// WORKSHEET · LESSON 07 OF 07

The Alignment Audit

The capstone diagnostic. Watch it through, find the drift, decide what gets realigned and what gets removed.

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01THE DRIFT TEST

Every element needs to reinforce the same emotional current. For each layer, name where it points. Anywhere it points somewhere else is your drift.

Narrative

Cinematography

Blocking and performance

Rhythm and pacing

Sound design and music

Watched it through once, start to finish, judging feeling rather than technical precision.

02THE 3-QUESTION AUDIT — REPRISE

You wrote these in Lesson 01. Answer them again now, against the cut.

1 · Can you write the emotional question on a post-it right now?

2 · Does the opening 30 seconds contain two truths that do not sit together?

3 · Is there a scene you love that does not answer the question?

03THE FIX

Drift has two remedies and only two.

What can be realigned?

Recut, rescore, reframe, reorder.

What has to go?

The thing you love that is breaking the coherence.

04YOUR STYLE

Three scribblers, three ways to show rather than tell. All three respect the audience’s intelligence.

Which are you stealing from on this project?

What does that choice buy you here?

05WHAT’S NEXT

What are you going to watch next, and what are you watching for?

What are you going to read next?

What are you making next, and what is its emotional question?

Built from the Playbook’s Final Alignment Check, the Drift Test, the 3-Question Audit reprise, and the three styles you can steal.

← Back to Lesson 07: Alignment Check: How to Diagnose What's Broken and Find Your Voice