Title: Phone Call Examples
Credit: From
Author: scriptopus.com/how-to-write-a-phone-call-in-a-screenplay

INT. MAYA'S FLAT - KITCHEN - DAY

Maya dials, hangs up before it can ring, and dials again.

MAYA
Mr. Brennan? It's Maya Ellis. Second row, the year it never stopped raining.

She listens. Winces.

MAYA (CONT'D)
That's the one. I wrote everything down. I've finished a script, and I wondered if you might read it.

A long silence. She picks at the hole in her sleeve.

MAYA (CONT'D)
No, of course. You must be asked all the time.

Her thumb finds the red button. Then something he says brings the phone back to her ear.

MAYA (CONT'D)
Sorry? Tonight?

INT. MAYA'S FLAT - KITCHEN - NIGHT

Maya is chopping onions when her phone lights up on the counter: ABUELA. She puts it on speaker and keeps chopping. In the doorway, Leo shakes his head hard.

ROSA (V.O.)
(in Spanish, subtitled)
Is your brother there? Don't tell him I'm asking.

MAYA
(in Spanish, subtitled)
He's out.

ROSA (V.O.)
Tell him his cousin is getting married in June, and he is bringing someone.

LEO
(whispering)
I'm not bringing anyone.

ROSA (V.O.)
I heard that.

INT. MAYA'S FLAT - KITCHEN - MORNING

Maya reads the first line of an email, sets the laptop down very carefully, and calls Madrid.

INT. ROSA'S APARTMENT - KITCHEN - MORNING

Rosa is shelling peas into a colander. The phone rings. She finishes the pod first.

.INTERCUT - MAYA / ROSA

ROSA
(in Spanish, subtitled)
Who died?

MAYA
(in Spanish, subtitled)
Nobody. The script is in the final ten.

Rosa puts the colander down.

ROSA
Out of how many?

MAYA
Four thousand.

ROSA
Then why are you whispering?

In London, Maya realises she is.

MAYA
(out loud)
The final ten.

!END INTERCUT.

INT. ROSA'S APARTMENT - KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

Rosa hangs up without a goodbye, wipes her hands on her apron, and dials the hairdresser.

INT. MAYA'S FLAT - KITCHEN - NIGHT

Maya props her laptop against the fruit bowl. A video call connects. On the screen: a ceiling, a lampshade, the very top of Rosa's head.

The call is in Spanish, subtitled.

MAYA
Abuela, the camera. Turn the phone round.

The ceiling spins. Now one enormous eye fills the screen.

ROSA
Better?

MAYA
Back a bit.

Rosa settles into the frame at last, in her good blouse.

ROSA
Your brother says you're famous.

MAYA
I'm in a final. It's not the same thing.

Rosa's picture freezes mid-frown. Her voice carries on without it, a second behind.

ROSA
Which is exactly what I told the priest.