continuity-inventory

Continuity Inventory

Run before storyboard writing whenever a video contains recurring characters, locations, symbolic systems, maps, interfaces, props or spatial relationships.

Extract only continuity-critical items

Freeze an item when it:

• recurs across separated moments;
• remains important longer than one generation unit;
• disappears and later returns;
• defines the viewer's mental map of a space;
• carries a repeated conceptual meaning;
• is explicitly supplied or locked by the user.

Do not over-extract ordinary environmental detail. A one-shot object stays inside the shot prompt unless it later matters.

For each fixed item record

• stable name;
• narrative/conceptual function;
• invariant visual traits;
• allowed transformations;
• forbidden drift;
• spatial relationships to other fixed items;
• first appearance and later state changes;
• whether identity needs an image/video reference or can be maintained by text plus shot continuity.

Abstract explanatory videos

Treat recurring visual metaphors as continuity assets. Examples: a cognitive space, constellation/projection grammar, map topology, observer/navigation character, known-map boundary, unknown region. Record what each metaphor is allowed to mean. Never reuse one asset to represent two conflicting ideas without an explicit transformation.

Reset rules

At each scene/concept reset, state what must persist and what may change. If a shot introduces a new conceptual layer, a clean motivated cut is often safer than preserving irrelevant last-frame content.

Gate

Before storyboarding, confirm there is no unresolved contradiction such as:

• same character with incompatible costume/body traits;
• same map changing topology without narration support;
• same symbol meaning different concepts;
• camera direction or left/right geography flipping accidentally;
• unknown space becoming visually identical to known space.

Any unresolved contradiction becomes a BLOCK for downstream shot writing.