{
 "slug": "guide-look-from-film-still",
 "name": "A look from a real film frame",
 "category": "guide",
 "group": "Prompt guides",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-10-13",
 "effect": "The colour grade and the camera feel sit in the prompt instead of being hoped for.",
 "use_when": "Any job with a defined look: brand films, ads, a series of generations that must match.",
 "phrase": "find the frame that has the register, read its data (camera, lens, stock, light, time of day, colours), and write the look block from that data, not from adjectives",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Name what not to take from the still (its people, its place, its text); a foreign reference leaks its own content into the picture.",
   "evidence": "measured",
   "source": "House rule"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [
  {
   "site": "shotdeck",
   "url": "https://shotdeck.com/",
   "what": "real film frames to search by framing and lens (paid, link only)"
  },
  {
   "site": "flim",
   "url": "https://flim.ai/",
   "what": "film and ad stills to search by text or image (free tier, link only)"
  }
 ],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "global-look-block",
  "look-brand-film",
  "look-film-print"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "practitioner",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Our workflow from Director Chair notes on Reference and inspiration sites for AI video (Rourke Heath's method); the sites are where you search"
 },
 "body": "## The steps\n\n1. **Find the frame.** Search a film-still library (ShotDeck, paid; Flim, a free tier with one download a day) or scroll it like a feed and keep the frames that stop you.\n2. **Read its data.** ShotDeck shows a data panel per still: colour, aspect ratio, format, lighting, time of day, camera, lenses, film stock. Note those values; on Flim, describe them yourself.\n3. **Write the look block:** the capture (camera, lenses, stock, ratio), the light (type, time of day), the grade as words with their place in the frame, the hex codes beside them for the edit.\n4. **Paste it word for word** into every prompt of the job.\n5. **Optionally attach the still** as a look reference: take its light, lens character and grade, none of its people or its place.\n\nA film still is someone else's copyright: a reference for the look, never material in the output, and never published.",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/guide/guide-look-from-film-still",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/guide/guide-look-from-film-still.md",
 "prompts": {
  "chat": "Give me a filled-in prompt that follows this guide, plus the one thing to check in the result, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is a look from a real film frame: the colour grade and the camera feel sit in the prompt instead of being hoped for. How it works: find the frame that has the register, read its data (camera, lens, stock, light, time of day, colours), and write the look block from that data, not from adjectives. It is right for: any job with a defined look: brand films, ads, a series of generations that must match. Name what not to take from the still (its people, its place, its text); a foreign reference leaks its own content into the picture. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing."
 },
 "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."
 }
}