Camera language

pod speaks cinematography — here is the full craft vocabulary it understands, term by term, and how to use it to direct your film.

You don't need film school to direct with pod, but if you know even a little camera language, pod rewards it. Every term on this page is understood natively: say it at a gate, and the crew translates it precisely into every prompt behind the scenes. You never have to write a technical prompt yourself — you just talk like a director on set.

Where camera language works

The coverage interview — before shots are divided, pod asks scene by scene, "how do you want this covered?" Your words are binding. (This is gate 5 — see the gates.)
Shot-plan notes — at the shot plan review, per-shot edits are first-class: "scene 2 shot 2 should be a top shot".
Any visual gate — keyframes, each scene's clips, the final screening. Name the shot, say the change.

Tip: Tab completes every term — including multi-word ones. Type golden ho and press Tab and pod finishes it to golden hour. (Tab is the key above Caps Lock; it asks pod to finish the word for you.)

Shots

What the frame contains — how close, from where.

Term	What it does to the image
`wide`	Shows the whole space and the people in it — good for action and geography.
`establishing`	An opening view that tells the audience where (and when) they are.
`medium`	Waist-up on a character — the everyday conversational frame.
`close-up`	The face fills the frame — emotion becomes the whole story.
`extreme close-up`	Just the eyes, the lips, a trembling hand — maximum intensity.
`two-shot`	Two characters share one frame — their relationship is the subject.
`over-the-shoulder` (OTS)	Looking past one character's shoulder at another — the classic conversation angle.
`POV`	The camera becomes a character's eyes — we see what they see.
`insert`	A tight cutaway to an object — the letter, the knife, the ringing phone.
`top-down` / `overhead`	Straight down from above — graphic, god's-eye, great for tables and crowds.
`drone` / `aerial`	High and moving above the world — scale and sweep.
`low angle`	Camera looks up at the subject — they feel powerful, imposing.
`high angle`	Camera looks down — the subject feels small, vulnerable.
`dutch angle`	The horizon tilts — unease, something is wrong.
`profile`	The subject seen from the side — formal, iconic, contemplative.
`reverse angle`	Flips to the opposite side of the previous shot — the other half of a conversation.

Movement

How the camera travels through the shot.

Term	What it does to the image
`static tripod`	Locked off, no movement — calm, composed, lets the action play.
`handheld`	A live human wobble — urgency, documentary realism.
`tracking`	The camera travels alongside a moving subject — you move with them.
`dolly-in` / `dolly-out`	The camera physically glides toward or away — smooth, deliberate.
`push-in`	A slow move toward the subject — tension building, a realization landing.
`pull-back`	The camera retreats to reveal more — context, isolation, an ending.
`crane up` / `crane down`	The camera rises or descends through the air — grand entrances and exits.
`whip pan`	A violent sideways snap — energy, or a slick transition between moments.
`slow pan`	An unhurried sideways sweep — surveying a scene, savoring a landscape.
`tilt`	The camera pivots up or down in place — revealing height, or a full-body look.
`orbit`	The camera circles the subject — heroic, hypnotic, a moment that matters.
`rack focus`	Focus shifts from one thing to another inside the shot — redirects the eye.
`zoom`	The lens magnifies without the camera moving — a flatter, more classic feel.
`snap zoom`	A sudden, punchy zoom — comedic or shocking emphasis.
`steadicam glide`	Floating, footstep-free movement through space — dreamlike follow shots.

Lenses

The lens decides how much you see and how faces and space feel.

Term	What it does to the image
`14mm ultra-wide`	Vast, stretched view — huge spaces, exaggerated depth, dramatic distortion up close.
`24mm wide`	Roomy and immersive without looking warped — great for environments.
`35mm`	The classic storytelling lens — natural, slightly wide, close to how scenes feel in life.
`50mm`	Sees roughly like the human eye — honest, neutral framing.
`85mm portrait`	Flattering compression on faces, background melting away — the beauty lens.
`100mm macro`	Extreme close detail — textures, eyes, dew on a leaf.
`135mm telephoto`	Compresses distance, isolates the subject — long-lens intimacy from far away.
`anamorphic`	Widescreen cinema feel — oval background blur, horizontal flares, epic proportions.
`fisheye`	Extreme circular distortion — skate videos, dreams, paranoia.
`tilt-shift`	A sliver of focus makes the world look like a miniature model.

Light

Where the light comes from and what mood it carries.

Term	What it does to the image
`golden hour`	The warm, low sun just after sunrise or before sunset — everything glows.
`blue hour`	The cool twilight just after sunset — moody, soft, melancholic blue.
`high-key`	Bright and evenly lit, few shadows — upbeat, clean, commercial.
`low-key`	Mostly shadow, small pools of light — drama, secrets, danger.
`chiaroscuro`	Bold painterly contrast between light and dark — old-master drama.
`rembrandt`	A triangle of light on the shadowed cheek — the classic portrait look.
`rim light`	A bright edge outlines the subject from behind — separates them from the dark.
`backlit silhouette`	The subject goes fully dark against bright light — shape becomes everything.
`neon glow`	Saturated pink-and-cyan city light — nightlife, cyberpunk, rain-slicked streets.
`practical lights`	The lamps, screens and signs visible in the scene do the lighting — lived-in realism.
`candlelight`	Flickering warm pools, deep shadows — intimacy, history, ritual.
`harsh noon sun`	Hard overhead light, sharp black shadows — heat, exposure, western tension.
`overcast soft`	Cloud-diffused shadowless light — gentle, even, quietly sad.
`window light`	Soft directional daylight from one side — natural, painterly interiors.
`moonlight`	Dim, cool-blue night illumination — stillness and mystery.
`firelight`	Warm orange flicker from below — campfires, warmth, primal storytelling.

Temperature

How warm or cool the light reads on screen.

Term	What it does to the image
`tungsten 3200K` (warm)	Amber, indoor-bulb warmth — cozy, nostalgic, evening.
`neutral 4300K`	Neither warm nor cool — clean and unopinionated.
`daylight 5600K`	True midday sunlight — natural, crisp, honest.
`cool 7500K`	A blue cast over everything — cold, clinical, distant.
`mixed`	Warm and cool sources clash in one frame — real cities, real rooms, visual tension.

Grade

The overall color treatment of the finished picture.

Term	What it does to the image
`teal and orange`	Cool shadows, warm skin — the blockbuster look.
`bleach bypass`	Drained color, crushed contrast — gritty war-film harshness.
`sepia`	Warm brown monochrome — old photographs, memory, the past.
`desaturated`	Color turned way down — bleak, serious, restrained.
`high contrast`	Deep blacks and bright whites — punchy, graphic, bold.
`pastel wash`	Soft, milky, low-contrast colors — gentle, dreamy, storybook.
`noir monochrome`	Hard black-and-white with deep shadows — crime, fate, cigarettes in doorways.
`technicolor`	Lush, exaggerated, saturated color — golden-age Hollywood vibrance.
`kodachrome`	Rich reds and warm nostalgia — vintage travel-photo color.
`day-for-night`	Daylight footage graded dark and blue to read as night — stylized moonlit scenes.

Texture

The physical character of the picture itself.

Term	What it does to the image
`35mm film grain`	Fine organic grain — the texture of real cinema.
`16mm grain`	Coarser, rougher grain — indie films, documentaries, the seventies.
`8mm home-video`	Soft, jittery, heavily grained — family memories, found footage.
`clean digital`	No grain at all — modern, crisp, commercial sheen.
`VHS`	Smeared color, scan lines, tape wobble — retro analog nostalgia.
`shallow depth of field`	The subject is sharp, everything behind melts to blur — intimate and cinematic.
`deep focus`	Everything sharp from foreground to horizon — layered, theatrical staging.
`soft bloom`	Highlights glow and halo gently — romance, dream, memory.
`lens flare`	Streaks and starbursts when light hits the lens — energy and spectacle.
`vignette`	Edges darken subtly — the eye is pulled to the center.
`smoke haze`	Atmosphere hangs in the air, light turns into visible beams — depth and mood.
`rain-soaked`	Wet surfaces, reflections everywhere, drizzle in the light — glistening drama.

Worked examples

1. Answering the coverage interview

At the coverage interview, pod walks your scenes one by one and asks how you want each covered. Pressing Enter takes the script's own staging, and "you decide" hands that scene to the AI — but this is your chance to direct. A real answer for an argument scene in a telugu vertical might be:

scene 3 — Meena confronts Ravi in the kitchen. how do you want this covered?
❯ open wide to set the kitchen, then close-ups on Meena, over-the-shoulder for the argument, handheld throughout, low-key window light
  (your words are binding — the crew builds the shot division around exactly this)

2. A per-shot note

At the shot plan, the keyframes, or a scene's clips, name the shot and stack terms from any category — shot, lens, light, texture — in one line:

❯ shot-03: over-the-shoulder, 85mm, golden hour, 35mm film grain
  (one shot changes; everything else stays approved)

This changes only shot-03. Keep per-shot notes scoped: name the shot, say the change. You can also re-frame with plain positions — "scene 2 shot 2 should be a top shot" works exactly the same way.

3. A standing look

Say "from now on" and a note stops being a one-shot fix and becomes a standing rule pod remembers for the rest of the episode — and, in series mode, for the whole series:

❯ from now on, noir monochrome
  (a standing rule — every shot from here carries the look; in a series it still applies in episode 6)

Note: You can mix craft terms with plain feeling in the same breath — "moody, like a Rajamouli intro" is a perfectly good direction, with or without a single lens number attached. Say the outcome; pod handles the mechanism. More on this in prompting.

Good habits

Front-load the look in your brief. Naming the light and texture in your very first message ("90-second telugu teaser, vertical, moody") saves questions later — see talking to pod.
One change per note. The practical fix phrasing is: name the shot ("shot-07"), say one change.
Terms combine freely. A shot term + a lens + a light + a texture in one line is normal directing, not overload.
A bare "no" never spends money. If a gate shows you something wrong and you can't name the fix yet, just say no — pod asks what to change.

Next: prompting covers style vs direction and how to talk to the critics; the gates walks the full review path where all of this vocabulary gets used.

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