skills/ai-film-pipeline-master/references/phase-03-shooting-script/vlb-genres.md

# 13 — Genres

From the Visual Language Bible. Start from `./vlb-decision-tables.md`: name the change you want in the scene, take the technique it hands you, and read its card here.

---

## 13 — Genres


For each genre: shot length, prevailing movement, lens, lighting and the characteristic transition.

---

### Action
**ASL:** 1.5–2.5 s · **Lens:** 24–35mm · **Movement:** handheld plus fast tracking plus crash zoom
**Lighting:** high contrast, motivated practicals, smoke to make beams visible.
**Shots:** a geographic wide (mandatory) → medium engagement → ECU impact → reaction.
**Transition:** cut on action, match cut on a blow.
**Common error:** everything close and fast, so the viewer loses their bearings. **Insert a geographic
wide every four or five shots.**

---


**Yields to:** `size.ws` — Coverage has gone all-close; bearings lost.  
`vlb.genre.action`

### Adventure
**ASL:** 3–4.5 s · **Lens:** 24–50mm · **Movement:** crane, aerial, tracking
**Lighting:** natural, golden hour, weather as a character.
**Shots:** wide establishers, rise reveals, the low-angle hero.

---


`vlb.genre.adventure`

### Thriller / Suspense
**ASL:** 3–5 s · **Lens:** 50–100mm · **Movement:** slow creep, long statics
**Lighting:** a single cool source, window light, green-cyan shadow.
**Shots:** frame within a frame, the surveillance shot, ECU details, unsettling negative space.
**The secret:** suspense is the viewer knowing more than the character. Give them the information early.

---


`vlb.genre.thriller_suspense`

### Crime / Procedural
**ASL:** 3–4.5 s · **Lens:** 35–85mm · **Movement:** cold motion-control, statics
**Lighting:** low tungsten, venetian shadow, neon.
**Shots:** overhead on the crime scene, interrogation OTS, evidence inserts.

---


`vlb.genre.crime_procedural`

### Drama
**ASL:** 4–7 s · **Lens:** 40–85mm · **Movement:** micro moves, statics, slow pushes
**Lighting:** motivated naturalism, soft key.
**Shots:** MCU, OTS, long reactions, the empty frame.
**The secret:** less movement, deeper feeling.

---


`vlb.genre.drama`

### Romance
**ASL:** 4–6 s · **Lens:** 85mm · **Movement:** slow orbit, soft push
**Lighting:** warm, candles and string lights, bokeh, golden hour, no hard shadow on the face.
**Shots:** two shots, facing profiles, ECU hand in hand, reactions.

---


`vlb.genre.romance`

### Comedy
**ASL:** 3–5 s · **Lens:** 35–50mm · **Movement:** static (!) plus snap pans
**Lighting:** high key, bright, flat.
**The golden law:** **the wide is what makes it funny.** Physical comedy must be seen whole, and
cutting close kills the joke.
**Transition:** smash cut, freeze frame, snap zoom.

---


**Yields to:** `size.ws` — Physical comedy; cutting close kills the joke.  
`vlb.genre.comedy`

### Horror
**ASL:** 4–6 s building, then 0.5–1 s on the break · **Lens:** 18–35mm (wide frightens)
**Lighting:** low key, shadow dominant, a single source, green-blue for unsafe zones.
**Shots:** large negative space (*where is the threat?*), the long static, POV, the reveal turn.
**The secret:** the fear lives in the waiting, not the reveal. Hold the empty shot longer than is comfortable.
**Transition:** smash cut after silence, slow dissolve.

---


`vlb.genre.horror`

### Science Fiction
**ASL:** 3–5 s · **Lens:** 24–50mm anamorphic · **Movement:** cranes, orbits, impossible moves
**Lighting:** rim light, cyan and amber, holographic practicals, haze.
**Shots:** vast architectural establishers, symmetry, overheads.

---


`vlb.genre.science_fiction`

### Fantasy / Epic
**ASL:** 4–6 s · **Lens:** 24–50mm · **Movement:** wide cranes, aerials, rise reveals
**Lighting:** painterly, golden, magical sources, volumetric.
**Shots:** epic EWS, the low-angle hero, crowds.

---


`vlb.genre.fantasy_epic`

### Mystery
**ASL:** 4–6 s · **Lens:** 50–85mm · **Lighting:** chiaroscuro, venetian blinds, a single lamp.
**Shots:** inserts, rack focus, frame within a frame, information hidden in the background.

---


`vlb.genre.mystery`

### Noir / Neo-Noir
**ASL:** 4–7 s · **Lighting:** extreme chiaroscuro, blind-slat shadow across the face, rain and neon.
**Shots:** dutch angles, silhouettes, reflections in puddles, smoke.
**Colour:** either monochrome, or neon blue and red against black.

---


`vlb.genre.noir_neo_noir`

### Western
**ASL:** 5–8 s · **Lens:** 24mm wide and 200mm long, nothing between
**Lighting:** hard sun and dust by day, fire and moon by night.
**Shots:** desert EWS, the cowboy shot, ECU eyes, the three-way standoff.

---


`vlb.genre.western`

### War
**ASL:** 1.5–3 s · **Movement:** violent handheld, impact shake
**Lighting:** desaturated, grey, smoke.
**Shots:** an aerial of the line, handheld inside the engagement, ECU faces, slow motion on debris.

---


`vlb.genre.war`

### Historical / Biography / Heritage
**ASL:** 4–7 s · **Lens:** 40–85mm · **Movement:** slow and stately, sliders, tilt-ups
**Lighting:** period-correct sources — candle, gas, fire, sun through a roof opening.
**Shots:** architectural establishers, macro on craft and carving, silhouettes, rear azimuth.

---


`vlb.genre.historical_biography_heritage`

### Musical
**ASL:** 2–4 s · **Movement:** cranes, long tracking, orbits
**Lighting:** theatrical, saturated, coloured practicals.
**The law:** do not cut through a complex dance movement — full body in frame, fewer cuts, longer takes.

---


**Yields to:** `size.fs` — A complex dance movement; do not cut through it.  
`vlb.genre.musical`

### Sports Drama
**ASL:** 1.5–3 s · **Movement:** fast tracking, slow motion on the moment
**Shots:** the wide of the field, ECU face / foot / ball, aerials, crowd reactions.

---


`vlb.genre.sports_drama`

### Heist
**ASL:** 2–4 s · **Shots:** very heavy on inserts, overhead on the plan, parallel montage, countdown.
**The secret:** show the plan visually, then break it. The gap between the plan and the execution is
the pleasure.

---


`vlb.genre.heist`

### Psychological / Arthouse
**ASL:** 8–20 s · **Movement:** long statics, or an unending creep
**Shots:** symmetrical compositions, the empty frame, deliberately uncomfortable duration.

---


`vlb.genre.psychological_arthouse`

### Vérité Documentary
**ASL:** 6–12 s · **Movement:** breathing handheld, operated zooms
**Lighting:** available only.
**The secret:** the flaws are the point — an imprecise zoom, focus chasing, imperfect framing all read as truth.

---


`vlb.genre.v_rit_documentary`

### Coming of Age
**ASL:** 4–7 s · **Lens:** 35mm · **Lighting:** golden hour, summer, soft diffusion.
**Shots:** a slightly low camera height, shots from behind, sky, slow motion over ordinary moments.

---


`vlb.genre.coming_of_age`

### Road Movie
**ASL:** 5–8 s · **Shots:** the side-on car shot, OTS from the back seat, road to the horizon,
golden hour, hyperlapse.

---


`vlb.genre.road_movie`

### The Quick Parameter Table

| Genre | ASL | Movement | Lens | Lighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Action | 1.5–2.5 | handheld + track | 24–35 | high contrast |
| Horror | 4–6 → 0.5 | static → burst | 18–35 | low key |
| Drama | 4–7 | micro | 40–85 | soft natural |
| Comedy | 3–5 | static | 35–50 | high key |
| Romance | 4–6 | slow orbit | 85 | warm soft |
| Thriller | 3–5 | creep | 50–100 | single cool source |
| Epic | 4–6 | crane / aerial | 24–50 | golden volumetric |
| Heritage | 4–7 | slow, stately | 40–85 | candle / sun |
| Musical | 2–4 | crane / orbit | mixed | saturated theatrical |
| Documentary | 6–12 | breathing handheld | 35–85 | available |
| Kids | 2–4 | static / simple | 35–50 | high key |
| Short-form | 0.8–2 | movement every shot | 35–85 | bright clean |

---

`vlb.genre.the_quick_parameter_table`