film-release-gate

film-release-gate

The entry point for narrative film work. It does two jobs: it sequences the other artifacts in the film-excellence pack, and it defines done.

It is the film equivalent of web-release-gate, and it works the same way: you don't get to self-certify.

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Read order (do not skip)

1. The repo's own film-design.md and film-taste.md if they exist — they outrank everything below.
2. DOCTRINE.md — the five laws and the refusal list
3. LANGUAGE.md — before any dialogue is written
4. film-design.md (pack template) — the token contract
5. CREW.md — which chair, which model
6. PIPELINE.md — the eight stages

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Sequence

Refuse to jump stages. The most common and most expensive error in generative film production is starting at stage 7.

1 BIBLE      → turn stated in one line, formal rule declared
2 CHARACTERS → Word Ledger + locked visual string per principal
3 BEATS      → timecoded, turn located between 2:30 and 3:10
4 SCRIPT     → LANGUAGE.md checklist passes
5 LOOK+SOUND → sound map written BEFORE any frame is generated
6 SHOTLIST   → rule_check = yes on every row
7 GENERATE   → character IDs reused, every generation logged
8 CUT        → assembled to the sound map, then this gate

If a user asks to "just generate some shots" before stage 5 exists, say what is missing and what it will cost — a bin of unusable clips and a face that drifts — then offer the shortest real path: bible and beats first, one hour.

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The gate

Certification requires all of the following as artifacts, not assertions:

• The turn, in one line, in the form they think X; actually Y
• The formal rule, declared, plus the two places it hurt (shot ids)
• Sound map: bed per location · foley on three actions · music in/out · the planned silence with its function and duration
• Three hand shots, timecoded
• Three deliberate imperfections, timecoded
• Language pass logged — the eleven-item checklist from LANGUAGE.md
• Speech-free ≥ 20% of runtime, measured not estimated. Speech-free means nobody is talking; room tone and foley continue. Do not accept a signal-free track as evidence — that is a dropout. A deliberate total silence is a separate, timecoded entry in the sound map
• Generation ledger complete — every shot reconstructible from seed
• Cold watch: one person who did not make it watched at 1× with no scrubbing and can answer what did she want and what changed
• Runtime inside the target window
• Submission copy passes the language refusals in film-taste.md