@azerogluemin/ai-bootstrap 0.2.1

package/templates/skills/screenwriter/knowledge/categories/series/_category.md

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+# Series — Category
+
+> Television/streaming serial narrative. Multiple episodes. Ongoing characters and storylines.
+
+## What series is
+
+Long-form narrative across multiple episodes. Distinguished from film (self-contained) by:
+- Recurring characters
+- Ongoing storylines
+- Episode + season + series arcs
+- Cliffhangers possible
+- Audience time investment over weeks/years
+
+## Universal series principles
+
+### 1. Episode + Season + Series arcs
+Three levels of story:
+- **Episode**: Self-contained beginning/middle/end
+- **Season**: Multi-episode arc (usually 8-13 episodes)
+- **Series**: Multi-season grand narrative
+
+Each level needs satisfaction.
+
+### 2. Sustainable character dynamics
+Unlike film (character resolves in 2 hours), series characters maintain their core flaws across years. Slow evolution.
+
+### 3. Cliffhangers + Releases
+Series uses unanswered questions to drive engagement:
+- Episode end: small hook
+- Season end: major cliff
+- Series end: resolution
+
+### 4. Recurring vs new elements
+Each episode balances:
+- Familiar (recurring characters, settings, dynamics)
+- New (case-of-the-week, situation, guest)
+
+## Episode counts (modern)
+
+| Type | Count | Length |
+|------|-------|--------|
+| Limited series | 6-10 | 50-75 min |
+| Streaming drama | 8-13 | 50-75 min |
+| Streaming comedy | 8-13 | 25-40 min |
+| Network drama | 22 | 42 min |
+| Network sitcom | 22 | 22 min |
+| Premium cable drama | 8-13 | 50-60 min |
+| Anthology season | 8-10 | 50-60 min |
+
+## Series structure (Save the Cat for TV)
+
+### Pilot
+- Establish world + characters
+- Pilot specific structure (see pilot format)
+
+### Season pilot
+- Re-establish + advance
+- Set season's question
+- Hook for season
+
+### Mid-season
+- Standalone + season-arc balance
+- Subplots advance
+- Bottle episodes possible
+
+### Mid-season finale
+- Major cliffhanger
+- Season's first half resolved partially
+- Hook for second half
+
+### Season finale
+- Major arc resolution
+- New question for next season
+- Cliffhanger possible
+
+### Series finale
+- Full series resolution
+- Major character arcs concluded
+- Audience contract honored
+
+## Sub-formats (within series)
+
+- Pilot
+- Mid-season episode
+- Mid-season finale
+- Season finale
+- Series finale
+- Cold open
+- Bottle episode
+- Flashback episode
+- Limited series episode
+
+## Sub-types
+
+- Prestige drama
+- Procedural
+- Sitcom (multi-cam vs single-cam)
+- Anthology
+- Soap
+- Kids animated
+- Documentary series
+
+## Voice in series
+
+- Showrunner voice often dominates
+- Multiple writers but unified vision
+- Specific tone per series
+- Consistency essential
+
+## Pilot's job
+
+The most important episode:
+- Establish world
+- Introduce characters
+- Set tone
+- Promise of premise
+- Hook for episodes 2+
+
+Pilot is sales pitch + first episode simultaneously.
+
+## Audience contract
+
+Series promises:
+- Recurring characters audience invests in
+- Style/tone consistency
+- Question-and-answer cycles
+- Resolution eventually (or not, if cancelled)
+
+Breaking contract = audience leaves.
+
+## Common series pitfalls
+
+- Inconsistent tone
+- Saggy mid-seasons
+- Too many subplots
+- Character regression (un-development)
+- Failed cliffhangers (didn't pay off)
+- Series ending unsatisfying
+- Pilot doesn't promise the actual show
+
+## When to write series
+
+- Large story needing time
+- Character ensemble
+- Streaming hit potential
+- Long-form ambition
+- Multiple seasons planned
+- Modern audience attention preferred
+
+## Compose with
+
+- Sub-format (pilot, mid-season, etc.)
+- Sub-type (prestige drama, sitcom, etc.)
+- Genre (within series — drama, comedy, etc.)
+- Persona (showrunner style)
+- Platform (HBO, Netflix, broadcast)

package/templates/skills/screenwriter/knowledge/categories/series/formats/bottle-episode.md

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+# Bottle Episode — Series Format
+
+> Episode set in single location with reduced cast. Originally for budget reasons; now creative choice.
+
+## Format basics
+
+- Length: matches series
+- Single location (often)
+- Reduced cast (regular characters only)
+- Dialogue-heavy
+- Production: cheap, fast
+
+## Why bottle episodes exist
+
+### Budget
+- Money for expensive episodes elsewhere
+- Single set already built
+- No location costs
+- Minimal extras
+
+### Creative
+- Forces character focus
+- Tests writer skill
+- Often most memorable episodes
+
+## Structure
+
+Standard episode structure but constrained by location:
+
+```
+COLD OPEN
+- Establish situation in location
+- Why are they there?
+- Tension
+
+ACT 1
+- Conflict develops in location
+- Characters can't leave (literally or figuratively)
+
+ACT 2
+- Pressure cooker
+- Tensions explode
+- Revelations
+
+ACT 3
+- Resolution within location
+- Or escape becomes possible
+- Character status changed
+```
+
+## Famous bottle episodes
+
+### Breaking Bad — "Fly"
+- Walt and Jesse alone in lab
+- Trying to catch a fly
+- Real conversation about life
+- Production cheap, emotionally massive
+
+### Mad Men — "The Suitcase"
+- Don and Peggy in office overnight
+- Working on Samsonite ad
+- Their relationship explored
+- Single location
+
+### Community — "Cooperative Calligraphy"
+- Study group locked in study room
+- Looking for a missing pen
+- Self-aware bottle episode
+- Comedy on the form
+
+### The X-Files — "Ice"
+- Mulder, Scully + small team in arctic station
+- Single location thriller
+- Like John Carpenter's "The Thing"
+
+### Better Call Saul — "Plan and Execution"
+- Several scenes in single locations
+- Character pressure cooker
+
+## Sample bottle episode
+
+```
+TITLE: "Karavan" Episode 8 — "The Storage Room"
+(Bottle episode — single location)
+
+LOGLINE: When a winter storm cuts power to the warehouse, three
+siblings are trapped in the storage room overnight with nothing to
+do but talk — and they finally do.
+
+LOCATION: The storage room of the warehouse — single location, all
+60 minutes
+
+COLD OPEN (0-5 min):
+- Storm warning on radio
+- Eldar, Nigar, Ramin at warehouse for inventory
+- Power flickers
+- They go to the basement storage room to check the backup generator
+- The door slams shut behind them
+- Generator is broken
+- Their phones — no signal in basement
+- They are stuck
+
+ACT 1 (5-15 min):
+- They try to break out — door is metal, won't budge
+- They try to call for help — no signal
+- They have a small lamp, a thermos of tea, and each other
+- They settle in for what could be hours
+- Tension immediate
+
+ACT 2 (15-40 min):
+- The conversation begins reluctantly
+- Light tasks: organize coffee bags, sweep floor
+- Then deeper:
+  - Why Eldar left for London
+  - Why Ramin chose academia over the family business
+  - Why Nigar built her own restaurant rather than join
+- Old wounds surface
+- Father's death and what it meant to each of them
+- Unspoken resentments
+- The fight about who was the favorite (turns out, it was Nigar)
+- The fight about who left first (turns out, all three did, in different ways)
+- Tears
+- Long silence
+- Then quiet honesty
+- Each shares one thing they have never told anyone
+
+ACT 3 (40-55 min):
+- The lamp dies
+- They sit in darkness
+- The vulnerability easier without seeing
+- More truth
+- They realize: they have been a family this whole time. Their
+father knew that even when they didn't
+- The storm passes
+- Help arrives
+- They emerge from the basement at dawn
+
+TAG (55-60 min):
+- They walk out of the warehouse together
+- Sun rising over the Caspian
+- They don't speak. They don't need to.
+- ELDAR puts his hand on RAMIN's shoulder. Nigar walks between them.
+- Final image: three siblings walking together into the morning,
+backs to camera.
+
+(Quiet score. No sound except their footsteps.)
+```
+
+## Key principles
+
+### Forced proximity
+Characters can't leave. Must engage.
+
+### Time pressure (often)
+Limited time amplifies tension.
+
+### Dialogue carries
+This is character work, not action.
+
+### One conflict can sustain hour
+With right characters, single conflict + single location = full episode.
+
+### Production discipline
+Single location = no overshooting. Tight schedule.
+
+## Bottle vs single location
+
+Some episodes have single location but aren't true "bottle":
+- Many guest characters
+- Big production despite location
+- Action-heavy
+
+True bottle = constraint creative as well as budget.
+
+## When to write bottle
+
+- Budget pressure
+- Character work needed
+- Pressure-cooker tension
+- Writer wants test
+- Memorable episode opportunity
+
+## Common bottle mistakes
+
+- Boring without action (need character)
+- Forced excuse for being stuck
+- Out-of-character reveals (just for episode)
+- Resolution magical (door opens, why?)
+- Too dialogue-heavy (no visual)
+
+## Production benefits
+
+- Cheap to shoot
+- Fast schedule
+- Often during break in main production
+- Saves budget for big episodes
+- Showcases acting
+- Win for writers' rooms

package/templates/skills/screenwriter/knowledge/categories/series/formats/cold-open.md

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+# Cold Open — Series Format
+
+> The opening sequence before the title card / theme song. 1-7 minutes. Hook the audience.
+
+## Format basics
+
+- Length: 30 seconds - 7 minutes (typical 2-5 min)
+- Before main titles/theme
+- Often standalone
+- Hooks the episode
+- Sometimes unrelated to main story
+
+## Cold open types
+
+### The hook
+- Shocking event opens
+- Question planted
+- Audience hooked into episode
+
+### The mystery
+- Setup for episode's case
+- Often crime / procedural
+- Question for protagonist to answer
+
+### Character moment
+- Quiet beat establishing tone
+- Sets emotional state
+- Less plot-driven
+
+### The B-story setup
+- Subplot character moment
+- Episode A-story comes after titles
+
+### The framing device
+- Past / future glimpse
+- Will recontextualize later
+- Recurs through episode
+
+### The standalone vignette
+- Self-contained mini-story
+- Connects thematically
+- Not directly to main plot
+
+## Famous cold opens
+
+### Breaking Bad
+- Often atmospheric, mysterious
+- Sometimes flash-forward
+- Pulls into episode emotionally
+
+### Lost
+- Character flashback
+- Or mystery hook
+- 5-7 minutes typically
+
+### The Office (US)
+- Comedy beat / cold open joke
+- Sets tone for episode
+- Often standalone
+
+### True Detective
+- Atmospheric procedural
+- Sometimes the killer's POV
+- Mood-setting
+
+## Structure (typical 5-min cold open)
+
+```
+0-30s    HOOK
+         Visual / verbal grab
+         Question / mystery established
+
+30s-3min DEVELOPMENT
+         Brief story beat
+         Character revealed
+         Tension built
+
+3-4min   TURN
+         Reveal / twist
+         Information shifts
+
+4-5min   BUTTON
+         Cliffhanger or punchline
+         Cut to titles
+```
+
+## Sample cold open
+
+```
+TITLE: "Karavan" Episode 6 — Cold Open
+
+[60 seconds of pre-title content]
+
+EXT. ROOFTOP - BAKU - DAY
+
+NIGAR (37), our protagonist, stands at the edge of a tall building.
+She looks down. The street is impossibly far below.
+
+Her phone rings. She answers without looking away from the drop.
+
+NIGAR
+Eldar.
+
+ELDAR (V.O.)
+Where are you?
+
+NIGAR
+On the roof of the Old Hotel.
+
+ELDAR (V.O.)
+Is this a joke?
+
+NIGAR
+He sent me a message. Said to come here at 3 PM. Said come alone.
+
+ELDAR (V.O.)
+Don't —
+
+She looks at her watch. 2:59 PM.
+
+NIGAR
+He's late.
+
+She turns. Behind her, on the rooftop, a FIGURE waits.
+
+She didn't know he was there.
+
+He has been watching her for ten minutes.
+
+She drops the phone. It clatters on the roof.
+
+(Cut to title card — Karavan logo, dramatic music sting.)
+
+[End of 1-minute cold open]
+```
+
+## Key principles
+
+### Hook fast
+First 30 seconds — audience must want more.
+
+### Standalone-feel
+Cold opens often work without context.
+
+### Tone-setter
+Establishes episode's tone immediately.
+
+### Don't waste it
+This is your hook. Make it count.
+
+### Doesn't have to connect to main plot
+Some cold opens are atmospheric / character / B-story only.
+
+## Cold open vs teaser
+
+Cold open = pre-title scene
+Teaser = same thing, different name (interchangeable)
+
+## Episode structure with cold open
+
+```
+Cold open (5 min)
+Title sequence (1 min)
+Act 1 (after titles)
+Act 2 (after first ad break — broadcast)
+Act 3
+Act 4 (broadcast hour drama)
+Act 5 (sometimes)
+Tag (final scene)
+```
+
+## When to write cold open
+
+- Every episode of most series
+- Need strong audience hook
+- Setting tone/mood
+- Standalone moment to use
+
+## Common cold open mistakes
+
+- Too long (overstaying welcome)
+- Disconnected from episode (audience confused)
+- No hook (boring)
+- Recap-feeling (boring)
+- Misleading tone (wrong promise)
+
+## Cold open vs no cold open
+
+Some series skip cold opens:
+- Modern HBO drama (often)
+- Anthology series episodes (start fresh)
+- Limited series
+- When titles ARE the cold open (Better Call Saul-style)
+
+Choose based on series convention.