Banned effects: a list per film

Defaults are where the "AI look" comes from (fade, glow, particle burst, bounce). Every film therefore carries its own banned list, written in the brief and checked by the reviewer. Why: bans remove the model's reflex choices, and the strong prompts in the research spent as many words on what must not appear as on what must. Evidence: shown in finished films by two authors (F-B2); the causal claim "bans keep it premium" is the gallery's reading, not proven.

How to use it

1. Seed the film's list from the global bans below (copy, do not link; the list lives in brief.md, line Banned for this film).
2. Add 3 to 6 bans specific to this film's direction (what this look must never do). A ban that could apply to any film is a global one.
3. Check it at three points: storyboard (director review, Round 0), after scene 1 (the reviewer reads the list and looks for each item in the stills), final contact sheet.
4. A ban may be lifted for one moment only if the storyboard says where and why ("one flash cut at 6.2 s, comparison moment").

Global seed (the studio's own taste, from design.md and learnings)

• Bevelled or clearcoat 3D buttons, tilted 3D pages, depth of field on UI.
• Lens flares, glows on components, particle bursts, RGB split, gradient-glow emphasis words, iridescent conic glow.
• Camera shake, constant camera drift, bouncy easing, one easing curve for everything.
• Cross-dissolves between unrelated shots, star and generic wipes, zooming in and straight back out.
• Fake div-built UIs and invented dashboards; placeholder data that looks real.
• Eyebrow labels on every scene, numbered section labels, three equal cards in a row, em dashes on screen.
• Fades shorter than 0.3 s unless the pop is intended (see gotchas.md).
• A highlight box behind a word (reads as a text selection).
• Anything that looks like a stock template.

Film-specific examples (shape of a good line)

• Photo-print film: "Banned: crossfades, blur-ins, brightness 'developing', 3D flips, particles, glows, holds over 1 s."
• UI loop: "Banned: bouncy easing, gradients on chrome, mismatched icon strokes, dead time, anything not attached to the thread object."
• Type piece: "Banned: a second typeface, motion that is not tied to a word, a centred caption that builds word by word."

Not ours

Other authors ship house bans (no serif, no italic, no cream, no orange, no purple). Those are their taste. Adopt the mechanism (a written list, enforced by a reviewer), never their specific items without a reason in this film's direction.

Cheap-tells catalogue (concept level, for directions and plan review)

Why: stops "style posing as idea". Evidence: doc-level (F-A11).

• A borrowed prop standing in for an idea (rocket for "launch", lightbulb for "idea").
• A demo with no cause: the UI changes and nothing on screen made it change.
• A recycled end card that could close any film.
• The device (the one object carried through the film) dropping out at a scene seam.
• Three looks and no idea: the directions differ only in palette.