Section 3: Image Generation and Visual Language · Lesson 2 of 5 (12 of 45) · 60 minutes · Evidence: Prompt template and three tests
Type “a boy by the sea” into an image generator and you will get something. Type it again and you will get something different. Neither picture is wrong, because you did not say which boy, what he is doing, how close the camera is or what kind of light falls on him. The generator fills every blank with its own guesses. Today you learn to write down the choices you already made in your shot plan so the generator has fewer blanks to guess.
Production journal: write your answer below.
What must a filmmaker understand before they can write prompts that control subject action setting composition light style and aspect ratio?
A prompt is the written instruction you give a generator. The most useful prompts are not clever or long. They are organized. Think of the prompt as the shot intention row from lesson 3.1, rewritten as a description of what the camera sees. Build it from eight parts, in roughly this order.
Start with subject, action and setting. Generate. Then add shot, then lighting, then style, generating after each addition so you see what each layer does. If you add six changes at once and the result improves, you will not know which change helped. Changing one thing at a time is how you learn to control the tool.
Prefer concrete, visible words to abstract ones. “A lonely room” is vague. “A narrow room with one chair, a cold lamp and a window showing rain” gives the generator something to draw. Avoid contradictions such as “bright midday sun” with “moody night glow.” Avoid asking for readable words in the image; tools often produce garbled letters, and in your films any text should be added later, in an editor such as CapCut, where you control every character.
Layer one: “A fisherman, 60, gray beard, yellow rain hat, mending a net on a pier.” Layer two adds the setting: “at dawn, wet planks, a rowboat, thin mist.” Layer three adds the shot: “medium shot from eye level, fisherman on the right third, open water on the left.” Layer four adds light and style: “soft pink sunrise from behind, painterly illustration.” Layer five adds constraints and negatives, “16:9, no other people, no readable text.” The student compares the five results and records that layer three changed the composition most.
Creators who produce image sets for stories tend to keep a reusable prompt recipe rather than starting from a blank box each time. Study the routine below and, at each step, decide whether the person or the tool is doing the thinking.
The creator fixes the parts that must not change, usually character wording, style words and aspect ratio, and keeps them in a saved note. For each new shot they swap only the parts that should change: the action, the setting and the shot description. They generate a small batch, not a single image, and look at the whole batch before judging, since a single lucky or unlucky result tells them little. When the batch misses, they edit one part of the prompt and generate again.
Notice how much of this work is bookkeeping. The tool turns words into pictures, but only the creator can say whether the picture matches the plan. The careful creator also reads each result for things they never asked for, such as extra people, random lettering or a change in outfit, and writes those down as lessons for the next prompt.
As you study, record each decision point in your production journal.
| Decision point | What the filmmaker does | What the tool automates | What still needs human review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fix the parts that never change | Saves character wording, style words and aspect ratio in a template | Nothing; it only repeats what it is given | That the wording is accurate and does not copy a protected character or a living artist |
| Write the variable parts | Describes action, setting and shot for this specific frame | May suggest phrasing if asked | Whether the words describe what the camera should see |
| Generate a small batch | Requests several results with the same prompt | Draws each result with its own random choices | Whether the batch as a whole matches the plan, not just the best image |
| Change one thing and retest | Edits a single part of the prompt and compares | Redraws the image | Which change caused which difference, and whether it helped |
Studio task: Build a prompt in layers and observe the effect of each added constraint.
Choose one shot from the shot intention worksheet you finished in lesson 3.1. Your task is to build its prompt in layers and watch what each layer does. If your school tool is unavailable today, write each layer and have a partner sketch the result, or use images your teacher provides; the thinking is the same.
Coaching tips. Keep the earlier layers word for word; if you reword them you cannot tell what caused a change. If the result ignores part of your prompt, shorten the prompt rather than lengthening it, then add pieces back one at a time. If the tool places text in the image, add a negative instruction and check again.
FIXED PARTS (never change): character wording: ______ | style words: ______ | aspect ratio: ______ SUBJECT: ______ ACTION: ______ SETTING (place, time, weather, 2-3 objects): ______ SHOT (size, angle, composition): ______ LIGHTING: ______ CONSTRAINTS: ______ NEGATIVE INSTRUCTIONS: no readable text, no logos, ______ TEST LOG: what I changed / what the result changed / keep or revert
Studio task: Write and test three production prompts based on the scene plan.
Write and test three production prompts for shots from your own scene plan.
Checklist before you submit:
Circle the prompt language that controls composition.
Deliverable: Prompt template and three tests.
Submit the prompt template and three tests. The file must use the course naming convention and include enough process evidence to show the student's decisions and revisions.
File name (course naming convention): AIF_S03-L02_prompt-template-and-three-tests_v01_YOURINITIALS
| Criterion | Advanced | Proficient | Developing | Beginning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The work addresses the stated story or production purpose. | Three prompts clearly serve three different story needs from the scene plan. | Prompts are tied to the scene plan and the shot worksheet. | Prompts loosely relate to the plan. | Prompts are unrelated to the film. |
| The student applies the required method accurately and produces usable capstone evidence. | All eight parts are present and precise; fixed and variable parts are separated; tests change one thing at a time. | Most parts are present and tests are mostly controlled. | Several parts are missing or tests change many things at once. | Prompts are unstructured and no test log is kept. |
| The student identifies at least one quality issue and records a meaningful revision decision. | Test log pinpoints which wording caused which change and records an effective revision. | Identifies at least one quality issue and records a meaningful revision decision. | Notes a problem without a clear revision. | No revision decision recorded. |
| The work complies with consent rights attribution privacy disclosure and school policy. | Every reference and style term is original or permitted, provenance is recorded and no protected names are used. | References and styles are permitted and documented. | Some provenance is missing. | Uses protected characters, living artists’ names or unpermitted references. |
Requirement: Use owned licensed or permitted references only.
Describe looks in your own words. Do not paste photos of real people, screenshots of films or characters you do not own into a tool as references. Use images you made, images that are licensed for this use, or images of people who signed a written release. Save each prompt and its settings in your production journal; that record is your evidence of how every frame was made and is what you will disclose later. If your school tool is unavailable, an approved alternative such as hand sketches is a full-credit route.