# 07 - PROMPT RECIPES
### The two-stage engine, verbatim templates, and the field lessons.

Fill every `{{placeholder}}`. Feed references exactly as listed. These templates
shipped a whole film; change the content, keep the skeleton.

---

## STAGE 1 - BOARD SHEET (image model) - MASTER PROMPT TEMPLATE
```
Create a 16:9 image.

[PROJECT CARD]  (compact designed masthead)
TITLE: {{FILM}} - {{SEQUENCE NAME}}
META LINE: {{world descriptor}} / {{genre descriptor}} / {{theme descriptor}}
PRIORITY: preserve the {{character}}'s identity and wardrobe, the {{environment}}
geography, the {{prop}} state, {{sequence-specific must-keeps}}.
MICRO BRIEF: {{1-2 sentence sequence summary}}.

[CONTINUITY HEADER]
SEQUENCE ID: {{FILM}}_{{SEQ_ID}}
REFERENCE PRIORITY: First image controls the {{character}}: face, body, wardrobe,
proportions, silhouette, hair, attitude. Second image controls the {{environment}}.
Third image controls the {{prop}}. This storyboard controls staging, motion,
camera, continuity, rhythm, and effect logic.

[SCENE PACKET]
PREMISE: {{...}}
LOCATION: {{environment specifics for this sequence}}
START -> END: {{...}}
ACTION CHAIN: {{the beat chain}}
PROP / EFFECT STATE: {{prop reads exactly X; atmosphere notes; accent rule}}
MUST READ: {{one-line legibility statement}}.

[CHARACTER SANITIZATION]
{{CHARACTER}}: {{locked one-line physical description}}. Remove contradictory
traits, invisible psychology, and backstory that cannot appear in a panel.

[STORYBOARD PURITY]
Panels are visual-only low-detail monochrome light-gray rough sketches. Panel
numbers, beat names, and lens tags go in the header strip OUTSIDE each panel.
No colour, captions, arrows, logos, or duplicate bodies inside panels.

[MASTER SHOT RULE]
{{one panel}} shows full playable geography.

[STYLE LOCKS]
STYLE LOCK: clean monochrome rough-sketch panels on off-white paper.
EFFECT LOCK: inside panels, atmosphere is simple monochrome shapes only; the
final video uses the film's colour look: {{base palette}} + {{accent}}.

[DIRECTOR STRIP]
Bottom animatic track board aligned to panel columns. Tracks: BEAT LINE, CAMERA
PATH, ACTION PATH, RHYTHM TRACK, ESCALATION MAP, STATE TRACK, STYLE TRACK.
RHYTHM format:     RHY P##: [hold|slow build|settle|hit|pause|recover|final]
ESCALATION format: ESC P##: [L1 calm|L2 unease|L3 rise|L4 surge|L5 peak]
PANEL HEADERS:     {{P01 / lens / beat -> ... per panel}}

[SEQUENCE]
Grid: {{N}} panels in a compact cinematic storyboard sheet.
```

## STAGE 2 - FILMED SEQUENCE (video model) - TEMPLATE
```
Use [Storyboard Ref] as the storyboard for the sequence. Treat every storyboard
panel as a consecutive shot within a single cinematic sequence. Follow panel
order exactly; do not invent alternative coverage. Recreate the FILMED sequence
implied by the panels (full colour), not the storyboard artwork.
Use [Character ref] as the {{character}}. Use [Environment ref] + [Prop ref].

EMOTIONAL GUIDANCE: Valence: {{...}}. Arousal: {{arc description}}.
AUDIO: No music. Diegetic only: {{ambient list}}; total silence at {{key beat}}.
BEATS:
{{1..N - one filmed shot per panel, each with framing / lens / move / action}}
```
Video model settings that shipped the film: 16:9, 1080p, ~15s per sequence,
CUSTOM MULTI-SHOT mode (multi_shots: true, one prompt entry per board panel),
diegetic audio on.

---

## THE FIELD LESSONS (every one paid for in credits)

**1. Custom multi-shot or it improvises.** A single global prompt lets the video
model invent coverage and repeat shots. One prompt entry per board panel is what
makes it film YOUR board.

**2. Bracket continuous shots with start + end frames.** For a single unbroken
move, generate the first and last frame as stills (same grade), feed both, and
describe only the move between them. Drop any reference whose grade conflicts,
or the shot will re-establish mid-take.

**3. Freeze the world explicitly.** Detail-heavy locked wides boil and flicker.
Pin the shot with a start frame and state: "every static element stays perfectly
stable, identical frame to frame; the ONLY things that move are {{list}}."

**4. Clocks and displays need dedicated plates.** Models anchor to whatever
digits exist in a fed reference, not to your prompt. One patched plate per
distinct value the display shows, spelled digit by digit ("reads zero-five,
colon, zero-zero, colon, zero-zero"), restated in the motion prompt.

**5. Lock the camera unless the story says move.** Follow-cams read as
video-game footage. Locked tripod frames with the character moving through them
read as cinema. When a static frame feels dead, add ONE slow dolly push, nothing
else.

**6. Close-ups drift; dominate them.** On any face close-up, the character sheet
is the dominant reference and the prompt names both the identity ("the SAME
person as the sheet") and the medium ("the sheet's exact painterly rendering"),
plus negations for the precise drift you last saw.

**7. One image model, one video model, all the way.** Switching models to fix a
style problem swaps the face. Fix drift inside the locked model.

**8. QA with frames, densely.** Extract 12-24 frames per take. Check identity,
grade, digits, camera, and stability of static elements. A 2-second hidden cut
lives exactly where sparse sampling does not look.

---

## YOUR TURN
Run one sequence end to end before scaling: bible page, board sheet, GREEN,
multi-shot film, frame QA, lock. The first full loop teaches you more than any
document, including this one.