Starter prompt — not tested yet. Written carefully for Runway, but NOT tested by us yet. Enhance or edit it for your needs — it is here to help you start. When we run it, this page gains a real run log and the Tested badge.
Gen-4's 10s mode. If the match flare is skipped, split the prompt: generate the standing shot, then use it as the first frame for the lighting beat.
Platform notes
Runway rewards density over length: one tight paragraph, present tense, every sentence carrying a visual fact. The flowery adverbs other platforms tolerate are just noise here.
The camera direction is its own short sentence ('Camera: slow dolly-in…'). Buried mid-paragraph, Gen-4 averages camera instructions into a generic drift.
Enhance: state positives, not negatives — the prompt says 'black-and-white' rather than 'no colour', because Runway's parser handles negations unreliably.
Original promptNot testedAI video
Runway Prompt — Film-Noir Detective Scene (Starter)
Banned list —Beat grid —Build method —Self-review —
A detective in a trench coat stands under a streetlamp in heavy rain, 1940s film noir. Venetian-blind shadows from an office window stripe the wall behind him. He lights a cigarette; the match flare briefly lights his face. Camera: slow dolly-in from wide shot to medium close-up. Black-and-white, high contrast, wet pavement reflections.
Use this prompt
Starter prompt for Runway Gen-4 — written in its concise, present-tense dialect. Not run by us yet; notes below.
Ran this prompt?Submit your result — if your run works, this entry can graduate to a fully tested prompt with a real run log, credited to you.