{
 "slug": "rack-focus",
 "name": "Rack focus",
 "category": "focus",
 "group": "Focus change",
 "media": [
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-10-13",
 "effect": "Moves the viewer's attention from one thing to another inside one shot.",
 "use_when": "Revealing a second person, from product to user, a quiet twist.",
 "phrase": "rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as she, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Give the trigger and explain the term in plain words: after he sits down, the foreground blurs as the background sharpens.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Dan Kieft (1 Sep 2026) via Director Chair field notes on video prompting"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "shallow-focus"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "film-craft",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Director Chair field notes on video prompting"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/focus/rack-focus",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/focus/rack-focus.md",
 "prompts": {
  "seedance-2.5": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot\nOptics and camera: Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.",
  "seedance-2.0": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1: one continuous shot\nOptics and camera: Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.",
  "veo-3.1": "Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus. [your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image."
 },
 "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."
 }
}