Core Concepts

Understanding how ACT 3 AI structures your production makes everything else click.

The Filmmaking Hierarchy

ACT 3 AI mirrors the structure of professional film production:

Project
└── Act 1, Act 2, Act 3
    └── Scenes
        └── Beats
            └── Shots

Acts

An Act is a major division of your story. Most films follow a three-act structure:

• Act 1 — Setup and introduction
• Act 2 — Confrontation and rising action
• Act 3 — Resolution and climax

Scenes

A Scene is a continuous action happening in one location at one time. When the location or time changes, a new scene begins. Each scene has:

• A location (interior or exterior)
• A time of day
• Characters present
• The action that unfolds

Beats

A Beat is an emotional or dramatic moment within a scene. It's the unit of storytelling — the thing that shifts the scene's direction or reveals character. A scene might have 2-5 beats.

Shots

A Shot is a single, uninterrupted camera setup. Shots are what you actually generate with AI. Each shot is defined by:

• Camera type (handheld, steadicam, dolly, crane, drone)
• Lens (wide, standard, telephoto)
• Angle (eye-level, high, low, Dutch)
• Movement (static, pan, tilt, push, pull, orbit)
• Subject (what's in frame)
• Lighting (key direction, mood, color temperature)

AI Models

ACT 3 AI supports multiple AI video generation models. Each has different strengths:

Model	Best For	Speed
Google Veo 3	Photorealistic, cinematic	Moderate
Runway Gen-3	Stylized, fast iteration	Fast
FLUX (ComfyUI)	Local rendering, custom styles	Variable
Hunyuan	Asian content, specific styles	Moderate
Wan 2.1	Open-source, customizable	Variable

The Cinematography Layer

What sets ACT 3 AI apart is its cinematography layer — the system that translates your story intent into specific technical instructions for AI models.

Rather than writing raw prompts, you describe your production intent. ACT 3 AI translates that into optimized prompts for each model, ensuring consistent cinematic quality across all your shots.