Video & audio

Short-drama script

Premise to beat sheet to dialogue, checked for something a camera can actually shoot.

Paid $29 list, $23 until 2026-12-31 · one skill, yours for good. The outline, the steps and the file open after purchase.

Background

Files in this skill: SKILL.md (workflow) · references/01–04 (craft detail) · scripts/check_script.py (deterministic dialogue-level checks) · tests/ (regression cases, to prevent rollback) · templates/ (formats for the three tables) · LESSONS.md (cross-project lessons ledger, see §8)

There is exactly one handoff point: the S0 four tables. The output of this skill = the input for Table 1 (script revision) / Table 2 (character card) / Table 3 (sound design); Table 4 (aspect-ratio lock) is set by the user or the production layer, but you must already know it while writing the script (see §4).

> ⚠️ Do not discuss model parameters, cost or APIs in this skill — that is the production layer's business. > ⚠️ Do not improvise dialogue in the production layer either — that is exactly the root cause of "audio and picture out of sync" and "robot tone".

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Why it is built this way

Each stage produces the input the next one needs and nothing more. The concept stage hands over four lines and no dialogue, because lines written before the premise, the theme and the three character questions exist have no subtext to grow from. The skeleton is metered in seconds instead of scenes because the piece is watched in a vertical feed: the first beat is conflict, suspense or anomaly, one peak every 10 to 15 seconds, and each beat carries an emotion value from -9 to +9 so three same-sign beats in a row get spotted before shooting.

Dialogue is written against a physical constraint: shot length must be at least the character count divided by 4.3, plus 0.4 seconds of silent tail. A shot that comes out too short loses words or gets split, never a faster read, because compression lands past the 6.5 characters per second newscaster line. check_script.py carries the mechanical half of that, and tests/run_tests.py freezes twelve historic false positives as assertions so a fixed rule cannot quietly roll back.

Where it bites

• Pictures before lines Generating first and writing the lines afterwards leaves voiceover and mouth out of step, because the picture has already fixed the timing. The anti-pattern list puts writing first and fixing every character, and the handoff table says the script table becomes the verbatim voiceover text that no longer changes.
• Dialogue written as a summary A script that records the gist lets the voiceover improvise, adding and dropping words against a shot length computed from a different character count. Each character is fixed, the estimate runs at 4.3 characters per second, and shot length follows the line instead of the other way round.
• Lines that explain Dialogue that briefs the audience on the setup reads like a notice, and a scene where only mouths move has nothing to land on. Rule five bans explanation and rule six requires every line to land on a physical action, with performance notes written as an inhale or a tightening fist.
• Twelve shots of two seconds Uniform two-second shots give commercial pacing and no curve, and the production gate treats an entire film of them as rework. The beat sheet asks for 1 to 4 second alternation, with the emotion column rising and falling instead of sitting below -5 for three beats.

When to use it

Short-drama / short-video script workbench (upstream creative layer): concept → skeleton (a beat sheet metered in seconds) → words (verbatim dialogue), including de-AI-flavored dialogue, shootability checks (AI generation constraints) and voiceover pacing estimates, with output that plugs directly into the S0 four tables of video-production-pipeline. Use when the user asks to \"write a script\", \"write dialogue\", \"make up a story\", \"think of a short drama\", says \"this dialogue sounds unnatural\", \"the lines sound AI-written\", \"help me revise the lines\", or asks for \"episode breakdown\", \"write an outline\", \"design characters\".