# The cinematic look

## Reference videos, as words only

Pick 2–3 videos whose look you want (creator talking-heads, film stills) and save a frame of each. Describe each in a
table: composition, practicals, key light, shadows, grade. Then write those words into your workspace and shot prompts,
applied to **your** room.

**Never wire someone else's frame in as an image reference.** Seedream blends the people in it into your face.

The three references from that project, as an example of how they were described:

| Ref | Composition | Light |
|---|---|---|
| Y1 (a VFX tutorial) | a laptop in the lower foreground, the speaker behind it, eye contact | a dark warm wall, a soft warm key from camera left, shelves and practicals, a muted olive cast |
| Y2 (an AI realism tutorial) | the desk running diagonally from the lower right, keyboard and mouse in the foreground | an orange mushroom lamp, framed pictures, teal-grey shadows |
| Y3 (a motion graphics tutorial) | relaxed in a big armchair | an orange pendant or arc lamp, cozy amber practicals |

## Looks that won (one creator's picks, in order)

| Look | The words that made it |
|---|---|
| Blue hour, tungsten | a softbox as a warm-neutral key from camera left; the blinds and glass doors glowing deep blue behind |
| Night, monitor key | the monitor at camera left as a slightly warm white key (skin stays pink-beige, not grey); a warm desk lamp rimming the far cheek |
| Overcast window | soft overcast daylight from camera left, cool neutral |
| God rays | the low sun in shafts through haze across the shelves and plants |
| Blade Runner 2049 | a Las Vegas orange haze; or a teal night with warm skin |
| Dune Arrakis | sand and ochre, milky blacks (audit for sand on an indoor floor) |
| Warm earth tones | honey, amber, terracotta, ochre, walnut, olive; golden-hour stripes; sunset through sheer curtains |
| Green-earth-orange | burnt orange, terracotta, ochre, olive and forest green, plants in terracotta pots, orange lamps |
| **White walls, olive-earth light** (his current default) | "the ambient light and shadows with a muted olive-green earthy cast so the white walls read soft sage and khaki; a filmic earth-tone grade with olive shadows and warm highlights" |

Times of day that worked with it: **evening** ("the last deep blue dusk outside the glass doors… inside only the warm
lamps glowing") and **early sunrise** ("the first low golden sun slanting through the blinds and the sheer curtains, long
soft amber rays across the room, a little morning haze, the lamps still glowing faintly").

## Looks that lost, and why

- Sunset with eye contact, without front refs: "not good". The face drifted. Angle refs first, look second.
- Cool tones and bright white screens: fix with dark-mode screens and warm lamps.
- Dusk that reads cool and blue: push the lamps warmer and brighter.
- **Painted green walls.** He meant "the lighting of the room gives this greenish quality, like earth tones". When
  someone names a colour, ask whether they mean the paint or the light.
- Invented places: replaced by the workspace rule.

## Lens and light rules

- 85 mm at eye level for close shots, 50–65 mm for medium, 35 mm only with eye contact from slightly high.
- The key from one side (the window side of your room), large and soft, with a gentle falloff on the far side.
- A soft neutral fill keeps the skin its real tone, never orange, however warm the room.
- **Never name lighting gear** ("a large diffuser", "an octabox", "a softbox on a stand"). Seedream draws the stand in
  frame. Describe the light on the face, and add "no light stands, softboxes or tripods in frame".
- The finish, last in every prompt: "shot on a full-frame cinema camera, very shallow depth of field, creamy bokeh, face,
  eyes and hair tack sharp, a warm filmic grade with rich blacks and fine grain."
- Colour-only grades (`scripts/film_grade.py`) are a free preview. A look lit into a new generation reads better, and
  that's what was asked for when he saw both.