By Mary Ashton Ellis

1. The Voicemail (Working Title)
By Mary Ashton Ellis

2. INT. PUBLIC BATHROOM. DAY.
Tom, a middle aged man aged very plain looking stares at his
reflection in a mirror.b
He bends over the sink and splashes water in his face.
A Soulless office building bathroom with urinals and stalls
lining the wall.
Tom looks at himself with a wet face. He reaches over and
grabs the paper towels without looking and wipes his face.
He looks at himself one last time, readjusts his tie, sighs
loudly, and nods to himself. Tom grabs his briefcase from
the floor and walks out of the bathroom.
INT. MEETING ROOM. DAY.
A board meeting with at least 8 of Tom’s coworkers. You can
see that some of the coworkers have annoyed expressions and
some are tapping their fingers on the desk. Tom walks in and
they all look up at him at the same time with a blank
expression. Tom is standing just inside the frame of the
door not really knowing what to do. He then looks around and
makes his way to the front of the desk where he will be
giving his presentation. He props his briefcase on top of
the table and struggles to take out his laptop and notes he
has prepared for this meeting. He pulls out the correct
folder but it’s upside down and all of his papers fall out.
Some of the coworkers glance at one another giving each
other a look of annoyance.
TOM
Sorry.
He mutters this and looks down again and gives a slight grin
embarassed and bends down to pick up the papers.
INT. TOM’S DESK. DAY.
Tom is sitting as his desk. There are papers coming out of
the drawer and many stacks of papers. He has lot of sticky
notes on the desk to remind him of things he has to do.
There is a picture frame on the side of the desk but there
is no picture in it just the standard photo that comes with
the frame. He has a mug full of pens next to it. Tom is
slumped in his seat with his head in his hands. You can see
lots of other worker’s desks that are very tidy.

3. 2.
INT. TOM’S APARTMENT.
Tom arrives to his apartment after work. He lives in a
standard building with only a narrow staircase that leads up
to the each flat. He fumbles for his keys and puts them in
the door.He opens the door and the audience can see
inside the tiny room. There is only a small living room,
small kitchen, and a small bedroom with a tiny bathroom
attached. The living has a two person couch up against the
wall with an arm chair next to it and there is a tv just
opposite of the couch. There isn’t much space to move as
there is also a coffee table in front of the couch. Every
available space is covered in tissues, take away boxes of
Chinese and other similar types of food. There are also a
few pizza boxes piled up in the corner. There are also a lot
of clothes thrown across the room. He walks over to the
couch and throws himself down on it. He grabs the remote
control and turns the tv on. He tosses the remote to the
side and starts taking his tie off. He shrugs his suit
jacket off and throws it onto the chair that next to him. He
then kicks off his shoes and can finally relax. Right as he
is getting comfortable his phone starts ringing. Tom sits up
and grunts annoyed. He starts going through his jacket
pockets and then looks over to his briefcase that is across
the room. He gets up and hurries over to it. He is having
trouble finding his phone and starts pulling out all the
papers that are in it. His phone is lying on the bottom and
on the screen it says that his boss is calling. He grabs it
and swipes the screen to answer the phone. Right as he
swipes the call ends. Tom goes back to sitting on the couch
and keeps looking at his phone to see if it rings again. A
few moments later a notification appears on his screen that
his boss has left a voicemail. Tom immediately unlocks his
phone fumbling with the passcode and listens to the
voicemail on speaker.
THE BOSS
Hello Tom hope you are well. I need
to see you immediateltly in my
office first thing Monday morning.
The boss has a very serious tone to his voice and Tom
immediately assumes the worst. He gets to his feet and
listens to the voicemail a few more times. Tom runs his
fingers through his hair and looks very distressed. He
immediately walks to his kitchen and pulls out a bottle of
half finished cheap Jack Daniels whisky. He doesn’t bother
getting a glass and just takes the top off and throws it to
the side and takes a swig. He continues drinking as he gets
food out of the fridge and walks back to the living room. He
sits back on the couch and watches tv.

4. 3.
EXT. BOSS’ HOUSE. NIGHT
Tom is swaying slightly and is looking up at his boss’
house. The boss lives in a big manor with a two really nice
cars sitting outside the front door. You can see a Tesco bag
in one of Tom’s hand and a new bottle of whisky in the
other. Tom sets the bottle down and opens the Tesco bag and
pulls out a carton of eggs. He starts throwing the eggs at
the cars and the house yelling incoherent words. The lights
come on the front porch and Tom quickly grabs the whisky and
runs away while stumbling.
INT. TOM’S APARTMENT.MONDAY MORNING
Tom is asleep in bed and his alarm clock goes off saying
it’s 7am. Tom rolls over and hits snooze. He keeps hitting
snooze until it’s 7:45am. He finally wakes up and jumps out
of bed. He races to the bathroom and splashes his face with
water. You can see that Tom is very hung over. Tom stumbles
trying to get to the living room and throws on the same suit
he wore on Friday. He isn’t able to do up his tie so it just
hangs from his neck.
EXT. OFFICE BUILDING. MORNING.
You see Tom running across the road and pushing past people
to enter the building. He keeps glancing at his watch and
sees he’s 10 minutes late.
INT. ELEVATOR. DAY.
Tom is in the elevator with 5 other people and starts fixing
his tie properly. All the other people in the elevator with
him are leaning away and looking at him with disgust as he
hasn’t showered all weekend. The other people get out and
Tom is left alone as he goes to the very top floor. He
starts to get really nervous and keeps figeting with his
hair and tie. He finally reaches the top floor.
INT. BOSS’ RECEPTIONIST. DAY
Tom enters the receptonist area and there is a large pair of
double doors which is where the boss’ office is. He walks
over to the receptionist and gives him his name. The
receptionist gestures for him to take a seat and calls into
the boss’ office to let him know Tom has arrived. A few
minutes later and the receptionist tells Tom he can go in.

5. 4.
INT. BOSS’ OFFICE. DAY
Tom enters his boss’ office slowly and takes a seat at one
of the chairs in front of the desk. The boss is sitting in
his chair looking with a blank look on his face. The boss is
looking at his computer screen seeming to be watching a
video but Tom can’t see what it is.
BOSS
So Tom how was your weekend? Do
anything fun?
Tom looks very nervous at this point and looks down at his
lap then back up.
TOM
Hmm what? Oh nothing. I just stayed
at home and rested.
BOSS
Well that’s interesting think you
could explain this then?
The boss then turns the computer screen around and Tom can
now see the video of himself throwing eggs at the car and
yelling.
BOSS
This is very dissapointing Tom as I
was going to give you a promotion.
Tom leaves the office and sees two police officers waiting
for him outside the door.