Lesson 1 · 15 min
The 2026 video generator creates image, motion and sound. It doesn't know what the audience should feel or why the camera is there. This lesson separates what the machine carries out from what you decide, and ends with the director's card for your scene.
Start the lesson
Goal: separate what you decide from what the AI carries out, and fill in the director's card for a scene before generating anything.
Five steps. Click each one and see who decides there.
Generator versions cited as a dated example (Oct/2026). The full, up-to-date table is in course 1.
The example is the course's scene: Dona Lia opens the neighborhood bakery at 4:50 a.m.
The tool generates pixels; you are the one who generates meaning. A scene with no internal logic comes out pretty and empty, and a new model won't fix that.
Intention has a practical definition: being able to justify every choice. If the answer to "why this angle?" is "it just came out that way," the scene gets weaker.
Before any image, name the anchor in one sentence. It changes with the format and decides angle, light and composition.
In a film, the anchor is the character. In an ad, it's the product, the idea or the transformation. In a music video, it's the rhythm.
Dona Lia. Everything in the scene serves the quiet pride of someone who wakes up before the city.
Why this angle? Why this movement? Why this duration? Why this light? Angle gives power or fragility, movement gives emotion, duration gives weight and light gives mood.
A choice you can't justify weakens the scene. Lessons 2, 3 and 4 go deeper into each question.
The Sora app was shut down on 04/26/2026 and the API on 09/24/2026. Video tools disappear, change names or change prices.
That's why your project lives in a folder of your own: director's card, character sheet, look and shot list in text. With them, any generator of the moment can carry out the same scene.
The director's card and a request for the AI assistant to test your choices.
Scene: <the scene in one sentence> Format: <film, ad or clip, and where it will be shown> Anchor: <what holds the eye: character, product or rhythm> Emotion: <what the audience should feel> Angle: <which one and why> Movement: <which one and why> Duration: <how long each shot lasts and why> Light: <which one and why>
Read my director's card below. For each field Angle, Movement, Duration and Light, ask me a question that forces me to justify the choice based on what the audience should feel. Don't suggest answers and don't rewrite the card; just ask. Card: <paste your card here>
Test first with the example that passes and the example with an error. Then paste yours.
Pick a scene of your own, 20 to 30 seconds long: a product, a lesson, a moment from your business. It will carry through the whole course.
Fill in the director's card for your scene, with the why in Angle, Movement, Duration and Light. If you like, run it through the assistant request and fix the weak answers. Paste the card into the "Check your card" section.
Done when: the page answers OK: card with 8 fields filled in for your text.
Create a folder named after your scene (on your computer or in the cloud) and save the cartao.txt in it with the "Download the file" button. The next lessons add ladder, movements, look, frames, character sheet and shot list to this folder.
Done when: the folder exists and the cartao.txt inside it opens in a plain text editor, with the 8 fields.
Four questions. The explanation shows up after each answer.
Question 1 of 4
What is still yours, even with the best generator of Oct 2026?
Question 2 of 4
In a 15 s ad for a birthday cake, what is the anchor?
Question 3 of 4
The Sora app shut down in April 2026 and the API in September. What does that teach anyone who directs with AI?
Question 4 of 4
"Shots of 3 to 4 s; the scene breathes, it doesn't rush." Which director's question does this sentence answer?
Pick an answer. The explanation appears after you try.