Direction
Development Mode · labeled preview until engines are connected
These techniques hold across image, film, performance, voice, music, sound, and captions. Use a sample brief as a starting shot, then change one axis at a time.
Across every medium
01
The first sentence is the shot. Adjectives after the fact are weaker than a clear subject, action, and light.
02
On the next pass, alter only light, or only lens, or only motion. If you rewrite everything, you cannot tell what worked.
03
Black silk, wet marble, platinum, breath on glass. Materials hold a world together better than “cinematic” or “luxury.”
04
End with constraints: what must not appear, how clean the frame should be, whether type or extra hands are forbidden.
05
Carry the same names, wardrobe, palette, and rooms across image, film, voice, and score. Continuity is a prompt, not an accident.
Still
A still is a decision about light. Write the subject, then the camera, then the room, then what must stay out of frame.
Order is weight. Engines attend more to the opening clause than to a pile of tags.
Sample brief
Editorial portrait of a woman in a black silk column gown, standing three-quarter to camera. 85mm lens, f/1.8, eye-level. Hard rim light from camera right, soft marble bounce from below, deep obsidian studio, one diamond at the throat. No text, no extra jewelry, no second figure.
Surfaces tell the house. “Luxury” is vague; wet black marble and platinum catch are specific.
Sample brief
Product still of a platinum compact on wet black marble. Practical spotlight from above left, long specular highlight across the lid, faint diamond dust in the falloff. 100mm macro, shallow depth. Empty negative space on the right. No logos, no fingers, no extra objects.
Say what must not change before you invite variation. Otherwise the face drifts.
Sample brief
Same woman as the previous still: oval face, dark hair pulled back, calm mouth. New setting: walking a black-and-platinum hall, coat open, one step toward camera. Keep skin texture, keep the diamond at the throat. Change only the environment and the stride.
Motion
Treat the brief as a shot, not a trailer. One camera idea, one subject action, one light.
Competing moves read as chaos. Name the body, then the camera, then the pace.
Sample brief
A woman in black silk walks toward camera down a dark marble hall. Slow dolly in, locked horizon, 6 seconds. Rim light holds on her left shoulder. No cuts, no handheld shake, no extra figures entering frame.
When the face must work, freeze the camera so motion belongs to the subject.
Sample brief
Locked-off medium close-up, 35mm. A director studies a platinum camera on a pedestal, then looks up into a diamond of light. Subtle breath, one blink. Studio remains still. 6 seconds. No whip pan, no zoom.
Tell the engine what to preserve from the frame you already made.
Sample brief
Animate the previous still: keep wardrobe, keep lighting, keep the face. Add only a slow push-in and a breath of fabric. Night studio, no new props, no change of hairstyle.
Performance
The mouth follows audio you own. Direct the face as a performance, not a filter.
Emotion and pace belong in the brief so the mouth and eyes agree.
Sample brief
Close-up of the same woman. She speaks the line with quiet certainty, not a smile. Small head tilt on the last word, eyes steady to camera. Natural blinks, no exaggerated mouth, no extra motion in the shoulders.
Name the source: a portrait you own, plus the take. Identity first.
Sample brief
Use the uploaded portrait. Keep the diamond at the throat and the hair. Animate only mouth, jaw, and slight eye motion to match the uploaded audio. Background stays locked. No morphing of bone structure.
Campaign talent should feel addressed, not theatrical.
Sample brief
Medium shot, eye-level. A calm presenter delivers one sentence to camera, newsroom stillness, platinum pin on black. Minimal head movement. Match the audio exactly. No smiling on unsmiling words.
Speech
Write the line as it should be heard. Stage direction in brackets. Punctuation is timing.
Commas, dashes, and ellipses become breath. Brackets carry the performance.
Sample brief
[Low, even alto. Unhurried. Close to the microphone.] Imagination without limits. [Half-beat.] Not a slogan — a standard.
Age, register, and distance beat a celebrity impression.
Sample brief
[Woman, thirties, dry, slightly amused. Studio booth, no reverb.] If you can see it, we can make a room for it. [Softer] You do not need permission.
When changing a recorded voice, say what to keep: diction, pace, or only timbre.
Sample brief
Convert the uploaded take into a lower, closer studio voice. Keep the original pacing and emphasis. Remove room echo. Do not add an accent. Do not rewrite the words.
Score
Mood, tempo, instrumentation, and where it sits under picture. A feeling is not a playlist of artists.
Score the scene you already have, or the one you are about to shoot.
Sample brief
Dark editorial theme for a woman walking a black marble hall. 78 BPM, restrained pulse, low piano, distant strings, a single high metallic chime on the turn. No vocals. Mix as if it sits under a voiceover.
Beds need a shape or they wander. Say intro, hold, and lift.
Sample brief
Six-second bed: two seconds of dry silence into a low drone, then a platinum-bright motif, then a held chord. Cinematic, minor, no percussion drop, no lyrics.
If voice or dialogue will sit on top, say so or the mix will fight.
Sample brief
Sparse night theme, plenty of air in the midrange for a spoken alto. Soft analog pads, almost no kick, a faint reverse cymbal at the end. Elegant, not epic.
Atmosphere
Decide whether you need the object, the room, or the air around them.
Name the material and the mic distance. “Footsteps” is not a sound.
Sample brief
Close-mic heels on wet black marble, slow walk, four steps, slight water kiss on the last. Dry, no music, no voices. Studio perspective, not a street.
A hall has a note. Give it size and surface.
Sample brief
Night interior of a vast marble studio: distant air handler, faint metallic ring, almost no traffic. Long reverb tail. Loopable bed, no sudden events.
If you are separating a mix, say which stem you need and what to discard.
Sample brief
From the uploaded mix, isolate the vocal stem and a clean instrumental bed. Keep the original timing. Do not add new instruments. Do not pitch-shift.
Text
Tell the transcriber how clean the page should be, and whose names must be right.
Verbatim includes ums. Broadcast text usually should not.
Sample brief
Transcribe the uploaded take as clean, readable captions. Remove filler. Keep the words “Empression AI” exact. Sentence case. No timestamps in the body.
If it must sit on a performance, ask for timing, not a paragraph.
Sample brief
Transcribe with rough timings per phrase for a 6-second close-up. Short lines, one breath each. Preserve the pause before the last sentence.
Models guess proper nouns. Spell them once in the brief.
Sample brief
Transcribe this studio take. Proper nouns: Empression AI, House portal. Do not paraphrase. Keep punctuation that marks pauses.
Iteration
Keep the sentence that worked. Change the lens, or the room, or the last constraint. Carry names and wardrobe into the next medium so the still, the take, and the score belong to one world.
Continue in the StudioOpen the studio and direct the next still, shot, or line.
Enter the Studio