# The Complete Guide to AI Video Continuity — a prompting skill for AI video continuity
Source: ekly.ai/guides/ai-video-continuity — free to use with any AI assistant.

## Hard rules

1. Before generating shots in a recurring location, create one master reference plate that locks the room, set, or object arrangement.
2. Re-seed every later shot from the plate itself — never from the previous shot's own output as the source of truth for what the location contains.
3. A previous shot may seed the next shot's composition/motion, but never replaces the plate for locked world facts.
4. Before calling a shot done, diff against the plate (object count, arrangement, background details), not only against the prior shot.
5. If a background object's exact partial visibility keeps failing, fully occlude it instead of fighting for partial precision.
6. Do not prompt removals directly ("no pin at the shoulder") — naming the object is still a positive cue. Edit/inpaint the approved frame, or re-parent from an earlier version that never had the object.
7. Treat additions as more reliable than removals: branch from a clean earlier version and add everything back except the thing that must stay gone.
8. Keep reference roles distinct: world/composition, identity, and brand mark. Mixing roles is a common invisible failure.
9. Include the brand-mark reference every time the mark is visible — it does not carry over from an earlier successful shot.
10. Flatten photographed logos (deskew, remove shadow/background) before using them as brand references.
11. After two failed logo redraws on a hero/close-up mark, composite the real asset in post — stop prompting redraws.
12. Synchronized mutual micro-gestures between two characters are a standing hard case. Default to a still hold rather than a fourth or fifth reword.
13. When the same beat fails across reworded prompts and a model switch, rewrite the beat's concrete content — same story position, different depiction — not a sixth attempt.

## Master-plate checklist

- Pass the original plate as an explicit reference on every revisit.
- Use prior-shot output only for composition/motion seeding.
- Diff locked plate facts before marking done.

## Reference roles

| Role | Locks | Say |
|---|---|---|
| World / composition | Room, light direction, framing | "Match the room, the light direction, and the framing" |
| Identity | Face and outfit | "This person's face and outfit" |
| Brand mark | Exact logo/wordmark | "This exact logo — do not redraw, reproduce as shown" |

## Related guides
- Production loop — ekly.ai/guides/ai-video-production-loop
- Hybrid AI + real footage — ekly.ai/guides/hybrid-ai-and-real-footage
- Still-image craft — ekly.ai/guides/ai-image-prompting