Shantanu masterclass: story and direction controls
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Three slides from the 26 August masterclass provide a compact creative-control method. Use the controls below in every project; they supplement the detailed workflow and checklist.
1. Build a story engine before generating shots
For character-driven narrative work, record five linked decisions:
- Character — whose experience gives the audience someone to follow?
- Desire — what concrete outcome do they want?
- Obstacle — what makes that outcome difficult or costly?
- Conflict — what decision, confrontation, or sacrifice must occur?
- Transformation — what has changed by the ending?
This is the story test for a character-driven treatment, script, scene map, and final cut. Informational, abstract and sensory films may instead define an approved progression of attention, information or feeling. Record that alternative explicitly rather than forcing a character arc where it does not belong.
2. Choose one emotional direction for a sequence
Write the intended audience feeling, then align six levers around it:
| Lever | Decision to record |
|---|---|
| Camera | Distance, angle, lens feeling, and movement |
| Lighting | Key, contrast, colour temperature, and shadow |
| Colour | Palette, saturation, and tonal contrast |
| Music | Texture, rhythm, instrumentation, and silence |
| Pacing | Shot length, cuts, holds, and escalation |
| Impact | The intended after-feeling or physical response |
The rule is alignment: do not ask camera, light, colour, sound, edit, and impact to make competing emotional promises unless that contradiction is intentional and recorded.
3. Write a director’s brief before asking an AI to generate
Use this five-part structure for prompt packets, tool prompts, review tasks, and team handoffs:
# Role
Who is acting and what relevant expertise should guide the response?
# Objective
What single result must be delivered?
# Context
What story, canon, audience, source material, constraints, and current state matter?
# Instructions
What ordered actions, output format, and quality checks are required?
# Notes
What constraints, edge cases, exclusions, formatting rules, or exceptions remain?
Keep the goal singular, state background that changes the decision, give one action per instruction where possible, and put exceptions where they cannot be overlooked.
Where the controls enter the studio
| Studio stage | Apply this reference |
|---|---|
| Shape your idea | Character, desire, transformation, intended audience feeling |
| Build the story | Obstacle and conflict; test the ending against the planned transformation |
| Define the world | Emotional rules for camera, light, colour, sound, and pacing |
| Plan and make | Director’s brief for each scene, asset, and generation pass |
| Edit and sound | Check the six emotional levers against the intended sequence feeling |
| Finish | Watch the completed film for whether its emotional promise survives the cut |
These are creative planning controls, not automatic quality certification. Record deliberate departures in the project notes.