A Screenburn Original · Workplace romance · New
A Happy Place
Julian Vance wants to sell the all-night Seattle burger franchise his dead father left him and go home to Portland. Selling means walking out on Romy Chen, the assistant manager who holds the place together. He says yes to Sterling Hayes, a developer opening a rival store across the avenue, then lies to Romy. The sale closes if the store passes an inspection. Julian and Romy fall for each other anyway. Every fix he tries hands Sterling more. The crew crosses the street. Romy follows to protect them. The inspector shuts the kitchen.
Screenburn Certified
Score 97 out of 100. Nothing below 80 carries this mark.
$5,000, licence included
Microdrama Rights
Talk to us Send a bidEvery sale includes the Screenburn Certified branding pack: the mark, the score card and an end-card credit. Use it or leave it out.
Paywall-Ready
Structure strip
The line climbs to the climax at the end. The paywall points carry the strongest turns.
Platforms set the paywall. In the CherryBowl catalogue the median ReelShort series unlocks after episode 10, and this script carries a hook at 5, 10 and 15, so it is ready wherever the paywall lands.
- Tension, scored per episode
- Episode ending
- Paywall points
- Median paywall
- Free episodes
- Paid episodes
The Screenburn structure standard
Every script here is built to the Screenburn structure standard: eight rules for how a vertical series opens, turns and ends, applied to every episode and to the season as a whole. We publish the results, not the rules. The score and the strip show them.
Production
Suitable for live-action or AI-hybrid production.
- Cast size
- 9 speaking roles
- Locations
- 3
- Page count
- 226 pages
- Episodes
- 80
- Episode runtime
- About 120 seconds
- Total runtime
- 2 h 40 min
- Heat
- Sweet. Longing and restraint. The first kiss is the event of the season. No bedroom scenes.
- Genres and tropes
- Workplace romance
- Language
- English
What you get
- The full scriptAll 80 episodes, as PDF and Final Draft files.
- The treatmentThe story of the season in prose.
- The episode-by-episode arcWhat happens in each episode, and where each hook falls.
- Character breakdownsOne for each of the 9 speaking roles.
- The licenceMicrodrama Rights: exclusive, worldwide, all languages, in perpetuity. The other rights stay with the author.
- The branding packThe Screenburn Certified mark, the score card and an end-card credit. Use it or leave it out.
- The authorship record and timestampWho wrote the script, and proof of the date of its final files.
Retention-Graded
Score breakdown
97out of 100
Screenburn Certified
The four parts, weighted, make the total. Nothing below 80 carries the Certified mark.
- Opening
- 100 (30%)The opening of episode one.
- Endings
- 98 (30%)The end of every episode.
- New information
- 89 (20%)How often each episode gives the viewer something new.
- Shape
- 100 (20%)How the tension builds across the season.
Binge-Certified
Branding pack
Every sale includes it. Use it or leave it out.
Screenburn Certified
A Happy Place
97/100
- Opening100
- Endings98
- New information89
- Shape100
Paywall-Ready · Retention-Graded · Binge-Certified
Written by Charles Kriel.
A Screenburn Original.
Licence terms
This script sells with Microdrama Rights.
- Rights
- Microdrama Rights. The vertical series and its distribution. Every other right stays with the author, Charles Kriel.
- Licence
- Exclusive and worldwide. The licence lets you produce the vertical format, and remakes of it, in all languages and in perpetuity.
- The author keeps
- Charles Kriel keeps the copyright, and the film, TV, book and other rights.
- Sequel
- You have first refusal on a sequel for twelve months.
- Term
- A Screenburn Original has no production deadline: the licence runs for the full term of copyright.
- Warranty
- We warrant the originality of the script. Our liability under that warranty stops at the price you paid.
- How the scripts are written
- Screenburn Originals are written under Screenburn's editorial direction using the Screenburn method, which includes AI writing tools for analysis, structure, writing, and other practices. The author named in the credit owns the copyright.
- Credit
- On screen: "Written by [name]. A Screenburn Original."
- Law
- English law governs the licence.
- Price
- A fixed price per script, by card or invoice.
Sales are final once the script is delivered. A wrong file is replaced.
Screening room
A Happy PlaceEpisode one
Free to read · Charles Kriel · about 120 seconds on screen
INT. NORTHSTAR AURORA AVENUE - KITCHEN - NIGHT
Oil flares out of a fry basket at the end of the line. The fryer alarm shrieks. Rain hammers the flat roof and sodium light from the lot smears across the grease-fogged window. No customers in the dining room. The drive-thru headset squawks on its hook.
ROMY CHEN, 26, assistant manager, grease pencil through her bun, burn scars down both forearms, slams a steel lid over the basket. The flame dies. Smoke rolls across the hood.
JULIAN VANCE, 31, pale, in an oversized wet wool overcoat, stands three feet from the fryer with both hands in his pockets. He has not moved.
ROMY
Temps. Read me the temps.
JULIAN
Which--
ROMY
The dial. Left to right. Write them down.
Julian looks for paper. Behind the fry-station order wheel, a thick cream envelope sits wedged against the wall, slit open, a printed return address: CASCADIA URBAN HOLDINGS. He pulls it free and writes on the blank back with a pen from the register.
JULIAN
Three-forty.
ROMY
It's set to three-fifty.
JULIAN
Then it's lying to you. Three-forty. Three-thirty-five. This one says nothing. It's blank.
Romy pulls the dead basket, dumps it in the sink. Steam hits the ceiling.
KNOX PEREZ, 23, visor crooked, one wired earbud in, bounces in from the drive-thru window with a bag of fries in each hand.
KNOX
Car four says their fries taste like a tire.
ROMY
Then they taste like a tire. Go.
Knox goes. Romy turns off the alarm. The silence is worse.
ROMY (CONT'D)
(quiet)
You're standing on it.
JULIAN
On what.
ROMY
Where he went down. That tile. Sal found him. I mopped it.
Julian looks at the tile under his shoes. He steps off it. Then he folds the envelope, writing side in, and jams it into his coat pocket.
JULIAN
Good. Then it's already the right spot for a fire.
Romy stops with her hand on the sink.
JULIAN (CONT'D)
I'm selling this place the second the lawyer finds a pen. You can keep the mop.
The alarm screams again. The covered basket spits oil out from under the lid. Julian lunges for it with his bare hand.
CUT TO BLACK.
End of episode one.
Screenburn Originals
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