Rules for every genre

Ten rules hold in every genre. The table under them gives each genre's choices at a glance.

Each genre's page is short on purpose: the methods it uses are taught in their own chapters, and the page points to them.

1. One department choice the category's usual ad would not make [proven]. Every visible element is a decision the treatment made, never a default. Write that choice into the treatment's department pages. Juries mark down flawless craft that could have come from any decade, and they reject decorative or formula elements.

2. Timing is designed inside the shot [proven]. Comedy pauses, horror holds, sport slow motion and luxury push-ins are planned in the shot, each hold made 0.5–1 s longer than its target so the edit can trim to the best moment. The edit may also trim, retime and ramp, always declared.

3. Every movement has a named physical cause [proven]. Hair moves because of a named wind, hand or head turn. Light moves because a named source moves, and liquid because of a named pour. On a real set each of these is rigged.

4. Plan every format from the start. Top directors frame for 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 while boarding, and re-stage when one frame can't serve all (see Graphics, captions, versions and delivery → Versions).

5. Mixed genres are normal. A hair mask can be sold with comedy, a truck with horror. Write the mix as two lines in the treatment: the register (the genre that sets performance, edit and sound) and the product treatment (the genre that sets the hero shots). Then use this chapter's page for each.

6. The camera moves by default; a held frame is a named choice [proven].

   • A held frame, locked or breathing, suits reaction close-ups, reveals, comedy staged in the wide, effects plates, long takes and observational beats, and it always keeps life inside the frame (see Camera and lens → Named locks and breathing frames).

   • The motion standard (decided): every shot stunning and dynamic next to the treatment, the anchors and the plan, with camera, acting, body, hair, hands, face, the product's texture and light moving together; each shot distinct in acting and camera, yet fitting the rest. A slow or static camera where the plan wants motion fails, whatever else holds. A named lock is judged as a lock, with the talent and the place still alive.

   • Speaking shots move too: gentle movement by default, a locked camera only where you choose it for that shot. During the words the camera breathes or pushes very slowly, with bigger moves before or after the line (decided; see Speaking shots and lip sync → The camera during speech).

   • Every change of size comes from moving the camera, never a zoom, because the models hold one lens per shot.

7. Slow motion is designed for a reason, in the shot. Real time and slow motion never share one shot (see Video with Seedance → Slow motion and speed ramps).

8. Light effects are a look choice. Flare, halation, glow and grain are chosen in the treatment with a physical cause, or added in finishing (see The grade and texture → Texture once). Decorative glow on skin or product reads cheap. Practicals glow because they are sources.

9. Text is split by where it lives. Words physically on the product or a prop belong to the product. Supers, claims, prices, legal lines, screen interfaces and the end-card wordmark are graphics built in code (see Graphics, captions, versions and delivery → Graphics built in code).

10. The usual AI defaults are avoided unless the treatment chose them [best available, not yet validated]. The list, and the rule that the client's product is always pristine, are in Making it feel real → The usual AI defaults to avoid.

The quick-look matrix

Each row is a short form of that genre's page in this chapter.

The food light cell and the horror camera, light and sound cells come from options: they apply only when the plan names that option for the film.

Sources

• Award juries' published criteria.

• Ali Ali, 2025 Cannes Lions Film Craft jury president (LBB).

• Dated award exemplars per genre are in References → Award exemplars per genre.