Cinematic Director Skill
A director skill for AI video: turns a script into a shot list, keyframes and motion prompts for Runway, Kling and Veo
- 294 ★ on the repository
- Last commit
- MIT
Minimal access
Why this level
- The skill consists of instructions and references and runs or sends nothing itself
- The script and prompts you paste are seen by the agent's model and then by the video model you hand them to
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add skills/cinematic-director-skillDetects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.
Other ways to install
Access and checks
How we reviewMinimal accessThe tool runs nothing and makes no network calls.
- The skill consists of instructions and references and runs or sends nothing itself
- The script and prompts you paste are seen by the agent's model and then by the video model you hand them to
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
Cinematic Director Skill takes a script, a paragraph of prose or a single keyframe and expands it into a production plan. The skill acts as a director and previs supervisor: it breaks down subtext, builds a beat map, writes a director's book, stages the blocking, compiles a shot list with coverage, writes keyframe prompts and image-to-video motion prompts, then a sound plan and an edit plan. The core idea: instead of a pile of epithets like `cinematic` and `8K`, tell the model where the camera is, what the body does, where the action ends and what must not change. A shot here is a story decision, blocking comes before framing and the keyframe is the control point, because a video model mostly animates what the still already decided. Continuity is written explicitly: identity strings, light direction, screen direction and era locks are written once and repeated verbatim. The pipeline has 13 steps and 10 output modes from a beat sheet to a QC checklist. Reference files load through a routing table, so a request pulls one file set instead of the whole kit. There are 20 style lenses based on directors' manner, for example Kubrick, Wong Kar-wai and Nolan: a lens overrides parameters at the director's book, shot list and prompt steps. The skill teaches a method and does not reproduce specific shots or lines from films. A separate manual of 19 coded failures (F1 to F19) helps repair bad generations: each has a mechanism, ranked causes and the cheapest fix.
Who it is for. For AI video creators, directors, storyboard artists and ad teams who make clips in Runway, Kling, Veo and other models and want to control the frame instead of guessing at words.
Good fit when
- You need a scene turned into a four-shot list for Runway with angles, lenses, blocking and continuity anchors
- The clip looks like a slideshow: the character barely moves, rain is frozen, and you need a failure diagnosis with a fix cost
- You need an edit plan for eight finished clips with in and out points and a patch for the two that do not match
- You want the same scene in the manner of Wong Kar-wai or Kubrick: the lens changes camera, light and rhythm
- You need a continuity bible, a sound plan or a QC checklist before assembly
Not a fit when
- You need film criticism or a review: that is outside the skill's tasks and must be requested separately
- You need an exact retelling of shots and lines from a specific film: the skill teaches a method and does not reproduce shot by shot
- You need a finished clip in one click: the skill makes a plan and prompts while the video model does the generation
- You need one short prompt tip: the full 13-step pipeline is overkill for that
Example request
Turn this scene into a four-shot plan for Runway, 16:9: a courier hesitates at an apartment door, knocks, slips an envelope under it and walks away.Limitations
- The skill does not generate video itself. It writes a plan, keyframes and motion prompts that you then hand to a model such as Runway, Kling or Veo.
- Tool references are written as capability-first adapters, but model interfaces change fast, so check version-specific tips against current model documentation.
- Version 2.0 renamed the output modes (from A–F to A–J) and the pipeline steps (from 10 to 13). An old copy answers by the old letters, so modes H, I and J are absent in it. Update with `git pull`.
- Style lens files and some examples contain Chinese parameter names, for example the style parameter block.
How to disable. Delete the `~/.claude/skills/cinematic-director` folder or the project's `.claude/skills/cinematic-director` and reload the agent. The skill writes nothing outside its folder and the agent's replies.
FAQ
How do I install Cinematic Director Skill in Claude Code?
Run `git clone https://github.com/wuwangzhang1216/DirectorSKILL.git ~/.claude/skills/cinematic-director` or clone into the project's `.claude/skills/cinematic-director`. The folder name must match the `name` field in `SKILL.md`, then reload the agent.
What output modes does the skill have?
Ten modes A to J: beat sheet, director's book, shot plan, keyframe and video prompts, continuity bible, sound plan, edit plan and a QC checklist.
How do I apply a specific director's manner?
Name the director in the request, for example "in the style of Wong Kar-wai". The skill loads one lens file from `references/director_styles/` and applies its parameters at the book, shot and prompt steps. There are twenty lenses in all.
What if a generation looks like a slideshow?
Paste the prompt and say the result is poor. The skill walks a triage tree, names the failure code and mechanism and applies the cheapest fix, and where needed suggests re-planning the shot instead of rewriting the prompt once more.
How do I check the skill version?
Open the installed copy's `SKILL.md` and look at the `metadata.version` block. The command `grep -A2 '^metadata:' ~/.claude/skills/cinematic-director/SKILL.md` prints it and `git pull` updates the folder.
Discussion
No questions or reviews yet.
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Comparison with similar tools
Entries that share the main search query, and how they differ.
| Entry | Official | Repository stars | Main difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cinematic Director Skill (this entry) | no | 294 | |
| Stickman Video Director | no | 3,281 | runs clips of stick figures, while this skill gives a full director pipeline with lenses and failure diagnosis |
| ai-shortfilm-prompts | no | 499 | a set of ready prompts for short films, while here a method: beats, blocking and continuity control |
README in short
The page explains why a stream of epithets fails and shows the architecture: a main file with a routing table plus references, templates and lenses loaded on demand. It continues with install, update, quick examples, a table of twenty directors and a Chinese version.
README badge
Original SKILL.md
--- name: cinematic-director # Keep the description specific so the host agent loads this skill only for film/video direction tasks. description: >- Acts as a director and previs supervisor for film, video, and AI filmmaking. Turns scripts, prose, briefs, or existing image and video assets into production deliverables — subtext breakdown, beat sheet, director's book, blocking and staging, shot list with coverage, keyframe and storyboard prompts, image-to-video motion prompts, sound and dialogue plans, edit timelines, continuity bibles, and QC repair notes. Carries genre playbooks, a controlled prompt lexicon, a coded failure-diagnosis manual, and capability-first adapters for current video and image models. Optionally applies one named director's style lens — Spielberg, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Scorsese, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Wong Kar-wai, Nolan, Villeneuve, Fincher, Refn, Bi Gan, Zhang Yimou, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Park Chan-wook, Malick, Michael Mann, Coen Brothers. Use for shot planning, blocking, staging, camera movement, visual continuity, storyboard and keyframe design, prompt repair, "in the style of X" direction, and any AI video workflow. license: MIT metadata: version: "2.1.0" author: "wangzhang-wu" --- # Cinematic Director Skill ## Operating stance Act as a working director and previs supervisor, not a critic and not a prompt decorator. The job is to turn source material into a plan someone could actually execute — with a camera crew or with a generation queue. Three domains have to meet in every answer: - **Directing** — story, subtext, blocking, staging, shot rationale, performance, visual language. - **Pre-production** — breakdown, beat sheet, director's book, shot list, coverage, continuity, budget of effort. - **AI production** — keyframes, reference assets, motion prompts, first/last-frame workflows, tool control surfaces, generation QC and repair. The enemy is adjective soup. `cinematic, dramatic, masterpiece, 8K` tells a model nothing about where the camera is, what the body does, where the action ends, or what must not change. Replace it with observable physical description and explicit constraints. ## Non-goals - Do not write film criticism unless asked for critique. - Do not reproduce specific shots, dialogue, characters, or plot beats from real films. Style modules teach methods. Three more non-goals are stated once, as hard rules, so they have a single home: shot variety for its own sake (rule 1), overloading one clip (rule 3), and reinventing what a supplied reference already fixed (rule 6 and the Gotchas). ## Routing — pick the mode, then load only what you need `SKILL.md` alone is enough for a short answer. Load reference files on demand, and only the ones the request actually needs. Reading everything wastes context and dilutes the answer.