Worked Example — CCTV / Found-Footage Horror

Original worked example by jnMetaCode (MIT). Applies the 5-stage structure to found-footage / security-cam horror — a genre where a degraded, cheap camera is the entire aesthetic, and restraint (not gore) creates the dread. Another deliberate rule break: the camera is a fixed mount, so the breath-float is dropped (a CCTV does not move).

Concept: a fixed security camera on an empty night corridor; something is subtly, wrongly off. Swap the location, keep the discipline.

Further reading (inspiration, not copied — all rewritten in our structure): the Horror / CCTV-style category in zhangchenchen/awesome_sora2_prompt (MIT).

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Variables you need to define first

Variable	This example	Swap for…
`{{place}}`	an empty office corridor at 3 AM	a parking garage / a stairwell / a back yard
`{{wrong_thing}}`	a door at the end stands open that was shut	a figure half-out of frame / lights cutting out one by one
`{{cam_type}}`	ceiling security camera, wide fisheye	a doorbell cam / a handheld phone / a baby monitor
`{{timestamp}}`	03:14:07 AM, top-right	a date burn-in / a channel label
`{{night_mode}}`	IR night-vision green-grey	low-lux colour with heavy noise

The complete prompt (copy-paste ready)

1 · Core theme

found-footage horror | fixed security-cam angle | {{night_mode}} | dread through stillness | no jumpscare gore, no cinematic polish

2 · Character & scene

Subject (the space, and what's wrong with it): {{place}}, empty and still. The horror is that almost nothing happens — then {{wrong_thing}}. No monster reveal, no blood. The wrongness is quiet and specific.

The "camera" as a character (this is the look): {{cam_type}} — {{night_mode}}, low resolution, visible compression blocking in the shadows, faint sensor noise crawling, a slightly warped wide/fisheye edge, a {{timestamp}} burn-in, and an occasional dropped/stuttered frame. These artefacts ARE the aesthetic — not flaws to clean up.

3 · Atmosphere & quality

Shot to look like real cheap surveillance footage: NOT a cinema camera. Low dynamic range, crushed blacks with noise, green-grey IR or murky low-lux colour, compression artefacts, fixed exposure that can't keep up with the dark. The "ugliness" is the realism — anything that looks graded or filmic breaks the illusion.

4 · Camera rules

Fixed mount — locked off. Deliberately NO breath-float. A security camera does not breathe, drift, or reframe; it stares. (This is the rule break: the handheld float that anchors most templates here would instantly read as "a person filming," killing the CCTV illusion.) One fixed wide angle for the whole shot.

Sound: No score. Just room tone — an HVAC hum, a distant unexplained knock, the electrical buzz of a failing light. Silence does the work.

5 · Storyboard (3 beats, ~10s)

0–4s · Normal (establish the boredom)
Action: {{place}}, empty, still. {{night_mode}}, noise crawling, the
        {{timestamp}} ticking. Nothing happens. Hold the boredom — it
        sets the trap.
Camera: Fixed wide. Locked.
Sound:  Room tone, a faint hum.

4–7s · Wrong (the small specific change)
Action: {{wrong_thing}} — subtle, easy to miss, no music sting. A frame
        stutters/drops right as it happens.
Camera: Still fixed. The eye has to find it.
Sound:  The hum, maybe one distant knock. No stinger.

7–10s · Hold (restrained close)
Action: Nothing else moves. The wrong thing just… stays. The footage
        keeps rolling on the empty, now-wrong space.
Close:  No reveal, no creature, no scream, no cut to black with a bang.
        Just the timestamp ticking on a corridor that is no longer right.

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

cinematic color grade, filmic look, shallow depth of field, smooth handheld motion, breathing camera float, dramatic lighting, lens flare, high resolution clean image, watermark, logo, gore, blood splatter, jumpscare monster reveal, oversaturated colors, 3D cartoon render, video-game look, polished VFX, score music, melting/morphing geometry, warped unreadable timestamp text

Why it's built this way

The cheap camera IS the genre (deliberate Rule 2 inversion). Instead of "ARRI + Panavision," we anchor to "security cam, IR night mode, compression noise, timestamp." The degraded look is exactly what sells "this is real footage someone found." A clean cinematic image destroys it.
Locked-off, no breath-float (Rule 3 exception). A mounted camera stares. Any drift reads as a human operator and breaks the conceit — so we drop the float and negate "breathing camera float / smooth handheld."
Restraint is the horror (Rule 6, weaponised). No monster, no gore, no music sting. One small, specific wrong thing in a boring frame is scarier than any reveal — and it stops the model defaulting to cheap jumpscares.
Artefacts as imperfection anchors (Rule 5). Noise, blocking, a dropped frame, a fisheye edge. Here the "flaws" aren't added realism — they're the whole medium.

Usage: generate the normal beat first and make sure it reads as genuine cheap footage (noise, timestamp, fixed angle); if it comes out clean/cinematic, lean hard on the negative field. Keep {{wrong_thing}} small — the restraint is the scare.

Model: Sora 2 is excellent at the "uncanny real footage" look and holds the fixed frame; Kling and Seedance work but watch that they don't prettify it — push the negative field. Keep any on-screen timestamp short so the model doesn't warp the text.