# Narrative Integrity

Use this reference when people, creatures, fictional events, or a dramatic
sequence carry any part of a film. It protects story logic and believable
behavior before creative direction changes how the event is seen.

## Separate Reality from Observation

Treat a shot as an observation of a state transition:

```text
entry state + pressure + objective -> decision -> action -> consequence -> exit state
```

Lock that transition before choosing composition, camera, color, light,
texture, edit, typography, or sound. Artistic direction may transform the
observation, never the event. Do not introduce an action, gesture, prop,
position, relationship, discovery, or consequence merely to realize a visual
metaphor.

Blocking sits at the boundary. First define the physically and psychologically
plausible positions, movements, contacts, sightlines, and prop handling. Then
let composition select creatively from those possibilities. Do not pose a
character somewhere they would not plausibly go.

## Build Story Reality

Record a compact reality lock:

- the premise and dramatic change;
- each recurring character's objective, current knowledge, and concealed
  information;
- story-critical props, locations, relationships, and world rules; and
- invariants that guided and unguided treatments must share.

For each story beat, record its entry state, participating characters,
objective, trigger, decision, observable action, consequence, exit state, and
causal predecessors. A discovery needs a search, disclosure, accident, or other
credible cause. A reversal needs new pressure or information. Redemption needs
a costly choice, not only an attractive final image.

## Lock Blocking

For each depicted beat, define:

- subjects and their plausible positions;
- sightlines, entrances, exits, and screen geography;
- physical contacts and prop ownership;
- required behavior and behavior the treatment must not invent; and
- the ending handoff to the next beat.

Small, playable behavior is preferable to symbolic posing. Preserve weight,
reaction time, personal distance, and what each subject can actually perceive.

## Direct the Observation

After reality and blocking pass, direct only the presentation:

- composition, depth, negative space, lens, camera, and focus;
- palette, contrast, motivated light, surface, and texture;
- edit, typography, sound perspective, music, and silence; and
- physically available reflections, shadows, occlusion, and atmosphere.

Mark a shot `subjective` or `graphic` when it is not a literal view of the
world. A nonliteral shot may express a feeling or idea but must not establish a
new plot fact, product fact, or character action.

## Preflight in Two Passes

1. **Reality pass.** Restate the film as neutral wide shots in ordinary light.
   Confirm that every decision has sufficient pressure, every action is
   possible from the entry state, every important prop has a history, and every
   consequence creates the next state.
2. **Treatment pass.** Confirm that the directed version preserves the same
   people, information, action, props, blocking logic, causal order, and
   consequence while making the observation more distinctive.

When comparing guided and unguided work, bind both to the same reality lock and
blocking. If either version changes behavior or causality, it is a different
story rather than a valid treatment comparison.

## Review the Artifact

Review semantic fidelity before artistic success:

- Can a no-brief viewer explain the setup, decision, action, and consequence?
- Does every subject behave from their objective and available knowledge?
- Are geography, sightlines, contacts, props, and handoffs plausible?
- Did the rendered treatment add or replace an event for visual effect?
- Would the behavior still make sense under plain coverage?

Reject a beautiful shot that changes the locked event. Repair the earliest
story or blocking cause before changing downstream composition.