From Idea to First Draft in One Sitting

The problem

The idea has been in your notes app for three months. Every time you open it, the project is too big to start, so you close it. The fix is not more motivation. It is a loop small enough to finish today, so that tomorrow you are someone who has made a thing and is making the next one.

This is a 30 to 45 second film, one location, one character, no dialogue or one line. That is not a compromise. It is the format where you learn fastest.

The loop

1. Concept20 min

   One sentence with a turn in it: "A woman waits for the last bus and gets on even though he never came." No turn, no film. Write three, pick the one that makes you slightly uncomfortable.

2. Script20 min

   Six to eight beats, one line each. No dialogue yet. If a beat needs a line, write the line, maximum one sentence. Read it out loud and time it. Aim for 30 to 45 seconds.

3. Shot list10 min

   One row per beat: size, must-see, matches, moves. (See Build a Shot List Before You Touch a Generator.) Circle the shots that need to move. Usually three or four.

4. Look line5 min

   Medium, lens, one light, palette, grain. This line goes into every prompt unchanged. Write it once.

5. Character reference25 min

   One clean front-on render, then a three-quarter and a profile through the Edit Model. Save the three. Every character shot from here on attaches them.

6. Stills45 min

   All shots as stills, in shot order, one prompt each, references attached, look line included, same --sref and --seed. Do not animate anything yet. Compare them in a row. Fix the odd one out with the Edit Model, not a reroll.

7. Motion40 min

   Only the circled shots go into the video generator. Motion-only prompts, one camera move and one action each, 5 to 8 seconds. Everything else stays a held still.

8. Voice and sound30 min

   If there is a line, cast it and direct it. Then three layers: ambience under everything, spot effects on the actions, a low drone or music last.

9. Cut40 min

   Assembly, trim, sound, export. Stopping rule: it does its one job and no single cut makes you wince. Export v01 and send it to one person before you touch it again.

Total: roughly four hours. Not a weekend. An afternoon and an evening.

Worked example

Run the loop with the bus stop idea and you end up with something like this: 7 beats, 7 stills (two setups), 4 of them animated, one line of dialogue ("You said it twice."), a 38-second cut, sent to one friend the same evening. Their reply is not the point. The finished file is.

The two places people stall

• Step 6, making variation nine of shot 1. The list says shot 2 is next. Go.
• Step 9, "just one more pass". The stopping rule exists because you cannot learn from a film nobody has seen.