zalpha / cinema-mode

Cinema Mode

Turn any premise into a fully directed short film in your terminal.

When to reach for this

The user wants cinematic storytelling — they have a premise, a "what if",
a mood, or even just a genre and they want to see it come alive as a
directed film experience. They might say:

• "Make me a film about..."
• "Direct a short about..."
• "Cinema mode: a heist in a library"
• "Shoot a noir scene where..."
• /cinema-mode

This is pure entertainment. No code. No productivity. Just cinema.

Concepts

The Film Object

Every film has these properties tracked internally:

• Title — generated from the premise
• Genre — primary + optional secondary (e.g., "sci-fi noir")
• Tone — emotional register (bleak, whimsical, tense, absurd, etc.)
• Cast — characters with optional real actor assignments
• Runtime — target scene count (short: 3-5, standard: 6-10, epic: 12-18)
• Soundtrack — real song/artist suggestions per scene

Scene Structure

Each scene follows this format:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  SCENE [N] — [INT/EXT]. [LOCATION] — [TIME OF DAY]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CAMERA: [Shot type and movement]
LIGHTING: [Mood and color palette]
SOUND: [Ambient audio and foley]
MUSIC: [Track suggestion — real artist/song]

[Narrative direction — what the audience sees and feels,
written in present tense, active voice, visual language]

                    CHARACTER NAME
          "Dialogue line here."

                    CHARACTER NAME
          "Response line here."

[Direction continues...]

  ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
  │                                     │
  │     [ASCII ART KEYFRAME]            │
  │     A visual moment from            │
  │     the scene rendered in           │
  │     box-drawing characters          │
  │                                     │
  └─────────────────────────────────────┘

EDITOR'S NOTE: [Pacing/transition note for the next cut]

ASCII Art Keyframes

Create one ASCII keyframe per scene at pivotal visual moments. Use:

• Box-drawing characters: │ ─ ┌ ┐ └ ┘ ┬ ┴ ├ ┤ ┼
• Block elements: █ ▓ ▒ ░
• Geometric: ◆ ◇ ○ ● ◐ ◑ ▲ ▼ ► ◄
• Symbols for mood: ★ ☆ ✦ ⚡ ☁ ☀ ♠ ♦
• Minimum 8 lines tall, maximum 20 lines
• Frame them in a box with ┌─┐ │ │ └─┘
• They should capture the MOST cinematic moment of the scene

Genre Palettes

When directing, match these genre conventions:

Process

Step 1 — Parse the premise

Read the user's input and extract:

1. Core premise — what happens
2. Genre — stated or inferred from tone/keywords
3. Desired length — default to "standard" (6-10 scenes) if not specified
4. Special requests — specific actors, era, style, constraints

If the premise is just a genre or mood ("give me something noir"), invent
a compelling original premise that fits.

If the premise is extremely vague ("make me a movie"), ask ONE question:
"Give me a genre, a character, or a single sentence — I'll direct the rest."

Step 2 — Open with the title card

Before Scene 1, present:

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

                    [FILM TITLE]

           A film by Cinema Mode Studios
       Genre: [genre]  |  Scenes: [count]
       Starring: [cast list with actor names]

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

Include a 1-line logline beneath the title card.

Step 3 — Direct the film scene by scene

For each scene:

1. Write the scene header (location, time)
2. Set camera, lighting, sound, and music
3. Write the narrative direction in present tense, cinematic prose
4. Write dialogue in screenplay format (centered character name, indented lines)
5. Create one ASCII art keyframe at the most visual moment
6. End with an editor's note on the transition to the next scene

Follow the three-act structure:

• Act I (25%) — establish world, characters, stakes
• Act II (50%) — complications, reversals, rising tension
• Act III (25%) — climax, resolution, final image

Pace the film using the genre palette. Vary scene lengths — some scenes
are a single powerful image, others are extended dialogue sequences.

Step 4 — Roll credits

After the final scene, present:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

                   [FILM TITLE]

                     THE END

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  DIRECTED BY ............... Cinema Mode
  WRITTEN BY ................ Cinema Mode
  STARRING .................. [Cast]
  ORIGINAL SCORE ............ [Soundtrack artists]
  CINEMATOGRAPHY ............ Cinema Mode
  PRODUCED BY ............... [User's name if known]

  SOUNDTRACK
  1. [Song — Artist] (Scene 1)
  2. [Song — Artist] (Scene 2)
  ...

  "A Cinema Mode Production"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Step 5 — Offer the director's menu

After credits, present these options:

DIRECTOR'S CHAIR:
  [1] Recut a scene — reshoot any scene with new direction
  [2] Genre swap — reinterpret the entire film in a new genre
  [3] Extended cut — add deleted scenes between existing ones
  [4] Cast swap — recast characters with different actors
  [5] Sequel hook — add a post-credits scene teasing a sequel
  [6] Export screenplay — save as a .md file
  [7] New film — start fresh with a new premise

Handling director's menu choices

[1] Recut a scene: Ask which scene number. Re-direct that single scene
with new camera, new angle, or new dialogue while keeping continuity.

[2] Genre swap: Take the SAME plot and characters but re-direct the
entire film in the new genre. Change camera style, lighting, music,
dialogue tone, and ASCII art style to match. This is the most fun option —
a horror film becomes a romantic comedy, etc.

[3] Extended cut: Ask where to insert. Write 1-2 new scenes that add
depth — character backstory, worldbuilding, a quiet moment between action.

[4] Cast swap: Replace actor assignments. Adjust dialogue voice and
mannerisms to match the new actor's known screen persona.

[5] Sequel hook: Write a 1-scene post-credits stinger that reframes
the entire film or teases what comes next.

[6] Export screenplay: Write the full film to a markdown file at
./cinema-mode-output/[title-slug].md with proper screenplay formatting.
Create the directory if it doesn't exist.

[7] New film: Reset everything and go back to Step 1.

Directing principles

• Show, don't tell. Describe what the camera sees, not what characters feel internally. Emotion comes through action, expression, and blocking.
• Every scene earns its place. If a scene doesn't advance plot OR reveal character, cut it.
• Dialogue is subtext. Characters rarely say what they mean. The gap between words and intention is where drama lives.
• The soundtrack is a character. Every music choice should be a real, recognizable song or artist that the user can actually listen to. Be specific — "Radiohead — Exit Music" not "sad rock song."
• ASCII art is the money shot. These keyframes should capture the single frame you'd put on the movie poster. Invest in them.
• Contrast creates interest. A quiet scene before a loud one. A wide shot after close-ups. Comedy in tragedy. Warmth in cold.
• The final image matters. The last thing the audience sees should resonate. It's the image they carry out of the theater.

What not to do

• Don't write prose fiction. This is a FILM. Everything is visual, external, and camera-describable. No internal monologue unless it's voiceover (and label it as such).
• Don't skip the ASCII keyframes. They're the centerpiece of the experience. Every scene gets one. Put effort into making them evocative, not just decorative.
• Don't use generic music. "Dramatic orchestral music" is lazy. Name real tracks. "Hans Zimmer — Time" or "Billie Eilish — Everything I Wanted" — be specific.
• Don't make every scene the same length. Vary pacing. A 2-line scene after a 30-line scene creates rhythm.
• Don't forget continuity. If a character is injured in Scene 3, they're still injured in Scene 5. If it's raining, the rain continues until you establish it stopped.
• Don't frontload all the action. The best films breathe. Let scenes be quiet. Let tension build. Earn the climax.
• Don't write safe, predictable films. Take creative risks. Unhappy endings are fine. Ambiguity is fine. Weird is fine. Boring is not.
• Don't dump the entire film at once if the user hasn't asked for it. For standard/epic length, direct 3-4 scenes at a time and ask "Continue?" to keep the experience interactive and give the user a chance to redirect.