Method
Four rules carry every prompt I write: point at the attachment, name what cannot change, keep one thing per paragraph, and maintain a running negative sheet. They are not about clever wording — they are about removing the ways a model can misread you.
In practice: open by saying what is attached and in what order, then state what cannot change, then keep one instruction per paragraph, and finish with the same negative sheet you always paste in. Failures are then diagnosable by rule — a reference that was ignored means rule one was missed, and a requirement that got traded away means two things shared a paragraph.
Stage 1
Open by naming what is attached and in what order — image one is the style sheet, image two is the character, and so on. A reference that is never addressed by position is treated as loose inspiration rather than a lock.
This is the single most common reason a reference appears to be ignored: it was attached, but nothing in the prompt pointed at it.
Stage 2
Faces, wardrobe, colour, materials. Say it plainly, once, and repeat it in every shot of the project. The repetition is not redundancy — it is the instruction that keeps a series looking like one piece of work.
Stage 3
The frame first, then the motion, then the sound. Tangled into one paragraph, a model will trade one requirement off against the others — you get the movement you asked for and lose the lighting you needed.
Separating them also makes a failure diagnosable: you can see which paragraph the result stopped obeying.
Stage 4
One running list of your own recurring failures — the extra fingers, the drifting logo, the plastic skin, the camera that cannot sit still. Paste it in unchanged every time.
It is the only part of a prompt that improves on its own, because every project adds to it.
The actual prompts I hand out in class — the commercial set and the UGC set, each with a note on why it is built the way it is — live on the downloads page as files you can take away.
Rule one decides most outcomes. A reference that appeared to be ignored was usually attached and never addressed: nothing in the prompt told the model to follow it. That makes the failure prompt-shaped rather than model-shaped, and fixable in a minute.
The negative sheet is the part we would defend hardest, because it is the only piece of a prompt that improves on its own — every project adds to it. It belongs to the studio rather than to the shot, so write it once and paste it in unchanged.
Where this is taught
AI Film Lab: Cinematic Storytelling — 2 Days, taught live in a small cohort. Ask on WhatsApp (+65 9188 6948) for the next dates.
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Process
Every piece I make runs through the same six stages: script, character bible, style lock, keyframe, motion, master. The order is the point. Each stage exists to make the next one cheaper, because the expensive thing in AI film is not generating — it is generating again.
Read →Method
Consistency is the hardest problem in AI film: the same character, the same world and the same look in every single shot. It is solved with references and diagnosis, not with better luck — five things do most of the work.
Read →Diagnosis
AI video gives itself away in six ways: the face drifts, the physics float, the light is flat, the camera moves like no camera, the sound does not belong, and small details mutate between frames. All six are failures of preparation rather than of the model, which is why each one is prevented before generation instead of repaired after it.
Read →Definition
A style lock is one approved reference sheet that governs how every frame of a film is rendered: the light, the palette, the amount of detail, and the way the camera behaves. You approve it once, before animation starts, and then point at it on every shot instead of re-deciding the look shot by shot.
Read →Definition
A shot list is the film written down as shots before anything is generated — what each shot is for, the emotion it has to land, how long it lasts, and how the camera behaves. It matters more in AI than on a set, because changing your mind in words costs nothing and changing it after a render costs a re-render.
Read →Getting started
No — neither is required to start, but the work still asks you to make the decisions those skills exist for: what the shot is for, where the camera stands, and what must not change. The tools remove the cost of a shoot; they do not remove the need for a plan, and the planning is teachable.
Read →Training
I run two course series in Singapore, both as small live cohorts of two days. The Agentic AI Series teaches you to build and run your own AI agents — a website builder, a content creator and a filmmaker. The AI Creative Series is the craft itself: social video, product content that sells, and cinematic short films. Team training runs on your own project, at your studio or online.
Read →Commercial work
A product film is a short list of shots with one job each: a hero shot that shows the thing itself, a detail shot for texture and proof, a context shot that shows who it is for, and one line that carries the offer. It is short, because a launch film is watched on a phone between other things.
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