How to Write AI Video Prompts That Look Cinematic
Last updated: October 12, 2026
Most disappointing AI videos come from prompts that describe what is in the scene but not how it is filmed. A cinematographer thinks about framing, lens, light, and movement before anything rolls. Your prompt should do the same.
This guide gives you a simple order to write prompts in. It works across most AI video tools because it mirrors how real shots are planned.
When to use it
- You are new to AI video and want a repeatable structure.
- Your generations look generic, flat, or inconsistent.
- You want to move from random results to planned shots.
How to write the prompt
1. Start with a specific subject. Describe who or what is in frame and what they are doing, in one clear sentence. Specific details, like clothing, materials, and setting, beat adjectives like "epic" or "amazing".
2. Choose the shot size. Wide, medium, or close-up. The framing decides what the viewer pays attention to, and models follow it reliably.
3. Name a lens. An 18mm wide, 35mm, 50mm, or 85mm lens each give a different feel. Lens names are a compact way to describe perspective and depth of field.
4. Describe the lighting. Golden hour, neon, film noir, or overcast light sets the mood more than any other word in the prompt.
5. Describe one camera move. Write the mechanics of a single move, like a slow push-in or a fixed-radius orbit. One move per clip keeps results stable.
6. Finish with negatives. List what to avoid: warping, flicker, extra limbs, morphing. Negatives clean up the most common AI video artifacts.
Copy-ready example
Subject: An astronaut stepping onto the edge of a vast canyon on Mars. Generate the keyframe image first, then use it as the start frame for your video with the motion layer as the video prompt. Add the negative block wherever your tool accepts one.
An astronaut stepping onto the edge of a vast canyon on Mars. wide shot, full subject in frame with generous surrounding context, shot on a 35mm anamorphic lens, oval bokeh, horizontal lens flares and gentle barrel character, golden-hour lighting, warm raking sunlight with long soft shadows and amber highlights, 2.39:1 cinematic anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. Photorealistic, cinematic color grade, high dynamic range, sharp focus.
Camera move: vertical crane/pedestal rise lifting the camera upward while tilting down to keep the subject framed, smooth cinematic glide, steady professional gimbal cadence. elevating reveal unveiling scale and environment, ground plane receding, sky entering frame. strict frame-to-frame identity lock, subject features, wardrobe and proportions held perfectly consistent. Animate only the camera and environment, not the subject's core features.
Negative: blurry, low quality, distorted, deformed, extra limbs, disfigured, watermark, signature, jpeg artifacts, text errors, bad anatomy, flickering, temporal inconsistency, morphing artifacts, warping, ghosting. Style: cinematic film grain, anamorphic character, high dynamic range, professional color grade.
Common mistakes
- Stacking adjectives instead of describing the shot.
- Asking for several camera moves in one short clip.
- No lighting direction, which produces flat, generic images.
- Writing one huge paragraph instead of separating image, motion, and negatives.
Try it with your own scene
CineCue builds every prompt layer for you. Open it with this setup, describe your own subject, adjust the options, and copy the result into your AI tool.