Good AI video prompts describe both what the viewer should see and what should move. Start with the subject, action, setting, and camera movement; add visual or audio direction only when it matters; then inspect the clip and revise the missing element. A prompt guides generation—it cannot guarantee an exact result.
What makes a video prompt useful?
A video prompt has to communicate a scene over time, not just name its contents. “A cyclist on a road” identifies a subject and setting, but leaves the action, framing, and movement open to interpretation. A more directed prompt might say:
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A cyclist in a yellow rain jacket pedals slowly along a wet city street at dawn. The camera tracks beside the cyclist at street level as reflections slide across the pavement; soft overcast light, subdued colors, steady pace.
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This is an illustrative prompt, not a tested recipe or a guarantee of a particular output. Its structure makes the intended subject, action, setting, camera behavior, and mood legible. Runway’s text-to-video guide identifies visual and motion descriptions as core prompt elements; its advice is specifically optimized for Gen-4.5, not every video model.
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Build the prompt around the shot’s essentials
Subject, action, and setting
Name the main subject, what it does, and where the action takes place. Use concrete verbs: “turns,” “stumbles,” “opens,” or “drifts” gives a model more direction than a broad label such as “movement.” If the action has an important sequence, state the order: “The dog pauses, looks toward the doorway, then trots inside.”
Motion in the scene
Describe motion that matters to the shot. That may be the subject’s movement, environmental movement such as wind stirring leaves, or both. Include direction or pace when it changes the intended effect: “walks slowly toward the camera” is more specific than “walks.” Avoid adding motion merely to make a prompt longer; every instruction competes for attention.
Camera and composition
When framing is important, specify it in ordinary visual terms: a close-up, a wide establishing shot, an overhead view, or a camera that tracks alongside the subject. Camera movement and subject movement are different instructions. “The camera stays fixed while the curtains billow” clearly separates them.
Lighting, style, and character details
Add details that define the desired image, such as time of day, lighting, palette, or a character’s appearance. Prioritize details that would make the shot wrong if omitted. A few useful constraints are often clearer than a dense inventory of adjectives.
Dialogue and sound
If the selected model supports audio generation, describe dialogue or sound when it matters: who speaks, what they say, or what can be heard in the environment. Google’s Veo prompt guidance discusses dialogue and sound; support and controls depend on the model and product, so do not assume the same prompt works identically everywhere.
Use natural language to show relationships
Keywords can work, but a sentence can explain how details relate: “A child watches the paper boat drift beneath the bridge” establishes an action and a relationship in a way that a list of nouns may not. Runway says both keywords and natural language can work, and that natural language often gives more control through context. Treat that as Runway-specific guidance, not a universal rule for every generator.
Keep the prompt focused. Leaving nonessential choices unspecified gives the model room to interpret; specifying every background object can distract from the action that defines the shot. The right amount of detail depends on what the model supports and what the scene needs.
Generate, inspect, and revise one meaningful detail at a time
- Write the essential shot. State the subject, action, setting, and any indispensable camera movement.
- Generate a clip and inspect it. Check whether the main action, framing, and movement match the intended shot.
- Identify the most important miss. If the camera angle is wrong, reinforce the angle. If the action is unclear, make that action more explicit.
- Revise and generate again. When diagnosing what changed, alter one meaningful direction at a time rather than rewriting everything at once.
That last step is a practical way to learn how a particular model responds; it is not a promise that changing one phrase will produce a predictable result. Runway describes iteration as a normal part of generative-media work. OpenAI’s archived Sora 2 guide likewise notes that successive generations can vary, even with identical prompts.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Keep prompt wording separate from model settings
Some choices belong in a product interface or API request rather than in the prompt text. OpenAI’s archived Sora 2 guide treats duration and output size as API parameters. Google’s Veo 3.1 developer documentation describes model-specific features and constraints. Before relying on a setting, check the current documentation for the exact model and interface you are using; a prose instruction should not be treated as proof that the tool supports that control.
- Prompt: the scene, action, camera direction, visual treatment, and supported sound or dialogue instructions.
- Tool or API settings: model selection and any supported output controls, such as duration, aspect ratio, or resolution.
These controls vary by product and version. For example, Google’s public prompting guide covers Veo 3, while its developer documentation covers Veo 3.1. Runway’s guide is optimized for Gen-4.5. Check the version named in the documentation rather than assuming that one model’s controls apply to another.
Which current guidance applies to which tool?
| Source or product | Version or status | How to use its guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Runway text-to-video guide | Optimized for Gen-4.5 | Use its advice on visual and motion descriptions and iteration as guidance for that model family, not as a universal specification. |
| Google prompt guide | Veo 3 | Consult it for prompt guidance, including audio and dialogue where supported by the product. |
| Google developer documentation | Veo 3.1 | Check it for documented model features and constraints. Google describes text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video modes for supported models, as well as audio and reference-image workflows. |
| OpenAI Sora 2 prompting guide | Dated March 12, 2026; marked archived and potentially outdated | Its general advice about iteration can still be informative, but treat API details as historical and version-specific. |
| OpenAI Sora product | Unavailable since April 26, 2026, according to OpenAI’s public page | Do not treat Sora as an available tool to try. |
Expect variation, not an exact contract
OpenAI’s archived guide describes a prompt as “a creative wish list, not a contract.” That is a useful expectation to carry into prompting: wording guides a generation but does not guarantee exact compliance, and the same prompt can produce different outputs. If an element is essential, state it clearly, inspect the result, and be prepared to iterate.
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There is no evidence here for a universal prompt formula or a measured success rate. The practical value is in making the intended shot easier to understand, then checking whether the chosen model interpreted it as intended.
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