SKILL: Child & Youth Direction

Version: 1.0 | Hermes Agent Character & Direction System

DESCRIPTION

Mastery of cinematographic approaches that honor the authentic perspective of children and young people. Prioritizes eye-level framing (never looking down), preserves the unfiltered physicality of youth, and composes with safety signals that protect child subjects from exploitative or adult-gaze distortion. Creates frames where children are subjects of their own stories, not accessories to adult narratives.

TRIGGER KEYWORDS

child, children, kid, youth, young person, child direction, child framing, eye level child, child protagonist, authentic child, child perspective, school age, toddler, teenager, youth story

CORE RULES

• Camera must match child's eye level exactly — never shoot down on children
• Capture unposed, in-motion moments: running, fidgeting, mid-gesture, unselfconscious
• Include messy authenticity: grass stains, untucked shirts, windblown hair
• Never fragment child's body in ways that segment inappropriately
• Child-scale environment: furniture looms, door handles are high, adults are giants from this POV
• Slight motion blur is acceptable — it signals real movement, not staged stillness
• Environment as playground: children interact with spaces creatively, not conventionally