Use prompt moves that transfer

First, orient the model with the real audience and decision. Second, ground it in supplied sources. Third, constrain scope, format, and forbidden actions. Fourth, inspect by asking for assumptions, unsupported claims, or tests. Applied to this topic, those moves support direct a coherent three-shot paper-boat sequence for a short lesson opener, not vague content generation.

Create a 6-second 16:9 shot: red paper boat in a shallow rain puddle; it drifts past one yellow leaf; low close-up tracking left to right; overcast realistic light; calm continuous motion; no cuts. Preserve boat color and fold shape. Avoid people, text, logos, camera shake, and copyrighted characters.

The likely useful output is: A bounded shot card with one action, one camera move, stable subject anchors, and negatives that can be checked frame by frame. Follow with a critic pass, not a request to “improve it”:

Audit the draft against the original contract. Return a table:
criterion | pass/fail | exact evidence | smallest correction.
Do not introduce new facts. List unresolved questions separately.

This second prompt changes the mode from creation to inspection. For alternatives, request deliberately different options and specify the axis of difference. For revision, name one defect and freeze everything else. For extraction, require a schema and define unknown/null behavior. For decisions, ask for criteria, evidence, assumptions, and sensitivity—not hidden private reasoning.

A useful response would look like this: A bounded shot card with one action, one camera move, stable subject anchors, and negatives that can be checked frame by frame. That description is intentionally observable. “Looks good” is not acceptance. The operator must review first/middle/last frames, check anatomy and physics, compare continuity anchors across shots, inspect logos/text, and verify disclosure and asset licenses. Keep the source material beside the draft so review means comparison, not memory.

Do not confuse fluent explanations with evidence. Generate short shots separately and edit them together. Consent, copyright, trademark, music rights, and clear labeling are production requirements—not cleanup after export. The prompt is successful only when the resulting artifact survives an external check.

Watch for too many actions per shot; character drift; warped text; impossible motion; undisclosed synthetic footage; unlicensed music or style imitation. If the answer is too broad, shrink the deliverable. If it invents, tighten “use only” boundaries and require source labels. If formatting drifts, provide a short valid example and validate mechanically. If every option sounds alike, define meaningful axes. If revision damages good sections, quote the exact passage to preserve.

Keep prompt versions with short notes: what changed, why, and what happened. That creates transferable knowledge. Copying a “perfect prompt” without its data, risk level, and reviewer rarely does.