skills/ai-film-pipeline-master/references/phase-02-screenplay-dialogue/symptoms-scene-level.md

# Scene-level complaints

Part of the symptom router. Open this file when the complaint is about scene-level. Each complaint below is followed by the cards that repair it, best first; `LOOKUP.md` says which file holds each card.

---

### "The scene feels flat"

**Diagnosis first, before any technique.** A flat scene is almost never a style problem. Run the three-question test: what does the viewpoint character want *in this scene*, what value turns, and what is different at the end. A scene that cannot answer all three is not a scene, and no amount of better dialogue will save it.

1. Run the test before doing anything else
   `scene.dead_scene_test`
2. If nothing is wanted, inject a want — concrete, scene-sized, obtainable in the room
   `scene.give_a_want` · `scene.goal_conflict_disaster`
3. If something is wanted but nothing turns, find the value and move it
   `scene.value_turn` · `scene.reversal_of_power` · `scene.reversal_of_expectation`
4. If the scene passes the test and still reads flat, the problem is location or entry point
   `scene.transplant` · `scene.late_entry`
5. If none of that works, the scene may not deserve to exist
   `scene.absorb_and_delete` · `scene.merge_two_scenes`

### "The scene is too long"

The last quarter of a long scene is usually characters agreeing about what just happened. Find the moment the value turns, keep one beat after it, delete the rest.

1. Cut the end at the turn
   `scene.early_exit`
2. Cut the beginning — greetings, arrivals, establishing that they know each other
   `scene.late_entry` · `dial.enter_late_leave_early`
3. If it is long because it does two jobs, that is a virtue; keep it
   `scene.merge_two_scenes`

### "The scene sags in the middle"

The middle sags when the character keeps using the same tactic. Escalation is not volume; it is a change of method.

1. Change the tactic, not the temperature — charm, then reason, then guilt, then threat
   `scene.tactic_change`
2. Bring in an obstacle that changes *how* they can speak, not whether they can
   `scene.barrier_mid_scene` · `scene.third_party_arrival`
3. Put a visible limit in the room
   `scene.ticking_scene`

### "It's just two people talking"

1. Give one of them something they need from the other before the scene ends
   `scene.give_a_want`
2. Move it somewhere one of them has authority and the other does not
   `scene.transplant` · `scene.threshold_scene`
3. Make them unable to leave
   `scene.trap_scene`
3b. Or make the exit available and unusable. A locked door is not the only wall — the stronger version is a room where leaving would announce something, so the character stays and the audience watches them decide not to go
   `tens.social_containment`
4. Put something on the table that has to change hands
   `scene.transaction_scene`

### "I've rewritten this scene four times and it's worse"

1. The named failure. A scene can be polished past the point where it was working
   `scene.overworked_scene`
2. Go back to the last draft that had life in it and change one thing only
3. Or accept the diagnosis: the problem may be the scene's position, not its content
   `scene.merge_two_scenes` · `scene.absorb_and_delete`

### "The scene ends on a look"

1. The named failure: a meaningful look asked to carry what the scene did not build
   `scene.meaningful_look`
2. If the meaning is there, an ordinary action lands harder
   `end.quiet_ending` · `emo.emotion_through_task`
3. If it is not there, the look cannot supply it

### "The scene dribbles out at the end"

1. Cut the wind-down. Characters agreeing about what just happened is not an ending
   `scene.wind_down_close` · `scene.early_exit`

### "I've written a montage"

1. Check it is summarising a gap between pivotal scenes, not avoiding a scene you did not want to write
   `scene.montage_as_avoidance` · `time.montage` · `seq.montage_sequence`

### "Every scene feels the same"

Usually one of two causes: the same value turns in the same direction every time, or the same character always wants and the other always withholds.

1. Check whether you are turning one value fifteen times
   `scene.value_turn`
2. Reverse who needs what
   `scene.swap_who_wants`
3. Vary the shape — not every scene is a contest
   `scene.public_scene` · `scene.interrupted_ritual` · `scene.held_exit`

### "The scene ends weakly"

1. End on the turn, not after it
   `scene.early_exit`
2. Or end on an ordinary action after a large event — and hold it
   `scene.held_exit`
3. Or refuse to answer the question the scene raised
   `dial.unanswered_line`
4. Decide deliberately who speaks last; it colours everything before it
   `dial.last_word`

### "This scene resolves something I need left open"

1. Cut it off from outside before its business is done, and never resume it on the page
   `scene.interrupted_scene`
2. Use the interruption to characterise — what interrupts a person says what owns them
3. The honest warning on that card: audiences can feel the difference between a character being interrupted and a writer being rescued

---