The Master Guide / 06 Anchors and stills · Still prompts, storyboard frames and diagrams
Text, sourcing and the look block
Text lives on the page, never in the picture. Generated frames show what only this film has, sourced stills carry the rest, and one look block holds every generated frame together.
Text lives on the page, never in the picture. Generated frames show what only this film has, sourced stills carry the rest, and one look block holds every generated frame together.
Text and the page
No text inside the image. Titles, captions, on-screen copy and every Arabic word are set on the page itself, so they stay sharp, editable and correctly spelled.
Compose each frame as the scene asks, never with space added for page text. Where type may sit on a frame: Client presentations → Page types and storyboard pages.
The product follows the client's photos or artwork where they exist; otherwise it is shown as the treatment describes it, and the anchors presentation fixes it exactly (see Client presentations → The anchors presentation, in its twelve sections). Readable labels follow Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Products and labels.
No "frame study" or "AI" labels on faces or frames. Page images carry neutral file names, plain alt text and no generator metadata.
Generated or sourced
Generated frames [proven] show what only this film has: its people, wardrobe, product and label, the specific moments of its scenes.
Sourced stills carry mood, a quality of light and colour, a kind of place, energy and rhythm, a performance register, and lens and framing language.
The mix per section: Writing the treatment → Storyboard images. How to choose, caption and credit sourced stills, and when one may serve as a style reference: References → Sourced stills on pages.
A stylised film sources from animation, illustration or art in the same family. A motion-graphics-led film renders its frames from the code design (see Graphics, captions, versions and delivery → Graphics built in code).
What a generated frame takes in
When | Faces | Look | Product and place |
Before casting (the Detailed Brief, the concept; see The brief and research → The Detailed Brief and the meeting) | People described specifically, in the casting order (see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Close-ups and casting stills) | The concept's look block | The client's photos or artwork, if they exist; places described |
After casting (the treatment) | The chosen identity close-ups attached, with identity role lines; faces not re-described | The treatment's look block; no earlier frame attached | The same |
After the anchors are approved (later client pages) | The approved sheets and close-ups | The same look block | The approved plates and product anchors |
A photoreal film's frames are made in Nano Banana Pro; a stylised film's are made in Seedream, from the style anchor once it exists. Rough sketches leak their style into generations, which is one more reason frames stay out of every generation.
The film's look block
The look block [best available, not yet validated] carries the look before any anchors exist. A frame's look can't come from approved plates yet, so it comes from words, written once per deck.
Read the look decisions: at the concept stage, the concept's tone and key visuals; at the treatment, the department pages and sheets for camera and lens, light and colour (palette with placement, Kelvin, ratio), production design, the wardrobe palette, the edit style and the performance register. Use their exact values, and invent nothing they did not decide.
Write it as laws, not as one image's description, in four to six sentences:
the lens family and its fall-off;
how the grade treats whites, shadows and skin;
contrast and exposure;
grain and highlight roll-off;
skin rendering;
what light is allowed;
the performance register.
End it with the light rule: nothing glows that is not a source; effects only where the look asks, with a cause.
Paste it unchanged into every generated frame of the deck, as the processing block. Never reword it per frame.
Attach no earlier frame: the pasted look block alone carries the look from frame to frame.
After the anchors are approved, the same look block travels on, now with the approved plates carrying the look visually. A change to the look is a treatment decision, never a prompt tweak.
It is the still-image twin of the look line that every Seedance prompt carries (see Light and look → The look line).
Example: a look block (written for this guide, for the rooftop film; the photoreal frame in Still prompts, storyboard frames and diagrams → Presentation and storyboard frames carries it word for word)
One spherical prime family with gentle fall-off. The grade keeps whites a little warm, keeps shadows blue-brown without crushing them, and leaves skin its true olive. Moderate contrast, exposed for the faces, fine organic grain, a soft highlight roll-off. Skin stays matte, its pores and uneven tone visible. Everyone is busy with something, never posing for the lens. The only light is light the scene contains, and nothing glows that is not a source.
Sources
The mix of original and sourced pictures: Robert Eggers, Sean Baker and others in Filmmaker Magazine's "On Decks"; Bianca Poletti, Free the Work (treatments); Sian Ediss, The Gate (what to look for in a director's treatment).