Drama Director Staging

Drama Director Staging (Scriptwriting and Shot Direction Workflow)

Stage Positioning: Stage 1 of the short drama audiovisual industrial pipeline. Transforms a text outline into a professional-grade plan.json and storyboard featuring spatial movement, actor blocking, and high-density dialogue. No Generic Fluff: Does not explain what shot sizes or lenses are. Only consolidates MiniMax H3‑constrained director scheduling criteria and a hardcore, anti‑failure SOP.

---

1. Operating Contract, Input, and Output

• Input: Plot outline, scene setting, original character dialogue.
• Output:
  1. Script.md: Standard scene dialogue text (including movement and emotion annotations);
  2. Storyboard.md and plan.json: Each shot includes camera position, 6 dynamic camera codes, speaker, silent listeners, and normalized pure Chinese dialogue.

---

2. Hardcore SOP: Six Cinematic Dynamic Camera Rotations

Prohibition (Anti‑example): It is strictly forbidden to use two consecutive static over-the-shoulder (OTS) shot/reverse‑shot face‑to‑face conversations! This easily causes the AI character to stand still, stare blankly, and create an awkward atmosphere.

Shot arrangement must rotate through the following 6 dynamic camera moves:

Code	Mode Name	English Prompt	Mandatory Use Cases
M1_TRACKING	Cross‑path Slow Push	Slow forward tracking shot following character walking briskly through the room, camera pushing in steadily, dynamic background movement, continuous tension.	Use when the character is walking and talking, pushing through a door, or approaching an opponent – breaks static space.
M2_RACK_FOCUS	Prop Close‑up Rack Focus	Extreme close-up starting on the prop (slammed on table/held in hands), rapid rack focus up to the speaker's intense glaring eyes, shallow depth of field, dramatic depth shift.	When a key prop (blade, contract, pocket watch, chip) is slammed on a table or held in hand – shift focus from object to person.
M3_DUTCH_TILT	Dutch Angle Oblique Intimidation	15-degree Dutch angle tilted low shot, looking up at the dominant character stepping forward intimidatingly, creating extreme psychological pressure and cinematic unease.	Tense moments: villain approaches, violent intimidation, psychological imbalance, or plot twist.
M4_BACK_REVEAL	Back‑Turned Head Swivel	Character begins with their back turned towards camera speaking coldly, suddenly pivots their head 90 degrees to deliver the punchline with an icy stare, dramatic rim lighting catches their jawline.	Use when delivering a cold decisive line, betrayal, or an important ruling.
M5_CLOSE_WHISPER	Ear‑Close Intimidation	Tight medium close-up, speaker leans in uncomfortably close towards the listener's ear, whispered menacing intensity, listener flinches slightly while speaker holds cold direct gaze.	Close‑range threats, secret deals, interrogation whispers – compress distance to the extreme.
M6_PROFILE_STAND	Side‑Light Silhouette Standoff	Cinematic two-shot in profile, characters not looking directly into each other's eyes but glaring past each other, split lighting separating them, smoke drifting between them.	Expert showdowns, misaligned gazes, subtext – never a straightforward mutual gaze.

---

3. Hardcore SOP: Fast‑Paced Short Drama Dialogue Density and Pure Chinese Normalization

3.1 Word Count Density Golden Rule (7.3‑second timing)

• Standard 175 frames (7.29 seconds) dialogue slot: Strictly controlled between 20 ~ 28 pure Chinese characters (approx. 3.5 ~ 4.2 chars/second – fast‑paced commercial short drama speech rate);
• Word count & speed criteria:
  • Characters < 16: Judged as too slow – H3 will forcibly lengthen each character's syllable, causing sluggish, dazed speech – must expand dialogue conflict or break down the action;
  • Characters > 30: Judged as too dense – H3 will suffer severe syllable swallowing, slurring, and popping – must condense to under 28 characters;
• Pre‑/Post‑split Rule: First 4.5 seconds: high‑density utterance; last 2.8 seconds: cold stare, action reaction (gripping knife, raising eyebrow, sneering).

3.2 Pure Chinese Character Normalization (Preventing Language Drift and Foreign Talk)

Before entering the prompt compiler, the normalization processor must be invoked:

1. 100% convert Arabic numerals to uppercase Chinese characters: 100 -> 一百, 500 -> 五百, EP01 -> 第一集;
2. No English abbreviations or foreign letters: Boss -> 老大, OK -> 行, watch -> 电子表;
3. Punctuation standardization: No / \ @ # $ % ^ & * _ [ ] allowed – fully standardize to Chinese full‑width punctuation ， 。 ！ ？ ：.

---

4. Hardcore SOP: Speaker and Silent Listener Tags

In the plan.json output, each shot must explicitly include:

{
  "seg": "seg01",
  "shot_type": "MLS",
  "camera_mode": "M1_TRACKING",
  "speaker": "Sal",
  "silent_listeners": ["Merchant", "Bystander"],
  "dialogue_text": "<d>这笔账拖了整整三年，今天要么给钱，要么留下你的右手！</d>",
  "pacing_check": {
    "char_count": 27,
    "cps": 3.7,
    "status": "OPTIMAL"
  }
}

---

5. Dedicated Tool Scripts

• Compiler: python scripts/director_engine.py --validate plan.json
• Dialogue purification & speed check: python scripts/director_engine.py --clean-dialogue "数字100转汉字"