Worked Example — Dance / Choreography Film

Original worked example by jnMetaCode (MIT). Applies the 5-stage structure to a dance film — the counterpoint to music-video.md: an MV is built from cuts, a dance film holds on the body in continuous motion. Teaches full-body capture, body-to-beat sync, and the discipline of not cropping the movement.

Concept: a solo contemporary dancer in an empty hall, one flowing take. Swap the style and space, keep the continuous-body rule.

Further reading (inspiration, not copied — all rewritten in our structure): performance/dance patterns in jax-explorer/awesome-veo3-videos (no license — inspiration only).

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Variables you need to define first

Variable	This example	Swap for…
`{{dancer}}`	a solo contemporary dancer	a street/hip-hop crew / a ballet duo
`{{style_tempo}}`	fluid contemporary, ~90 BPM, building	krump ~150 / waltz ~84 / breaking ~110
`{{space}}`	an empty sunlit concrete hall	a rooftop at dusk / a black stage / a street
`{{move}}`	a spiralling floor-to-rise phrase	a freeze-and-pop combo / a leap sequence
`{{grade}}`	warm hard window light, long shadows	single-spot chiaroscuro / cool daylight

The complete prompt (copy-paste ready)

1 · Core theme

dance film | full-body continuous motion | body synced to rhythm | one bold grade | real physical motion, no stiff mocap look, no choppy cuts

2 · Character & scene

Dancer: {{dancer}}. Reference uploaded photo, features 100% preserved, no beautification. The realism is in the effort: sweat, hard breathing, muscle strain and control, hair and loose clothing moving with momentum, a bare foot scuffing the floor. Real physical motion with weight — not a weightless stiff mocap puppet.

Scene: {{space}}, {{grade}}. The light and floor are part of the choreography — shadows move with the body.

3 · Atmosphere & quality

Shot on ARRI Alexa with anamorphic primes, bold {{grade}}. Film grain, real practical light, motion blur allowed on fast limbs. One committed look. Frame to keep the whole body readable — dance lives in the full figure, not in tight crops.

4 · Camera rules

One continuous flowing take that follows the body — an orbit, a track, a slow push that keeps {{dancer}} whole in frame. The opposite of an MV's fast cuts: let the movement play.

Breathing: "Handheld shot. Throughout, maintain an extremely subtle, breath-like camera float to enhance presence." — alive, moving with the dancer, but never cropping the motion.
Sound (music IS wanted, like an MV): this genre rides a track. Specify {{style_tempo}} so the body's motion locks to the beat. Production audio underneath — breath, foot scuffs, fabric. If you have the track, generate to temp and lay the real song in post.

5 · Storyboard (one continuous take, ~12s)

0–3s · Entry (establish body + space)
Action: {{dancer}} begins, still then moving, the {{grade}} light defining
        the figure in {{space}}.
Camera: Slow push/orbit, full body in frame.
Beat:   Movement initiates on the downbeat.

3–9s · The phrase ({{move}} — the body's argument)
Action: {{move}} plays out continuously — momentum, weight, control,
        sweat and breath, shadows sweeping with the body.
Camera: One flowing follow — orbit/track — never cutting away, never
        cropping out the limbs at the key moment.
Beat:   The motion accents land with the rhythm.

9–12s · Resolve (restrained close)
Action: The phrase resolves; {{dancer}} settles, chest heaving.
Camera: Hold, breath-float, full figure.
Close:  No freeze-frame pose-to-camera, no logo, no flashy spin. Just the
        dancer breathing in the light where the movement ended.

Negative prompt (Seedance / Kling — paste into the dedicated field)

blurry, low resolution, watermark, text overlay, subtitles, logo, stiff mocap motion, weightless floaty movement, robotic interpolation, choppy cuts mid-move, cropped-out limbs, plastic CG skin, glossy idol render, video-game look, 3D cartoon, flat even studio lighting, distorted face, extra fingers, bent/broken joints, melting/morphing limbs, frame flicker, ghosting, lifeless locked-off camera

Why it's built this way

Continuous body, not cuts (the dance/MV split). An MV chops to the beat; a dance film holds on the body so the movement reads. Build it as one flowing take that keeps the whole figure in frame — cutting away or cropping the limbs at the key moment kills it.
Weight and effort (Rule 5). Sweat, breath, muscle control, a scuffing foot, clothing carrying momentum. Weightless stiff motion reads as mocap; the physical weight is what makes dance real.
Music is the rhythm (Rule 4, like the MV). Dance is built on a track — specify tempo so the body syncs. Lay your real song in post.
Restrained close (Rule 6). Dancer breathing where the move ended, not a pose-to-camera freeze. The exhaustion is more real than a wink.

Usage: generate the phrase beat (3–9s) first — if the body moves with real weight and stays whole in frame (no cropped limbs, no mocap stiffness), the entry and resolve frame it. Keep it one continuous move.

Model: Kling is excellent at full-body human motion; Veo 3 and Sora 2 give strong realism + native music handling. Watch for bent/broken joints and limb morphing on fast moves — negate them and keep the body framed whole.