 Ball was partly inspired by two encounters he had in the early 1990s . In about 1991 – 92 , Ball saw a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center . He watched the bag for 10 minutes , saying later that it provoked an " unexpected emotional response " . In 1992 , Ball became preoccupied with the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial . Discovering a comic book telling of the scandal , he was struck by how quickly it had become commercialized . He said he " felt like there was a real story underneath [ that was ] more fascinating and way more tragic " than the story presented to the public , and attempted to turn the idea into a play . Ball produced around 40 pages , but stopped when he realized it would work better as a film . He felt that because of the visual themes , and because each character 's story was .. " intensely personal " , it could not be done on a stage . All the main characters appeared in this version , but Carolyn did not feature strongly ; Jim and Jim instead had much larger roles . 
