Building a consistent world#

What survives the cut?#

Last week: choose what the audience sees.

This week: keep the person, room and phone recognisable across those choices.

A changed prop can distract from the decision the cut was meant to reveal.

By the end#

• Write concrete character and location entries.
• Separate fixed identity from changing action state.
• Diagnose an entry through an unfamiliar reader’s account.

A character entry makes decisions#

Role and representation: on screen, voice only, or a display name.

Age, build, hair, wardrobe, distinguishing feature; voice where heard.

“An unusual jacket” still leaves the jacket to someone else.

A location is more than an inventory#

Place objects relative to surfaces and people.

Record story time, agreed lighting and fixed landmarks.

Identify costume, prop and style references by their current version.

Same phone. Different state.#

Fixed: phone identity, agreed room layout and costume.

Changing: on the table → grasped → lifted to Nadia’s ear.

“Keep everything unchanged” would forbid the action.

Worked entry: Nadia#

On-screen protagonist. Holds still, reaches and stops, then accepts on the final ring.

The phone rises to her ear as she says “Hey.”

Appearance and costume: pictured face, short brown bob, oatmeal knit sweater and dark trousers. Visual references are recorded; voice remains pending.

Worked entries: Theo and the kitchen#

Theo: estranged brother; THEO CALLING on the display. No cut to him in this closing sequence.

Kitchen: her late mother’s apartment, final night before clearance. Same table and reachable phone.

Kitchen and phone visual references are recorded. The illustrated expanded kitchen geometry still awaits production approval.

Revise the instruction#

Draft: “Her phone is nearby. Keep it in the same place.”

Revision: “Same phone throughout. On the kitchen table until acceptance; then Nadia lifts it to her ear.”

Identity stays fixed. Position changes through an action.

A reference is a check, not a guarantee#

Reuse the agreed facts and selected references.

Inspect each result against them.

If a choice changes deliberately, version it and identify the affected shots.

Diagnose this read-back#

Entry: phone on table until acceptance; then lifted to her ear; same phone throughout.

Reader: “It stays on the table all scene. It has a red case.”

Find a contradiction, an unsupported addition and an unresolved field.

Compare your diagnosis#

Permanent table position contradicts the lift.

Red case is invented; case appearance is unspecified.

Reread a missed fact. Resolve an open design choice. Revise an ambiguous instruction.

Workshop — 120 minutes#

1. Inventory — 10 min
2. Repeatable details — 25 min
3. Blind read-back — 20 min
4. Diagnose and revise — 30 min
5. Review and recheck — 25 min
6. Completion check — 10 min

Bring drafts. Leave with checked entries.#

Every named character and location needs an entry.

An unfamiliar classmate describes the protagonist from the entry alone.

Worked entries · Printable worksheet