SAMPLE SCRIPT

SCENE 1

INTERIOR COUNTRY BAR DAY

The interior of the pub is dark with little window space and is decked out with oak counters and flag stone floors.  A television behind the counter silently plays MTV music videos.  A group of elderly farmers sit at the counter sipping pints and engaging in quiet intermittent, conversation with the barman. The door to the pub opens and light spills in through the doorway. All eyes in the bar look to the doorway. The figure of a man is silhouetted against the light, as he stands silent and motionless in the doorway.

BARMAN

Hello. Can I help you?

The man remains silent and motionless. The men at the bar look at each other.

Silence.

One of the men at the counter, a large, though elderly man, gets up from his seat and walks toward the figure. As he gets closer he notices that the man has a severe and bloodied wound to his head. He looks as if he is in a trance and is wearing no shoes or socks. His clothes are ripped in places and generally dishevelled with bloodstains on his shirt and what once was an expensive suit.

The big man hesitates in his approach, cautious of the stranger.

The stranger moves forward into the pub the door swinging shut behind him. The big man keeps his distance.

The stranger takes two steps further and suddenly collapses on the floor.

CUT TO

BLACK SCREEN

Sound of plimsoles running down a corridor.

FADE UP TO

SCENE 2

INTERIOR HOSPITAL CORRIDOR DAY

Paramedics rush the stranger down the corridor on a hospital trolley.

FROM HIS POV

Through a misty haze the ceiling lights of the hospital pass above him as he is rushed down the corridor. The garbled sound of voices fills his head. He begins to lose consciousness again.

FADE TO BLACK

SCENE 3

INTERIOR EMERGENCY ROOM DAY

From the strangers POV different faces of the masked doctors and nurses, who attend him, loom in an out of his vision. Above him a huge dish like light beams down on him.

FADE TO BLACK as he loses consciousness again.

CUT TO

SCENE 4

INTERIOR HOSPITAL ROOM DAY

The stranger sits up in his bed propped up by a bundle of pillows. He stares blankly into camera his face a mask of cuts and bruises.

V/O JUDGE

Mr. Casey’s inability to recall anything from the night of the accident though unfortunate, is I believe, genuine.

CUT TO

SCENE 5

INTERIOR COURTROOM DAY

The Judge sits on his bench summing up his judgement. In the dock stands the stranger, Jonathan Casey, a tall, slightly balding man in his early forties immaculately dressed in an expensive looking suit. Various lawyers occupy the front rows, and barristers decked out in their gowns and wigs. In the packed public gallery a group of Gypsy travellers quietly listen to the judge. One of their number, Mrs. Mary McDonagh an old woman in her eighties, with a weather beaten and tanned face lined with wrinkles etched on by the hardship of the travelling life, stares unblinking at Casey. Many police mull about in the doorway as the judge continues.

JUDGE

…and as a result the tragic deaths of Mr. and Mrs. McDonagh may never be fully explained. However in the absence of any evidence to the contrary I find the charge of reckless driving to be unproven. 

The judge turns to Casey in the dock.

JUDGE

You’re free to go Mr. Casey.

Jonathan Casey, visibly relieved walks from the dock. Shouting and scuffles erupt from the public gallery. The old woman tries to make her way to Jonathan in the dock but is restrained by police. She shouts at Jonathan.

OLD GYPSY WOMAN

Murderer! Murderer!

 She fixes Jonathan with a cold determined stare.

 OLD GYPSY WOMAN

May their pain be your pain!

 

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 A rumpus ensues as the old woman and her companions are noisily ejected from the court.

CUT TO