Plan and produce long-form AI films with ak:filmmaking

Use ak:filmmaking to direct a long-form AI film, roughly 5 to 30 minutes, as a controllable production pipeline rather than one long generation. A 10–15 minute film is typically 8–18 scenes and 70–150 shots of 3–10 seconds. Shot boundaries follow narrative purpose and cinematic grammar, never a provider's clip limit.

All production state lives in a films/<slug>/ production graph: screenplay, beats, bibles, scenes, shots, continuity links, audio cues, QC records, and cost evidence. Every intermediate artifact is kept, so any single shot can be regenerated without touching the rest of the film.

Choose the filmmaking workflow

Use ak:filmmaking when

• You are making a narrative AI film, short film, episode, or cinematic story.
• The production is character-driven or has multi-scene dialogue, so identity, wardrobe, props, and lip movement must stay consistent across many shots.
• Continuity and audio synchronization matter more than a single impressive clip.

Choose another workflow when

• You need a marketing, social, product, or short promo video. Use ak:video.
• You need a beat-synced HyperFrames motion graphic. Use ak:motion-video.
• The composition is a React or Remotion project. Use ak:remotion.
• You need one generated clip rather than a film.

ak:filmmaking also leans on adjacent owners instead of re-implementing them:

If no Skill for a needed capability is installed, the workflow reports the missing capability instead of inventing provider calls.

Prepare the production route

You need:

• Python 3 to run the bundled scripts/film.py. It uses only the standard library.
• Installed generation, voice, lipsync, and media-processing Skills with your own provider access for the stages you plan to run.
• A writable project and enough storage for reference images, generations, audio stems, and the final cut.

Read Runtime adapters before assuming the same production surface everywhere.

Run the Skill

The Skill takes an optional subcommand and a brief or an existing project: [create|script|breakdown|bible|storyboard|animatic|render|audio|qc|assemble] [brief-or-project].

/ak:filmmaking create "A 12-minute drama about two sisters who reconnect in a rainy café. Balanced budget, 16:9, stop at each approval gate and before any paid generation"

/ak:filmmaking create "A 12-minute drama about two sisters who reconnect in a rainy café. Balanced budget, 16:9, stop at each approval gate and before any paid generation"

$ak:filmmaking create "A 12-minute drama about two sisters who reconnect in a rainy café. Balanced budget, 16:9, stop at each approval gate and before any paid generation"

create runs every stage in order and stops at the approval gates. The other subcommands run one stage on an existing project:

Follow the production stages

1. Initialize. python3 scripts/film.py init films <slug> --title "..." --minutes 12 --budget balanced creates the graph with a budget mode of low, balanced, or quality.
2. Script. Write the screenplay and beat sheet, then review the story.
3. Break down. Split scenes into shots, assign render classes, and link each shot to the one it continues from.
4. Build bibles. Generate reference packs from one approved front image outward; you approve canonical identities.
5. Record audio first. Direct voices, produce the dialogue master, and run forced alignment before any lipsync-dependent shot exists.
6. Storyboard, then animatic. The full-length animatic on master dialogue is the cost-control gate. You sign it off before routed rendering starts.
7. Render and QC. Render shot by shot in routed order, run QC, and loop only the failed shots.
8. Assemble. Build the final timeline, lay the dialogue master, and mix the separate stems.

Run validate between stages. Errors block the next stage; warnings need a decision, either a fix or a recorded user acceptance.

Shot lifecycle

PLANNED -> STORYBOARDED -> APPROVED_FRAME -> GENERATED -> (LIPSYNCED) -> APPROVED -> ASSEMBLED
                                     QC_FAILED -> cheapest return stage

validate enforces each gate. No shot except a previs shot may record a live generation before its frame is approved and the animatic is approved. Discarded generations stay on the shot as history and cost evidence.

Understand the production graph

films/<slug>/
  project.json            title, budget mode, fps, aspect, currency, scene order, style, animatic sign-off
  screenplay.md           human-readable script; scene headings are scene IDs
  beat-sheet.json         beats -> scenes, purpose, dramatic question, music theme
  bibles/
    characters/<id>.json  identity version, hair, accessories, reference pack
    characters/<id>/      front, three-quarter, profile, and expression images
    locations/<id>.json
    props/<id>.json
    wardrobe/<id>.json    owned by one character
  scenes/<S01>/scene.json            location, time of day, cast, wardrobe, props, shot order
  scenes/<S01>/shots/<S01_SH001>/    shot.json, references/, keyframes/, generations/, approved/
  storyboard/  animatic/  renders/  qc/  final/
  audio/cues.json                    every DX/FX/AMB/MX cue on the scene timeline
  audio/dialogue/ alignment/ ambience/ sfx/ music/ stems/

IDs never change once used: scenes are S03, shots S03_SH007, beats B02, and characters, locations, props, wardrobe, cues, and reference images use UPPER_SNAKE such as MAI_01 or DX_MAI_003. To insert a shot, edit the scene's shot order instead of renumbering. The JSON schemas in the Skill's schemas/ folder are the exact contract, and the bundled assets/examples/rain-check/ project shows every field in use. Its media paths are declared but not bundled, so --check-media reports them as missing by design.

Use the film.py tools

scripts/film.py is deterministic. Run it instead of re-deriving its output. It exits 0 when clean, 1 when findings or blockers stop the next stage, and 2 on a usage or I/O error.

Findings carry a film timecode (HH:MM:SS.mmm) where they apply to a point in the cut, so a reviewer can scrub straight to the problem.

Keep continuity, audio, and cost under control

• Continuity lives in the graph. Each shot reads the state carried along its continuity_from chain. An intended change is declared in continuity_changes with a reason.
• Identity comes from canonical reference packs. A generated frame never conditions a shot until you explicitly promote it. Identity drift is a QC failure to route, not a prompt to tweak.
• Dialogue is audio-first. The master voice and its forced alignment exist before lipsync work. Reaction, over-the-shoulder, insert, and cutaway coverage keep visible lips to part of the dialogue.
• Sound stays in stems. Dialogue (DX), effects (FX), ambience (AMB), and music (MX) stay separate until the final mix. Music follows themes and motifs on a cue sheet. The final cut uses the dialogue master, never the audio a video generator produced.
• Routing follows render class and budget mode. Shots are classed PREVIS, CHEAP_BROLL, STANDARD, CHARACTER_CRITICAL, or HERO, and film.py route maps each class and budget mode to an economy, standard, or premium tier. An insert shot never gets the hero close-up's tier.
• Provider facts come from live evidence. The Skill does not ship model choices or prices. It collects current evidence from the installed generation Skill, the provider's docs, or your account, and records the source and date with each decision.
• Failed shots return to the cheapest fixing stage. For example, an identity or prop failure returns to the storyboard, a morphing artifact is regenerated from the approved frame, and a pronunciation issue is fixed in the audio stem without regenerating video. One bad clip never triggers a scene or film rerender.

If the film does not work as an animatic, fix story and timing. More expensive video models will not save it.

Keep generation, spend, and publishing gated

Confirm rights and consent for every likeness, voice, reference image, and piece of music before generation.

Review outputs and evidence

The Skill is done only when:

• scripts/film.py validate <film> reports no errors for the stages claimed, and every warning is fixed or explicitly accepted.
• The requested artifact exists on disk. A plan is never reported as a render; validate --check-media runs before produced media is claimed.
• Before any expensive video generation, the shot's storyboard is approved, plus its keyframe for STANDARD and above, and the full animatic has been reviewed.
• The final cut uses the dialogue master and separate stems, and timeline --mode final has no blockers.

Reports cite film.py output such as findings, coverage, routes, costs, and QC timecodes, plus the produced files. Cost totals come only from recorded evidence, and any stage that was planned but not executed is named.

Troubleshoot safely

Continue with the Marketing Kit overview, Projects, artifacts, and checkpoints, or Installing kits.