shotlist-forge

Turn one concept into a structured, shot-by-shot prompt sequence for text-to-video models (Seedance, Kling, Runway, Veo). Storyboard your AI video in seconds.

Single prompts give you single shots. Real videos are sequences — and writing 6 consistent, well-framed prompts by hand is tedious. shotlist takes one concept and expands it into an ordered shot list, varying the framing the way an editor would while keeping style, lighting, and mood identical across every shot.

Built on seedance-prompt-forge, so each shot is a clean, model-ready prompt.

shotlist --subject "a trail runner" --setting "misty mountain ridge" --style cinematic \
         --beats "laces up boots; sprints along the ridge; reaches the summit" --aspect 9:16

→

Shot 1 · 4s · extreme-wide · laces up boots
A trail runner, laces up boots, in misty mountain ridge. Cinematic film look, shallow depth of field, color graded. Extreme wide establishing shot, subject small in frame. Crane shot rising above the scene. 9:16 vertical aspect ratio for mobile.

Shot 2 · 4s · wide · sprints along the ridge
A trail runner, sprints along the ridge, in misty mountain ridge. Cinematic film look, shallow depth of field, color graded. Wide shot, full subject visible with surrounding environment. Slow dolly push-in toward the subject. 9:16 vertical aspect ratio for mobile.

Shot 3 · 4s · medium · reaches the summit
A trail runner, reaches the summit, in misty mountain ridge. Cinematic film look, shallow depth of field, color graded. Medium shot, subject from the waist up. Handheld camera with subtle organic shake. 9:16 vertical aspect ratio for mobile.

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✨ Features

• 🎬 Concept → sequence — one input, a full numbered shot list with per-shot prompts.
• 🎞️ Cinematic patterns — ad, narrative, montage, reveal: each varies the framing and camera moves the way that style of edit actually cuts.
• 🔒 Continuity built in — style, lighting, mood, lens, and aspect stay identical across every shot, so the sequence feels like one piece.
• ✍️ Beats → shots — pass --beats "a; b; c" and each beat becomes its own shot.
• ⏱️ Duration planning — give a total length; it distributes whole seconds across the shots.
• 📦 CLI and library, --json output, built on the zero-dependency seedance-prompt-forge.

Install

npm install -g shotlist-forge

Or as a library:

npm install shotlist-forge

Requires Node.js 18+.

Usage

Command line

shotlist --subject "a barista" --setting "a cozy specialty cafe" \
         --style cinematic --lighting golden-hour --mood serene \
         --pattern ad --shots 6 --duration 15

List the available shot-rhythm patterns:

shotlist patterns

Full help:

shotlist --help

As a library

import { buildShotList, formatShotList } from "shotlist-forge";

const shots = buildShotList({
  subject: "a barista",
  setting: "a cozy specialty cafe",
  style: "cinematic",
  lighting: "golden-hour",
  pattern: "ad",
  shots: 6,
  duration: 15,
});

console.log(formatShotList(shots));
// shots is also a plain array: [{ n, shot, movement, action, seconds, prompt }, ...]

Flags

Flag	What it controls	Example
--subject (required)	Who / what the sequence is about	"a barista"
--setting	Location / environment (continuity)	"a cozy cafe"
--style	Visual style (continuity)	cinematic, dark-anime
--lighting	Lighting (continuity)	golden-hour, neon
--mood	Mood (continuity)	serene, tense
--lens	Lens (continuity)	anamorphic, macro
--aspect	Aspect ratio (continuity)	16:9, 9:16, 21:9
--pattern	Shot rhythm	ad, narrative, montage, reveal
--beats	Per-shot actions (sets shot count)	"laces up; sprints; wins"
--shots	Number of shots (if no --beats)	6
--duration	Total seconds, distributed across shots	15
--movement	Fix camera movement for all shots	slow-push
--json	Output JSON instead of text	—

Every continuity flag accepts a preset key or free text — powered by seedance-prompt-forge.

Patterns

Pattern	Feel
ad	Commercial / ad — punchy, product-forward
narrative	Narrative scene — establish, settle, get intimate
montage	Montage — fast, varied, high-energy
reveal	Reveal — start tight, pull out to the full scene

Each pattern is just an ordered list of shot sizes + camera moves in src/patterns.js — adding one is a few lines.

How it works

1. Pick a pattern (or pass explicit --beats).
2. For each shot, the pattern supplies a shot size and camera movement.
3. Your continuity fields (style, lighting, mood, lens, aspect) are merged into every shot and handed to seedance-prompt-forge, which assembles the final ordered prompt.
4. Durations are distributed across the shots to hit your target length.

Related

• seedance-prompt-forge — the single-shot prompt builder this is built on.

Contributing

Patterns and behaviour are intentionally simple to extend. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues and ideas welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.