawings. On the day, Anne pointed out that we had already established Ruby’s “name sign,” a combination of an R and a Y hand shape. It’s also a crossed fingers version of the “I love you” sign, which signifies “I really love you” or “I love you forever.” She suggested that Ruby sign this instead; it could hold both of those meanings, her identity within her family and her love for them.