Directing vs. prompting: settle your cast and sets before the first take

Prompting and directing can look similar from the outside. In both cases someone describes what they want and a model returns footage. The difference is when the decisions get made.

Prompting tends to make them inside each request: who this person is, what they wear, what the room looks like, what is on the table. When each request has to restate them, those questions stay open from clip to clip. Directing settles them first. On a set, the casting is done, the location is chosen and the props are on the table before anyone calls for a take. The take is where performance and camera are decided, not who the lead actor is.

StoryDirector is built around that order of work. You start broad with the story, cast and world, then get precise when a particular scene, line, prop or camera moment needs attention. You do not need to write model prompts to use it. You do need to make creative decisions, and the earlier you make the foundational ones, the less footage you spend rediscovering them.

Why the foundation comes first

In StoryDirector, generation direction is built from the decisions you approve during preparation. The preparation review shows the cast, sets, props and story beats the engine has drawn from your writing. If a character's identity or a location is wrong at this stage, fixing it here means you avoid carrying the same problem into every take that uses it.

That is the practical case for preparation: an error in a scene is one problem, but an error in the foundation repeats across scenes.

Write so the story can be read

Preparation starts with the writing. A few habits help the engine interpret it the way you intend:

• Use stable names. If "Ana" is also "the baker" and "my sister", choose one name for the cast and use it consistently.
• Make location changes explicit. "They step out of the bakery onto the harbor road" is clearer than an implied cut.
• Attribute every line of dialogue to its speaker, and keep quoted lines intact.
• Name the props that matter visually. If the story turns on a key, a letter or a pocket watch, say so.
• Separate what the audience sees from background. Backstory that need not appear on screen should read as backstory.

A useful brief also covers the audience, intended runtime, central action, emotional turn, cast, location and ending. Detailed camera notation is optional. Keep the story readable rather than turning every line into a list of constraints.

Choose the look deliberately

Format, visual style and tone set the project's creative direction, and they shape preparation and generation from there. At the time of writing, format, visual style and tone are chosen when you create a story and stay fixed after that; there is no restyle of an existing story. If you want to try the same premise in a substantially different style, start a new story with the new choices. Decide the look before you create the story.

Cast your people

A cast identity in StoryDirector can be a generated character, or it can come from photos of yourself, friends or actors who have given permission. You review identity candidates, refine appearance and wardrobe, and approve the one you want.

Approved identities are saved to a cast library and can be reused in another story, which is useful if you are building a series or a recurring character.

Be precise about what an identity does. Sharing an identity reference across scenes helps guide recognition as the action and framing change. It does not guarantee an identical face in every frame. Plan to review faces in each take, especially through turns and in wide shots, and choose takes accordingly. See cast identities for how the cast workflow is set up.

Practical casting notes:

• Settle wardrobe at the identity stage if it should stay the same across scenes.
• If you use a real person's photo, have their permission before you upload it.
• Approve fewer, clearer identities rather than many loosely defined ones.

Choose your sets

A set is the approved image of a location. You can generate one or upload your own, review its details, and use an alternate angle where one is available. Later scenes in the same story can return to that set.

Two limits are worth knowing. First, returning to a set reuses the approved location reference; it is not a promise of the exact same camera view. Second, at the time of writing there is no set library shared across stories, so a location belongs to the story you created it in.

When you plan scenes, decide which ones return to an established set and which genuinely need a new place. Fewer, well-chosen sets give a short film a clearer sense of geography.

Put the props on the table

StoryDirector has three distinct reference workflows, and it helps to know which one you need:

1. Story props are named objects with reference images, aliases and an approval state. An approved prop can be included when a scene mentions it. Image cleanup is available; check the markings and shape afterward.
2. Scene references are added in Scene details, under References, then Props and visual references. You upload an image and describe what it should guide. They affect the next generation of that scene, not footage already rendered.
3. Edit references are attached to an AI edit of a selected segment, to show the replacement, setting or appearance you want in existing footage.

For scene and edit uploads, the current limits at the time of writing are up to four references per workflow, in JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB each, 300 to 6,000 pixels per side, with an aspect ratio between 0.4 and 2.5. Scene uploads currently require Seedance 2.5. Cast and set images also count toward the model's total reference budget, so a scene with two cast members and a set already uses part of it.

The most useful habit is to give every reference one clear role. A label like "brass pocket watch with a cracked crystal; match the case shape and chain; place it in the actor's left hand" tells the model what the image is for. Without that, a product photo can bring its background or stand along with it. Assign the background a role only when you actually want it.

References guide the output; they do not guarantee exact labels, proportions or geometry. Compare the returned shot with the reference image, and check hand contact and movement through the whole section, not one frame. The sets and props page covers these workflows in more detail.

Then direct the take

Approving the preparation review compiles direction and moves the story into its production workspace, where each scene stays editable. You can inspect the direction, references, duration, model options and continuity settings for each scene before you confirm a quote and render. If you prefer to write a scene's direction yourself, your direction can replace the engine's brief, and the system still adds the relevant reference and continuity context around it.

This is where directing pays off. Because who and where are settled, your scene direction can focus on what a take is for: the action, the emotional turn, the moment the camera should find.

A pre-shoot checklist

• Names are stable and every line is attributed.
• Format, style and tone are the ones you want to keep (they are fixed once the story is created).
• Each main character has an approved identity, with wardrobe decided.
• Each recurring location has an approved set.
• Key objects are named story props, with images checked after cleanup.
• Every uploaded reference has one stated role.
• You know which scenes continue, which return to a set and which start fresh.

Where to go next

For the full sequence from writing to final cut, read the complete workflow guide, or see how a written story becomes scenes on the story to video page. At the time of writing (October 2026), the Free Director plan covers story development, direction, review and prompt export. Generating video and images, including cast, set and prop references, uses credits on a paid plan, and assembling a final cut also needs a paid plan. Current plans and what each includes are on the pricing page.