AI Video Prompts: The Founder’s Shot List
I used to keep a note on my phone full of video ideas that never got made. Every one of them needed a camera, a location, and someone who knew how to light a scene. So they just sat there. That’s why this post stopped me mid-scroll.
A founder on LinkedIn shared a breakdown of how they turned AI video generation into a real production tool. After selling their last company, the author started building something new with no production budget and no crew. Their ideas piled up because filming them felt impossible. Then they changed how they thought about AI video, and everything sped up.
🎬 The problem most founders don’t talk about
The original poster puts it bluntly: most founders are still paying for video shoots. A camera crew costs thousands. A single ad concept can take weeks to shoot. Because of that, a lot of teams drop video entirely, and then they wonder why their content underperforms.
I’ve watched this happen to plenty of small teams. Video is the format that gets the most attention, and it’s also the one most people skip because it feels expensive and slow. The author’s fix isn’t a new app. It’s a mindset shift.
🧠 The insight: a prompt is a shot list
This is the part I keep coming back to. The expert stopped treating AI video like a toy and started treating it like a tool with its own craft.
A good AI video prompt isn’t a sentence. It’s a shot list, a mood, and a camera move, all in one line.
Once you structure prompts that way, the creator says, quality jumps right away. They’ve used this approach to mock up product ads in a single afternoon. That’s work that used to take a freelancer a week.
So what does that look like in practice? A weak prompt says “a woman drinking coffee.” A structured prompt adds the three pieces the author describes:
- The shot: what’s in frame and how close you are, like a close-up of hands wrapped around a ceramic mug
- The mood: lighting, color, and feeling, like warm morning light and a quiet, cozy vibe
- The camera move: how the camera behaves, like a slow push-in or a gentle handheld drift
Put together, you get something like “Close-up of hands wrapped around a ceramic coffee mug, warm golden morning light, soft steam rising, cozy and calm mood, slow push-in camera.” That’s one line, but it gives the model a real direction instead of a guess.
📋 The prompt structures worth saving
With that framework in place, the post’s author put together a list of 20 prompt structures that hold up, grouped into 14 styles. Here’s each one with a quick note on when you’d reach for it.
- Cinematic movie scene: pure story and mood. Use it when you want a clip to feel like a frame pulled from a film, with dramatic lighting and deliberate pacing.
- Image to video animation: brings a still photo to life. Great for turning existing product shots, headshots, or brand images into motion without starting from zero.
- Viral social reel: built for the scroll and the hook. The first second matters most here, so the prompt should front-load movement or surprise.
- Cinematic product ad: when you need it to look premium. Think slow rotations, clean backgrounds, and glossy lighting that makes a product feel expensive.
- UGC style ad: a raw, trust-building feel. User-generated content looks like a real customer filmed it on their phone, which often beats polished ads for credibility.
- Talking to camera: founder-led content that converts. Useful when you want a direct, personal message without setting up a tripod every week.
- Cinematic vlog: handheld and human. It keeps the authenticity of a vlog but adds a cinematic layer of color and framing.
- Drone establishing shot: instant scale and production value. One sweeping aerial shot can make a whole video feel bigger.
- Historical or fantasy scene: for when the idea needs a world. Perfect for storytelling brands or concepts that can’t be filmed in real life.
- Sci-fi and transformation prompts: bold before-and-after content. Transformations are naturally gripping because people want to see how it ends.
- Macro and surreal prompts: scroll-stopping visual texture. Extreme close-ups and dreamlike visuals make people pause because they look unfamiliar.
- Documentary and car commercial styles: authority and polish. Documentary framing builds trust, while car-commercial energy adds sleek, high-end motion.
- Seamless loop and one-take sequence: for platforms that reward rewatches. A clean loop keeps viewers watching again without noticing where it restarts.
- The master template: one structure that adapts to almost anything. This is the shot-mood-camera framework in its most flexible form, and it’s the one I’d start with.
🛠️ How to put this list to work
I think the real value here is how quickly you can test ideas. Here’s how I’d use the author’s approach this week:
- Pick one idea from your notes app: that video you’ve been putting off is the perfect test case.
- Match it to a style: a new product launch fits the cinematic product ad, while a customer story fits UGC.
- Write the prompt as a shot list: shot, mood, and camera move, in one line.
- Generate a few variations: change one element at a time, like swapping a push-in for an orbit, so you learn what actually moves the needle.
- Test before you spend: run the AI version as a mock-up. If it performs, you’ll know which concepts deserve a bigger budget later.
⚖️ A fair reality check
I appreciate that the creator doesn’t oversell this. They’re clear that none of it replaces a real production budget when you have one. But most founders don’t have one in the early days.
This gets you 80 percent of the polish for none of the cost.
That trade-off is what makes this so useful. Early on, speed and volume of testing matter more than perfection. Being able to go from idea to watchable ad in an afternoon changes which ideas you’re willing to try at all.
The post’s author ends by asking which of these 20 structures people will try first. My pick is the master template, since it teaches the skill behind all the others. Check out the full LinkedIn post to see the complete list and join the conversation, and if this saves you a production budget, pass it along to a founder who needs it.