INSIDE THIS AI SKILL
The craft behind its decisions.
These are the principles and procedures the skill applies. You can understand the reasoning without having to perform every production task yourself.
The frame is tall, so the story has to be close.
Almost every craft rule in vertical drama follows from that one fact. Coverage concentrates on faces, geography has to be established deliberately, and a wide shot has to earn its place.
01 / Vertical shot lists
What actually changes
- Wides stop working
- A vertical wide is mostly floor and ceiling. If you need to establish a space, do it with a detail and a sound rather than a master.
- Lateral movement has no room
- A pan crosses the frame in a fraction of the time. Push-in and tilt are the moves with actual space in them.
- Two-handers become a choice
- Stacking two faces vertically, or cutting between singles. Both are valid; picking neither and hoping is the failure.
- Geography must be built
- Without a master shot the audience never gets the room for free. Screen direction and eyeline carry the whole burden.
- The top and bottom are contested
- Platform interface elements sit there. Nothing that has to be read should live in the outer margins.
02 / Vertical shot lists
Building the list
- 01Start from the scene objective
What has to be true by the end of this scene. Shots that do not serve it are the first thing to cut when the estimate is too high.
- 02Place the hook shot first
In the opening scene of an episode, the first shot is the one the whole episode depends on. Design it before the rest.
- 03Choose a two-hander strategy per scene
Stacked or cut. Decide once and hold it, because switching mid-scene destroys the geography you just built.
- 04Establish screen direction explicitly
Where the door is, who is camera-left. Write it into the shot as a continuity requirement rather than assuming it.
- 05Plan coverage so one failure does not strand the scene
A scene that only works if every shot is accepted is a scene with no fallback, which is expensive in a medium where some shots take several attempts.
- 06Mark the hard shots
Night, movement, two people, hands. These dominate the estimate, and naming them at the plan stage is what lets scope be cut where it actually helps.
03 / Vertical shot lists
The margins nobody checks
Questions about this skill
Do I need to understand lenses, lighting or camera angles?
No. Describe the emotion and action in plain language. The Vertical Shot List Skill helps your AI Director choose framing, camera position, movement and lighting direction for the scene. You can inspect the proposed shots or give creative feedback without learning the technical vocabulary first.
Can I shoot a vertical wide at all?
Yes, and it can be striking when the vertical axis is the subject - a stairwell, a platform, a figure dwarfed by something above them. What does not work is a vertical wide used as a conventional master to establish a room.
How do I establish a location without a master shot?
A detail plus sound, then a mid. The audience assembles the room from evidence rather than receiving it in one shot, which is slower but works, and it is why screen direction has to be stated per shot.
Stacked two-shots or cutting between singles?
Cutting between singles is more common and more forgiving because it keeps faces large. Stacking is stronger when the relationship between the two people is the subject. Pick per scene and hold it.
How many shots should a 90-second episode have?
Fewer than instinct suggests. A vertical episode built from twenty shots usually feels frantic rather than fast. The estimate will also tell you something: if the shot count is what makes the budget uncomfortable, the shot count is probably the problem.
Does the shot list change per language track?
No. Tracks share the picture and the shot structure. What changes per track is the voice, phrasing, captions and review - and occasionally timing, which is why line length in every declared language is worth checking at the animatic.