Glossary

Definitions of PRISM-specific, Hollywood production, and technical terms used throughout the codebase and documentation.

A

ACT A structural division of a screenplay (Act 1, Act 2, Act 3). In Fountain format, marked with # ACT headings. Acts are structural only and do not receive scene numbers.

Action Descriptive text in a screenplay that is not dialogue. Describes what the audience sees and hears -- character movements, setting details, events. In Fountain, any paragraph that is not a scene heading, character name, dialogue, or parenthetical is action.

Annotation A note, question, or markup attached to a specific location in a screenplay. PRISM implements annotations as transparent overlay layers (the "acetate sheet" metaphor) with visibility levels: personal, department, production, and global. Types include note, question, action_item, source, timing, data, and media.

Annotation Layer A named group of annotations with a shared visibility level. Layers can be toggled on and off independently, like stacking transparent sheets on a screenplay.

AI Routing Profile A tiered configuration that maps AI task slots (text, reasoning, image) to specific provider models with primary and fallback assignments. Profiles use a compact per-tier structure (e.g., best quality, balanced, economy) so each subscription tier gets appropriate model assignments.

B

Beat A small unit of action or dialogue within a scene. A moment of change in a character's behavior or the story's direction.

Breakdown The process of analyzing a screenplay scene-by-scene to identify all production requirements: cast, props, wardrobe, vehicles, special effects, locations, and extras. PRISM automates initial breakdown through the Inspector's Scene tab.

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) A system allowing users to provide their own API keys for AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) rather than using shared system keys. Keys are stored encrypted per-user with organization-level inheritance.

C

Call Sheet A daily production document listing the schedule, cast call times, locations, crew assignments, and other logistics for a shooting day.

Character Conversation A persistent AI chat session with a character, conducted in the character's voice and personality. Users can create multiple conversations per character, with message history stored in the character_conversations table. The AI stays in character using system prompts derived from the character's profile, backstory, and personality traits.

Content Blob A content-addressable storage unit in PRISM's version control system. Script content is hashed with SHA-256 and stored once, with reference counting for deduplication. Multiple versions pointing to identical content share the same blob.

Coverage (1) In filmmaking: the variety of camera angles and shot sizes captured for a scene to give the editor choices. (2) In testing: the percentage of code exercised by the test suite.

CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Type) A data structure that can be replicated across multiple computers and updated independently without coordination, with conflicts resolved automatically. Used in Yjs for collaborative editing.

D

Dailies The raw footage shot during a single day of production, typically reviewed the next morning by the director, editor, and key crew.

Department A production team unit (Camera, Art, Sound, Wardrobe, etc.). In PRISM, departments control annotation visibility at the department level and can be assigned templates.

Dialogue-Aware Framing A storyboard generation technique that detects dialogue scenes and assigns character screen positions (left, right, center) based on speaker role hierarchy. The prompt pipeline uses _parse_dialogue_exchange() to identify speakers and _assign_screen_direction() to compose character positioning into the image prompt.

Draft A complete version of the screenplay. Drafts progress through development substages: concept, treatment, outline, draft, polish, greenlight.

E

EDL (Edit Decision List) A text file format listing the timecode-based edit points of a video sequence. Used to transfer editing decisions between systems.

EXT. (Exterior) A scene heading prefix indicating the scene takes place outdoors. See also INT.

F

Filmstrip Viewer The horizontal strip of shot media thumbnails displayed on the shot list page. Shows storyboard frames, video thumbnails, and other media for each shot, with click-to-preview behavior and multi-type sorting by rating, recency, and media type hierarchy.

FDX (Final Draft XML) The proprietary file format used by Final Draft screenwriting software. An XML-based format that PRISM can import.

Fine Cut A near-final edit of a film where timing, pacing, and structure are locked but minor adjustments may still occur. Follows the rough cut.

Fountain An open-source plain-text markup language for screenwriting. PRISM uses Fountain as its native script format with extensions for title cards and act structure.

G

Gang (Playhead Gang) PRISM's three-way synchronization system that links the screenplay cursor, timeline playhead, and storyboard frame highlight. When you hover over a screenplay line, the timeline and storyboard follow. Can be "un-ganged" via the chain-link toggle.

Grok xAI's large language model, integrated into PRISM as an OpenAI-compatible provider. Available as a text generation option alongside other providers.

Greenlight The decision to approve a project for production, committing budget and resources. In PRISM's workflow, the final substage of the Development stage.

H

Hollywood Revision Colors The standardized color sequence used for script revisions after a script is locked: White, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Goldenrod, Buff, Salmon, Cherry, Tan. Each revision is printed on the corresponding colored paper so crew can identify which pages have changed.

I

Identity PRISM's user entity. Distinct from a login account -- an identity represents a person within the system and carries permissions, AI settings, beta flags, and role associations across organizations and productions.

Imagen 4 Google's image generation model available through the Vertex AI / Gemini API. Offered in Fast, Standard, and Ultra variants with increasing quality and generation time. Used by PRISM's storyboard and poster generation pipelines when Google is configured as the image provider.

Inspector PRISM's context-sensitive sidebar (toggled with the I key) that shows relevant information based on the cursor position in the screenplay. Four tabs: Scene (breakdown, storyboard, shots), Character (profile, stats), Story (pipeline, analysis), and AI (actions, enhancement).

INT. (Interior) A scene heading prefix indicating the scene takes place indoors.

L

Locked Script A screenplay that has been officially finalized for production (at the prep:lock workflow stage). After lock, all changes become formal revisions tracked with Hollywood revision colors.

M

Media Type Hierarchy The sort ordering used on the shot list page that prioritizes media by production value: principal photography > pre-visualization video > storyboard frame > text-only. Within each type, items are further sorted by star rating and recency.

Migration A numbered SQL file (migrations/NNN_description.sql) that modifies the database schema. Migrations are tracked in the schema_migrations table and applied automatically during deployment. Each migration has a corresponding rollback file.

N

Named Inbox A custom email address at @prism.tal.one or @tal.one for receiving email into PRISM. Users can create named inboxes (e.g., [email protected]) that route incoming mail to their PRISM inbox. Each user also gets an auto-seeded catch-all inbox. Managed via the /me/named-inboxes API.

Nexus PRISM's on-set operator console. A Tauri/Rust desktop application running on an ODROID N2+ that handles camera capture (V4L2), live streaming (WHIP/RTMPS), and production session management. Lives in a separate repository (talmagew/prism-nexus).

O

Organization A company or production entity in PRISM's hierarchy. Organizations belong to a Tenant, contain Productions, and can share AI keys across members. Permissions cascade down from Organization to Production to Script.

P

Parenthetical A brief direction within dialogue, enclosed in parentheses, that describes how a line should be delivered. Example: (whispering).

Permission Cascade PRISM's hierarchical access control system. Roles assigned at a higher level (Organization) automatically grant access at lower levels (Production, Script). Role levels: Owner (4), Admin (3), Editor (2), Viewer (1), None (0).

Picture Lock The stage in post-production where the edit is finalized and no further changes to timing or structure will be made. Sound design, color grading, and visual effects work proceed from this point.

Production A film, series, or media project within an Organization. Productions contain Scripts and are the primary unit of work in PRISM. Each production follows the 5-stage workflow pipeline.

R

Revision Color See Hollywood Revision Colors.

Rough Cut The first complete assembly of a film, with all scenes in order but timing and pacing still being refined.

RTMPS (Real-Time Messaging Protocol Secure) A TLS-encrypted streaming protocol used for live video transmission. Used by Nexus for streaming to platforms like YouTube Live.

S

SBFM (Super Bot Fight Mode) A Cloudflare security feature that challenges non-browser HTTP clients with JavaScript. PRISM configures server-side rules to allow Nexus device connections that don't use a standard web browser.

Scene Heading (Slug Line) The line in a screenplay that introduces a new scene, typically formatted as INT./EXT. LOCATION - TIME OF DAY. In Fountain, any line starting with INT, EXT, I/E, or a forced period (.) is a scene heading.

Scene Number A unique identifier assigned to each scene for production tracking. In PRISM, scene numbers are auto-generated during parsing. Structural elements like ACT headings do not receive scene numbers; forced headings (.TITLE CARD:) do.

Script A screenplay document within a Production. The lowest level of PRISM's permission hierarchy. Scripts have versions, scenes, annotations, and storyboard frames.

Shot A single continuous recording from one camera position. Multiple shots combine to provide coverage of a scene.

Storyboard Frame An AI-generated image representing a specific shot or moment in a scene. Generated from scene content via prompt engineering and displayed in the Inspector Scene tab and the Storyboard Split Pane.

T

Take A single recorded performance of a shot. Multiple takes of the same shot are recorded until the director is satisfied.

Tenant The top-level billing entity in PRISM's hierarchy. A tenant maps to a subscription account and owns one or more Organizations. Tenants are tied to Stripe subscriptions.

Timeline PRISM's NLE-style horizontal panel showing scene blocks and frame clips synchronized with the screenplay. Supports JKL transport controls with a speed ladder (1x to 8x).

Title Card On-screen text displayed during a film (e.g., "THREE YEARS LATER"). In PRISM's Fountain extensions, forced with .TITLE CARD: syntax and assigned scene numbers.

Transition A screenplay element indicating how one scene shifts to the next (CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, FADE OUT., etc.). In Fountain, lines ending with TO: or prefixed with > are transitions.

Treatment A prose narrative summary of a screenplay's story, typically 5-30 pages. An intermediate document between the concept/logline and a full screenplay draft.

V

V4L2 (Video4Linux2) The Linux kernel API for video capture devices. Used by Nexus to capture frames from the AJA U-TAP HDMI capture card on the ODROID N2+.

W

WHIP (WebRTC HTTP Ingest Protocol) A protocol for ingesting live video streams using WebRTC. Used by Nexus for low-latency streaming to Cloudflare Stream.

Workflow Pipeline PRISM's 5-stage production pipeline with 20 substages:

Stage Substages
Development concept, treatment, outline, draft, polish, greenlight
Prep lock, budget, cast, schedule
Production shoot, dailies, wrap
Post rough_cut, fine_cut, picture_lock, sound, color
Complete delivery, archive

Y

Yjs A CRDT library for building collaborative applications. PRISM uses Yjs (via a Y-WebSocket server) for real-time collaborative screenplay editing when PRISM_COLLAB_ENABLED is set.

See Also