Character and continuity

In an ad the product hero still is generated once and every frame is edited from it, so the product never drifts. A narrative film does the same with people: each character is cast once into a locked master portrait and a reference pack edited from it, and every frame that shows them is an edit of those references. Viewers forgive flat light; they do not forgive a lead whose jaw, hair parting or jacket changes between a shot and its reverse. Audience complaints about AI dramas rank "stiff faces" and "odd movement" first (research, 3.4); a face that changes is worse than either.

Casting rules

• Adults only: every character is 18-90 (checked). Write the age in words in look ("in her late twenties"), never digits (checked); the image model paints numbers.
• No real people. Never name or describe a celebrity, a public figure, a client's employee or "someone who looks like" anyone. Unauthorised likeness is the industry's main legal exposure (research, 3.4; NO FAKES Act passed committee 2026-06).
• At most five characters by default (checked): each needs a locked look and a designed voice, and a 10-20 episode season cannot develop more.
• look, wardrobe and voice are English (checked); id is a lowercase slug (checked) used in file names, shot lists and voice files.
• Cast for contrast. Two leads must be told apart in a thumbnail at phone size: different hair length and colour value, different silhouette, different wardrobe palette. Two dark-haired men in dark suits read as one person on a 6-inch screen.
• Write look as a casting director describes a face, specific and plain: face shape, brow, eyes, nose, mouth, skin tone and texture, hair (length, parting, texture, colour), build, one distinguishing detail (a small scar through the left eyebrow, a mole below the right eye). No adjectives of worth ("beautiful", "handsome"): they pull every face toward the same model average.

The casting department

The casting stage (src/crafts/narrative/casting.ts) works as a real casting department, once per character, in pre-production. Its output is never regenerated mid-season.