Prompt Engineering for Cinematic Video
The difference between amateur and professional output comes down to prompt structure. Start with the subject and action, then layer in camera language: specify focal length (35mm, 50mm, 85mm), aperture (f/1.8 for shallow depth, f/8 for deep focus), and camera movement (static, slow dolly, handheld, crane up). Add lighting descriptors — golden hour, blue hour, three-point lighting, volumetric fog, rim light — and film stock references (Kodak Vision3 500T, Fuji Eterna, ARRI Alexa log). The model responds best to concrete visual vocabulary rather than abstract adjectives.
A prompt like a woman walking through a forest produces generic results; a woman in a crimson coat walking through a misty cedar forest at dawn, 35mm lens, f/2.0, soft side lighting, Kodak Vision3 500T, slow dolly tracking shot yields dramatically more cinematic output.
Prompt Formula
Subject → Action → Environment → Camera → Lighting → Film Look → Motion
Keep under 500 chars. Use negative prompts: --no blur, --no morphing, --no text