Prompt guide · 20 briefs

Brief the director, not the render.

You don't write model prompts here, Cadenza's engine turns your idea into a shot plan with physics-checked camera work, then speaks each model's native prompt language for you. What you control is the brief. These 20 show how.

The shape of a great brief

subject with 2 to 3 visible features · one physical action per beat · a before and an after · platform + duration · emotion written as behavior. Everything else, lenses, angles, pacing, lighting, negative constraints, the engine derives and checks before a single credit is spent.

Name a subject the camera can hold

Give the subject 2 to 3 stable visual features. The engine locks them as the continuity reference, every shot inherits the same look, so nothing drifts.

01 · The anchored character

Architectural Precision

"A silver-haired watchmaker in a navy apron and round glasses assembles a tiny gear under a desk lamp"

Three stable features (hair, apron, glasses) become the lock. Vague subjects (“a man works”) force the model to invent, and re-invent, a face every shot.

02 · The anchored product

Architectural Precision

"A matte-black ceramic pour-over coffee set with a walnut collar, steam rising, on a rain-lit windowsill"

Material + color + one distinguishing detail (walnut collar) give the renderer something to keep constant while the camera moves.

03 · Two subjects, clearly separated

Documentary Truth

"A tall courier in a yellow rain jacket hands a package to a short baker in a flour-dusted apron, at the bakery door at dawn"

Each subject gets its own visual tag. Untagged pairs merge into each other mid-video, the classic two-person artifact.

One action per beat, described physically

The engine externalizes emotion into what a camera can see. Help it: say what the body does, not what the heart feels. One clear action per shot beats five vague ones.

04 · Action as body movement

Action Choreography

"A climber chalks her hands slowly, exhales, then commits to the first hold of an overhanging gym wall"

Three sequential micro-actions with natural inertia. The engine paces them across beats; “an epic climbing video” gives it nothing to choreograph.

05 · Emotion you can film

Character Intimacy

"A student opens an exam result on her phone; her shoulders drop, then she laughs and spins her chair once"

Relief written as behavior. Abstract words (“she is overjoyed”) under-perform, models act what they can see.

06 · The verb is the direction

Atmospheric Tension

"A detective in a long coat stalks down a neon-lit arcade alley in the rain"

“Stalks” vs “walks” vs “trudges” changes the whole performance, one verb swap, no other change needed.

Let the mode do the cinematography

Don't write camera moves, pick (or let Auto pick) a Director Mode. Each mode carries a full grammar: lenses, angles, pacing, lighting, physics-checked camera speed.

07 · Auto mode from a plain idea

Auto → Tentpole

"Our new running shoe launches next month, make people feel it's inevitable"

Emotion words (“inevitable”) steer Auto to Tentpole with a Mythic tint: low hero angles, slow push-ins, an 85mm payoff. You describe the feeling; the engine builds the grammar.

08 · The suspense hold

Atmospheric Tension

"An empty lighthouse kitchen at night; a kettle begins to whistle and no one comes"

Atmospheric Tension holds wides longer, drops the key light, and lets the whistle escalate, slow is powerful when tension rises, so don't ask for “fast cuts”.

09 · Comedy is timing, not jokes

Comedy Timing

"A cat sits on a robot vacuum, dignified; the vacuum starts and slowly rotates the cat out of the room"

Comedy Timing shoots this flat, wide and locked, holding the frame one beat too long. The mode carries the joke's rhythm.

10 · The music-locked cut

Musical Rhythm

"A sneaker designer sketches, stitches and laces one shoe, every gesture landing on the beat"

Musical Rhythm cuts on accents and freezes on the final beat, say what should land on the beat, not where to cut.

Give the story a before and after

The engine plans hook → development → payoff. Feed it a change of state: what's true at the start that isn't true at the end.

11 · Transformation brief

Tentpole

"An empty concrete rooftop becomes a lantern-lit rooftop cinema as the sun sets"

Before (empty, daylight) and after (glowing, night) give every development beat a direction to travel.

12 · The reveal

Thriller Investigation

"A dusty garage door rolls up to reveal a restored 1970s motorcycle, chrome catching the morning light"

One concealment + one reveal = a natural hook and payoff. The engine holds the reveal for the final beat instead of spending it on shot one.

13 · The quiet shift

Minimalist Art House

"A potter shapes a bowl through one long afternoon; the light moves across the studio as the bowl finds its form"

Minimalist Art House reads “time passing” as the event itself, small change, long takes, no forced drama.

Say where it will live

Platform + duration change the direction: a TikTok hook must read in 1.5 seconds; a brand film can breathe. Tell the engine the destination and it paces for it.

14 · Social-first hook

Run-and-Gun

"For TikTok, 9 seconds: a barista snaps a lid on a cup, slides it down the counter, and it stops exactly on the logo coaster"

Short duration + platform = the engine compresses to a 3-beat arc and front-loads the strongest image.

15 · The 15-second brand film

Character Intimacy

"For YouTube, 15 seconds: a family tailor shop through three generations, same doorway, same bell, different hands"

Longer canvas → the engine gives development beats room and lands an emotional payoff instead of rushing the cut.

16 · Product macro for the feed

Architectural Precision

"For Instagram, 8 seconds: raking light crosses a hand-stitched leather wallet, thread by thread, ending on the maker's stamp"

Macro detail + one light move + a stamp payoff, Architectural Precision keeps every frame composed before motion.

Direct with your brand, not about it

Save the brand once in Brand Memory. Its palette keys the lighting and the wordmark locks as a reference, the creative layer can never overwrite brand facts.

17 · Brand-lit, not brand-said

Mythic Heroic

"Using my saved brand: a cyclist crests a hill at dawn and coasts into the city as the streetlights blink off"

No need to write hex codes or logo instructions, the BRAND_BLOCK is locked and appended separately, never mangled into the scene text.

18 · URL → ad

Auto → Tentpole

"Make a 12-second launch ad from https://yourstore.com/products/aurora-lamp"

The engine scrapes an editable draft, locks the product hero image as the continuity reference, and directs around the real product.

Advanced: dialogue, dreams, and remix

Dialogue goes in quotes and stays short. Surreal ideas need one consistent anchor. And any public direction in the gallery can be remixed, the craft carries, the subject stays yours.

19 · A line of dialogue

Character Intimacy

"Two friends on a night bus; one looks up from her phone and says “we could just go now”, and the other smiles"

Quoted speech routes to a dialogue-strong model; one short line lands, monologues drift.

20 · The anchored dream

Dream Surreal

"A red paper boat sails through a city where the streets are slow rivers of fog, always the same red boat"

Surreal worlds can morph, the repeated anchor (“always the same red boat”) is what keeps the dream coherent.

21 · Documentary honesty

Documentary Truth

"A rice farmer in Chitwan checks the sky, then her phone's weather app, and smiles at the forecast"

Documentary Truth uses available light and observational handheld, asking for “cinematic drama” here would fight the mode. Real beats staged.

22 · The remix brief

inherited

"Remix the “rooftop cinema” direction from the gallery, but for our bookshop's late-night reading club"

Remix carries the mode + shot skeleton; your subject replaces theirs. Craft is shared, brands never leak.

23 · The full director's brief

Run-and-Gun

"For TikTok, 12 seconds, using my saved brand: a courier in a yellow jacket races dawn traffic to deliver a birthday cake intact, handheld energy, and the payoff is the kid's face, not the cake"

Subject features + stakes + platform + duration + brand + where the emotion lands. One sentence, everything the director needs, this is the ceiling of the craft.

What NOT to write

Camera jargon ("dolly in while panning and zooming", two simultaneous moves is the classic artifact recipe; the engine enforces one move per shot). Style-only prompts ("make it cinematic" carries no visual information). Five actions in five seconds. Tiny on-screen text. The engine's Prompt Critic scores every generated prompt for these risks before a credit is spent, but the best results start with a brief that never needed the repair.

Cadenza, Prompt guide