The main sources

The sources the Guide cites most, grouped by the chapter that relies on them most, with their links. Every topic lists its full sources at its end, with what each one supports.

How a production runs

• Cannes Lions, Film Craft: the craft jury's bar, execution first.

• Pip Smart, interview in shots, "Smart Talk": the quality bar and references.

• The IPA's tips for tissue meetings: showing how each note was acted on.

The brief and research

• Rani Amayri (Impact BBDO), Campaign Middle East, "The handbook of Arabic copywriting": choose the market, then the dialect.

• Mark Pollard, 4 Points: interrogating the brief.

Concepts and references

• Ali Ali (LBB interview, 2025; shots): real work over gimmicks; comedy from the region.

• Filmmaker Magazine, "On Decks", with Robert Eggers, Alexandre Moors, Christine Dávila and Sean Baker: references, decks and sourced stills.

The treatment and presentations

• Coinbase, Your Way Out, Oscar Hudson, MJZ (TechEBlog; IDIDTHAT): the idea, the treatment and movement direction.

• Sian Ediss, The Gate (blog), and Bianca Poletti, Free the Work (treatments): what a treatment must do and show.

• Hollie Fraser (The Treatment Forum): treatments that add to the idea without pulling away from it.

• David Mamet, On Directing Film (Musicbed): a scene's objective and its end.

• Higgsfield Academy (courses): faces and places checked in motion; reverse plates; failure levels.

• Jakob Nielsen and Anna Kaley, NN/g, "PDF: Still Unfit for Human Consumption": client pages as web pages.

• Adam Wells, LBB, "The Silent Treatment": treatments read alone in inboxes.

Planning, budgets and takes

• Higgsfield's katana workflow: the riskiest job first, slot sizing, star not chain, the inventory.

• PJ Accetturo (newsletter; on Hell Grind and Mork, newsletter): frames by exception, state masters, wear.

Anchors and stills

• Google's Nano Banana Pro prompting tips: full sentences, edits before re-rolls, the five-character limit.

• JOEY, @joeysnoisygroup (project): the grey close-up, staging maps, lens locks, silent listeners.

• Listen to Meh by @nue_nue (project): prop sheets, the labelled location map.

• Soulless by Yoav Yariv (project): one sheet per state; the neutral base plate.

• Davide Morando, The Weight of the Moon (project): the back view with the head.

• @adilinthewildtempo (blog): plates built for the action, BACKGROUND lines, KEEP CONSISTENT lists.

• Kaye.creatives (post; Oakley | Meta): built label moments; the colour legend.

• FIX by @production_pi (project): the stylised sheet-and-plate method.

• ByteDance's Seedream 5.0 Pro prompting guide, via Runware: pinning what must not change.

• OpenAI's image-prompting guide: transparency generated, not removed; numbered inputs.

• Mike Alderson of ManvsMachine, in Your Majesty's report on the Style Frames conference: the look locked on stills before motion.

Video with Seedance

• Higgsfield's Seedance 2.5 prompting guide and prompt builder: the block order, the anchor line, the degree ladder.

• ByteDance's Dreamina Seedance 2.5 guide: the layer order.

• Higgsfield's "How I Make Realistic AI Short Films Using Seedance 2.5" (video) and "Secret Workflow to Make Cinematic AI Commercials (Seedance 2.5)" (video).

• Creator films: The Field Agent by Zack Murray (project), Fukushima by @aist (project), Lullaby by Keigo Matsumaru (project), BALLAST by @studio141 (project), Morek by @lovii (project), VARMINTS by Outreal Production (project) and Welcome to the Team by @chip_frames (project).

Cinematography

• Higgsfield's realism guide and movement guide, and Luma's realism guide: the tells, hands, extras and hair.

• Cinematographers: Linus Sandgren and Damien Chazelle (American Cinematographer); Bradford Young (American Cinematographer, Arrival); Emmanuel Lubezki (British Cinematographer); Roger Deakins and Sam Mendes on 1917 (The Hollywood Reporter); Greig Fraser (No Film School).

• Higgsfield's originals The Cully Hill Boys, ANERNEQ and The Trigger: acting, texture and colour across the cut.

Performance

• Acting: Michael Caine, Acting in Film (article); Judith Weston, Directing Actors (Film Courage interview); Kharmel Cochrane (D&AD).

• The Kuleshov effect: reactions carried by the cut.

Voice and lip sync

• ElevenLabs, What is Eleven v4?, the v4 prompting guide and speech to text.

• The Habibi benchmark (arXiv): cast the dialect, don't prompt it.

• Sync, lip-sync models and improving lip-sync quality: a face that already speaks, its rhythm kept.

Editing

• Editors: Biff Butler, Work Editorial (LBB); Lucas Eskin, Cut+Run (LBB); Robert Gaudette, A Face Only A Mother Could Love (AIography interview).

Music

• Suno, Introducing v6, Creative Sliders and How do I get stems?.

• Rumble, dir. Seb Edwards (The One Show entry): a music choice that plays against the picture.

Sound design and mix

• Randy Thom, "Designing a Movie for Sound", and Walter Murch, "Dense Clarity – Clear Density".

• Commercial sound houses: Factory, London (A Sound Effect); 750mph, Ellis McGourlay (LBB); String and Tins (LBB); Yessian (LBB).

• Mark Mangini (StudioBinder interview): the spotting manifest.

• Openverse and EBU, R 128 s1 V3.

Finishing and delivery

• Tom Poole, Company 3 (Televisual): the colour bible; one custom LUT per show.

• Julien Alary and Denny Cooper (LBB, "An Eye for Colour"): balance first.

• Steffan Perry, Company 3 (LBB): gate weave only if needed; pink highlights.

• The Holdovers (No Film School) and Dune (American Cinematographer): grain that follows brightness, halation on bright edges.

• Dreamina's guide to a filmed look: grain once, after continuity.

• HyperFrames, the renderer; EBU R 128; SVT's delivery specification v5.1 (speed change as the preferred method).

• TikTok's creative best practices and Google's ABCD reference guide: the first five seconds.

Genres

• Editors Ned Borgman and Phil Hignett in LBB's "Cutting for Comedy": the wide shot; the shot clock.

• Bill Bennett ASC and Rexford Metz ASC (ASC): the product's response to light first.

• Jeff Zwart (Porsche Newsroom) and Steve Giralt (No Film School): cars and food in motion.

• Joe Pytka, Bryan Buckley and others in DGA Quarterly: sport that feels real.