> /lab/video-direction

Every AI video looks the same.

video-direction is a free Claude Code plugin that acts as the director for your brand videos. Run a 15-minute brand interview once, then every video you make ships in your look instead of the model's statistical average.

two commands, inside Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add derrtaderr/video-direction-plugin
/plugin install video-direction@video-direction
the problem

You can prompt a brand video in a minute. So can everyone else, and the results rhyme. When the only instruction is “make me a launch video,” the model reaches for the middle of everything it has ever seen, and the middle looks the same every time.

One-shot prompting never asks what your brand should look like, so nothing forces a look decision and the average is what ships. The video comes out competent and completely anonymous.

how it works

video-direction adds the three moves a real studio makes before anyone renders anything.

It starts with a brand interview

Run /brand-init once. Most of it is A/B picks across world, type, accent, sound, and delivery, chosen by taste rather than by design vocabulary. Your answers write motion-brand.md, the single source of truth for how your videos look and sound, and it renders one styleframe in your new brand so you see it before you commit to a single video.

Then it directs, in six stages

Ask for a video in plain language and the direction process runs the same six stages a studio would, with a gate you approve at each one.

  1. 01treatment

    What the piece says and how it should feel, written down before a single frame gets designed.

  2. 02style

    The look locked to your brand file, so the render can only land inside your world.

  3. 03boards

    The shot-by-shot plan, timed, so the motion is a decision instead of a happy accident.

  4. 04styleframes

    Two finished frames, A and B. You pick the one that is right and the build follows it.

  5. 05build

    The composition assembled and rendered on your machine, scored to your audio default.

  6. 06QC

    Critics check the frames and the finished render against a canon reference deck before it ever reaches you.

And it keeps a ledger, so nothing repeats

Every finished video writes a row to a style ledger that sits beside your brand file. The next video reads it and varies on purpose, so video two carries the same brand as video one without repeating its look. The more you make, the more consistent and the less repetitive your brand becomes.

the proof

The film at the top is three real brands run through the same process. None of them has a designer. Each one was directed by the plugin through a persona handed the brand in plain words, with zero design vocabulary.

Ledgerline
a bookkeeping app that asked to feel clean and not techy.
Steepwell
a tea company that wanted to feel like a well-worn recipe book.
Fern & Field
a garden-supply shop that should sound like a good garden-center employee.

Same system, three looks that could not be swapped. See what other people make with it in the showcase discussion.

what you get
  • The video-direction skill, the studio process that runs the six stages and the critics.
  • The /brand-init command, a 15-minute taste-by-comparison interview that writes your brand file.
  • A canon reference deck that the critics judge every frame against.
  • Templates for the brand file, the style ledger, and each production document.
  • A complete worked example, the Fern & Field brand and one finished video, so you can read a real one end to end.
honest requirements

It runs on your machine, on your Claude subscription and your own keys. Nothing is hosted and nothing renders in the cloud.

  • Claude Code, since this is a Claude Code plugin.
  • Node 22 or newer.
  • ffmpeg, which composites the audio and the video.
  • HyperFrames does the rendering and is fetched on demand, so there is nothing to install ahead of time.

The only thing that ever leaves your machine is an anonymous install and render count, and only if you opt in. No brand files, no video, no account.

get started

Two commands inside Claude Code, then run /brand-init and answer the interview.

two commands, inside Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add derrtaderr/video-direction-plugin
/plugin install video-direction@video-direction