Cinematic shots skill

#Read first

Script.md for the lead, the look, the place, the props and the shot list; the character sheet and any style frame wired in.

#The script

• Three shots tell one small story, in order: the setup, the turn, the payoff. Every shot's action is something that happens, never a pose held.
• Each shot opens where the one before ended (the same moment, seen from the new framing) and ends on a frame the next can pick up.
• What the logline says happens is seen happening in a shot, at a size you can read: a ship in trouble fills the frame, not a speck.

#Character sheet (16:9)

The lead in front, three-quarter and back views at one scale on a plain light background, with two head close-ups, and beside them anyone or anything else that appears (an opponent, a creature) in a front and a side view at its true size against the lead, rendered in the script's look: the faces, hair, outfits, bodies and props every keyframe keeps.

#Keyframes (stills in the film's shape, 16:9 or 9:16)

• One frame per shot: the first frame of its clip, with the composition, light and lead exactly as the shot starts.
• Everyone in it matches the character sheet: the lead's face, hair, outfit and props, and any opponent or creature exactly as drawn there, at the same size against the lead.
• Light and palette from the script's look, from sources you can see (fire, moon, windows) that stay put from shot to shot. Every keyframe is in Keyframe 1's place and light unless the script moves the scene.
• Leave room to move: the lead isn't cut off at the edges and has space in the direction they'll go.
• Set pieces and props stay the same from keyframe to keyframe (the same lamp, door or vehicle, the coat in the same colour), and what the script says happens is visible in frame (a ship in trouble is seen, not a speck).

#Shots (video from a keyframe)

• Start exactly on the keyframe and play the shot's action as one continuous take, five seconds, no cuts, ending on the frame Script.md says it ends on.
• One camera move per shot, named plainly: slow push in, pull back, pan left, orbit, handheld follow or static.
• Describe motion physically: what moves, how fast, and what cloth, hair, smoke and light do.
• Keep screen direction: if the lead moves left to right in one shot, they keep doing so in the next.

#Avoid

New characters appearing, faces changing, text or logos in frame, more than one camera move, and sound you can't see.