Versions of Consequence
Someone at Sequoia Avenue has been killed in a domestic. Now it's time to find out who?
We open on panicked young woman, Asha, as she desperately tries to wash the freshly deceased Michael’s blood from her hands. Asha is interrupted by a knock at the door, and as she hurries past her former husband’s lifeless body on the ground she finds concerned Police officers, Coulson and Lopez, standing on her front door step.
Cut to the same situation, but the roles reversed. Michael scrubs at his hands, Asha lies lifeless and bloodied on the floor, the concerned officers Coulson and Lopez knocking at the door. A moment of violence has occurred, but what has happened and in what order?
INT. HALLWAY – DAY
Asha runs through the corridor, wrapping her cardigan over her covering up her blood-stained clothes.
INT./EXT. HOUSE FRONT DOOR – DAY
Shaken and trembling, Asha opens the door to Officers Coulson and LOPEZ (25).
OFFICER COULSON
Sir, there's been a report of a domestic disturbance.
Is the lady of the house in?
INTERCUT: Michael looks pale and distraught at the Officers.
MICHAEL
My wife...she’s dead.
The officers exchange a brief look.
INTERCUT: Fighting back tears, Asha finds strength –
ASHA
Officers, my husband's dead...I don’t know what to do.
The officers exchange a brief look.
OFFICER LOPEZ
Ma'am show us the scene.
INTERCUT: Michael nods and leads the Officers in –
Bruises and fractured furniture reveal themselves as Michael and Asha jump between perpetrator and victim, the plot all the while slowly revealing itself as the clues intersect the timeline.
With a well-executed script that expertly navigates a broken structure, similar to that of recent Christopher Nolan efforts, Elaine Clayton has written a story that will keep the reader on their toes and invested. If you’re a producer/director that’s looking for a drama that can be filmed on a shoestring budget, and one that will live long in the memory, Versions of Consequence is a must read.