A Screenburn Original · Sweet contemporary romance · New
The Dog Chose You
A judge splits custody of a stray dog between two neighbours who cannot stand each other, and the dog keeps choosing the wrong house. A man with the registration papers wants him back.
Screenburn Certified
Score 87 out of 100. Nothing below 80 carries this mark.
Every 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 rises to the last act. 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
- 7 speaking roles
- Locations
- 25
- Page count
- 214 pages
- Episodes
- 80
- Episode runtime
- About 120 seconds
- Total runtime
- 2 h 40 min
- Genres and tropes
- Sweet contemporary 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 7 speaking roles.
- The licenceExclusive, worldwide, all languages, in perpetuity.
- 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
87out of 100
Screenburn Certified
Every number here is on one curve: 100 stays 100 and 70 becomes 85. The four parts, weighted, make the total. Nothing below 80 carries the Certified mark.
- Opening
- 88 (30%)The opening of episode one.
- Endings
- 84 (30%)The end of every episode.
- New information
- 76 (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
The Dog Chose You
87/100
- Opening88
- Endings84
- New information76
- Shape100
Paywall-Ready · Retention-Graded · Binge-Certified
Written by Grace Whitlock.
A Screenburn Original.
Licence terms
Every sale carries the same terms.
- 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
- Copyright, and the film, TV, book and other rights.
- Sequel
- You have first refusal on a sequel for twelve months.
- Reversion
- If you shoot nothing within 24 months, the rights return to the author.
- 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. Screenburn owns the copyright; the pen name in the credit is a house credit.
- 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
The Dog Chose YouEpisode one
Free to read · Grace Whitlock · about 120 seconds on screen
INT. MULTNOMAH COUNTY COURTHOUSE - SMALL CLAIMS ROOM 3 - DAY
A small courtroom under fluorescent light, rows of plastic chairs, rain on the one high window. ALMA REYES, 62, the judge, grey hair cut short and reading glasses on a cord, reads a thin file at the bench with a stack of nine more beside her elbow. At the table below her stand two people a yard apart, facing front. MIA SANDOVAL, 28, in green clinic scrubs under a wet rain jacket, holds a lead. OWEN LOCKE, 35, in a work shirt with sawdust on the cuffs, holds nothing. BISCUIT, 2, a tan shepherd cross with one ear up and a worn brass tag on an old collar, lies under the table with his chin on the floor.
ALMA
No licence, no chip, and both of you fed him. He's a stray.
MIA
I treated him. He had a rope wound round his neck.
OWEN
He slept on my porch two weeks before she noticed him.
ALMA
It's the first week of October and I have nine cases before lunch. Alternate weeks. Handover Sunday at six, at the mailbox post between the houses. Ms Sandoval has him first.
OWEN
The post is on my side of the line.
ALMA
Then stand on your side of it.
MIA
And when he goes to the wrong house?
ALMA
You walk him back. He's a dog, not a child.
She signs the order and closes the file. Owen picks up his jacket and turns for the door. The dog gets up from under the table and walks after him, close at his heel.
MIA
Biscuit.
The dog keeps walking. Mia goes after him and catches the collar at the door. The brass tag swings under her fingers, the letters on it rubbed almost smooth. She turns it over. She turns it back. She lets it go.
ALMA
Ms Sandoval. You have him. Take him.
MIA
I'm trying.
OWEN
(not turning round)
He follows whoever fed him last.
MIA
That was me.
The dog sits down on Owen's boots. Mia pulls the lead. The dog does not move. Owen looks down at him, then at the door.
OWEN
Get up.
The dog looks up at Owen and stays where he is.
ALMA
Next case.
End of episode one.
Screenburn Originals
Paywall-Ready. Retention-Graded. Binge-Certified.
© 2026 Screenburn Group. English law governs every licence.