{
 "slug": "sadness",
 "name": "Sadness",
 "category": "expression",
 "group": "Sadness",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-10-13",
 "effect": "Quiet hurt that asks for empathy.",
 "use_when": "Problem statements, charity, honest testimonials.",
 "phrase": "the inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Never ask for a smile or for an emotion by name; describe the muscles. Asked-for smiles come back generated and forced.",
   "evidence": "measured",
   "source": "Director Chair field notes on video prompting (client feedback, Aug 2026)"
  },
  {
   "text": "Put the trigger first (the door slams, she reads the message), then the performance. Without a trigger the reaction has no timing.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Dan Kieft and Higgsfield's tested prompts via Director Chair field notes on video prompting"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [
  {
   "site": "emotion-direction",
   "url": "https://seedance-emotion-direction.vercel.app/",
   "what": "a clip of this emotion performed in Seedance 2.5 (link only)"
  }
 ],
 "licensed": [
  {
   "site": "emotion-direction",
   "name": "Sadness",
   "text": "The inner corners of the eyebrows pull up and together, the mouth corners drag down, the chin trembles once, and the gaze sinks as the head lowers. A slow blink and hard swallow fail to change the expression.",
   "credit": "Emotion Direction (seedance-emotion-direction.vercel.app)",
   "source_url": "https://seedance-emotion-media-3.vercel.app/videos/19-sadness.mp4",
   "group": null,
   "intensity": "Subtle",
   "cue": "Quiet hurt",
   "shot": null,
   "family": "Sadness",
   "aliases": "sad quiet hurt sorrow downcast",
   "media": {
    "video": "/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
    "card": "/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness-card.mp4",
    "poster": "/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.jpg",
    "card_poster": "/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness-card.jpg",
    "width": 1280,
    "height": 720,
    "duration": 7.07
   }
  }
 ],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "crying",
  "guilt"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "film-craft",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Families, intensities and emotion names from Emotion Direction (names and structure only, read 13 Oct 2026); the directions are our own words in its grammar: body parts in the order they move, ending on what holds. Rules from Director Chair field notes on video prompting"
 },
 "body": "## Three intensities\n\n- **Subtle:** the gaze lowers, the corners of the mouth sink slightly, one slow blink\n- **Medium:** the inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing\n- **Explosive:** tears well and spill, the breath catches in short jerks, the face crumples and is hidden behind one hand",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/expression/sadness",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/expression/sadness.md",
 "prompts": {
  "nano-banana-pro": "[your subject] in [your setting]. The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "nano-banana-2": "[your subject] in [your setting]. The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "gpt-image": "A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].\nPeople and framing: the inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing\nExclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "seedream-5": "[your subject] in [your setting]. The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "seedance-2.5": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing. The inner corners of the eyebrows pull up and together, the mouth corners drag down, the chin trembles once, and the gaze sinks as the head lowers. A slow blink and hard swallow fail to change the expression.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "seedance-2.0": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1: The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing. The inner corners of the eyebrows pull up and together, the mouth corners drag down, the chin trembles once, and the gaze sinks as the head lowers. A slow blink and hard swallow fail to change the expression.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing. The scene is [your setting].\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4",
  "veo-3.1": "[your subject] in [your setting]. The inner ends of the brows rise and meet, the mouth corners pull down, the chin trembles once, the head and gaze sink together, a swallow that changes nothing. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.\nReference clip (Sadness): https://directorchair.ai/media/emotion-direction/19-sadness.mp4"
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}