@mytechtoday/augment-extensions 0.4.0 → 0.5.0

package/augment-extensions/writing-standards/screenplay/genres/rules/fantasy.md

@@ -0,0 +1,293 @@
+# Fantasy Genre
+
+**Category**: Screenplay Genre  
+**Type**: Primary  
+**Complexity**: High
+
+## Overview
+
+Fantasy films transport audiences to imaginary worlds with magic, mythical creatures, and supernatural elements. The genre emphasizes world-building, wonder, and the battle between good and evil through fantastical storytelling.
+
+## Core Concept
+
+Fantasy screenplays create internally consistent worlds where the impossible becomes possible through magic, mythology, or supernatural forces. Success depends on establishing clear rules for the fantastical elements, creating immersive worlds, and grounding magical concepts in relatable human emotions and conflicts. Great fantasy uses the impossible to explore universal truths.
+
+## Core Rules
+
+### Rule 1: Establish Clear Magic Rules
+
+**Description**: Define how magic works, its limitations, costs, and who can use it. Maintain consistency throughout.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Magic without rules becomes a plot convenience that solves any problem. Limitations create tension and stakes.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Magic requires sacrifice, has specific limitations, can't solve everything
+- ❌ **Bad**: Magic does whatever the plot needs with no established rules or costs
+
+**Film Reference**: Harry Potter series - Wand magic has clear rules, limitations, and consequences.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 2: Make the World Feel Lived-In
+
+**Description**: Create a world with history, culture, geography, and internal logic that exists beyond the immediate story.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Believable fantasy worlds feel real and immersive. Shallow worldbuilding breaks the spell.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Detailed cultures, languages, histories, and geographies that inform the story
+- ❌ **Bad**: Generic medieval setting with no unique characteristics or depth
+
+**Film Reference**: The Lord of the Rings - Middle-earth has thousands of years of history, multiple languages, and detailed cultures.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 3: Ground Fantasy in Human Emotion
+
+**Description**: No matter how fantastical the setting, the story must center on relatable human desires, fears, and relationships.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Audiences connect with characters, not magic systems. Emotional truth makes fantasy resonate.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Quest for magical artifact driven by love, loss, or redemption
+- ❌ **Bad**: Cool magic and creatures with no emotional core
+
+**Film Reference**: Pan's Labyrinth - Fantasy elements reflect protagonist's trauma and desire to escape harsh reality.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 4: Earn the Wonder
+
+**Description**: Introduce fantastical elements gradually, allowing audiences to adjust and marvel at each new revelation.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Too much too fast creates confusion and desensitization. Wonder requires pacing and contrast.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Start in ordinary world, gradually reveal magical elements with increasing scope
+- ❌ **Bad**: Overwhelming barrage of fantasy elements with no time to absorb
+
+**Film Reference**: The Wizard of Oz - Transition from Kansas to Oz, gradual revelation of magical world.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 5: High Stakes Through Sacrifice
+
+**Description**: Victory should require genuine sacrifice - loss, transformation, or difficult choices, not easy solutions.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Stakes feel real when characters must give something up. Easy victories cheapen the journey.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Hero must sacrifice something precious to achieve victory
+- ❌ **Bad**: Hero wins through luck or convenient magic with no cost
+
+**Film Reference**: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - Frodo loses his innocence and can never truly return home.
+
+---
+
+## Guidelines
+
+### Structure
+
+- **Act I**: Establish ordinary world (or introduce fantasy world), call to adventure, crossing threshold into magical realm
+- **Act II**: Tests and trials in fantasy world, allies and enemies, deeper understanding of magic/world, approach to ultimate challenge
+- **Act III**: Final battle or quest completion, transformation, return (changed) or new equilibrium
+
+### Pacing
+
+- Balance world-building with plot momentum
+- Use visual storytelling to convey world details
+- Introduce magical elements gradually
+- Build to spectacular climax showcasing fantasy elements
+- Allow moments of wonder and discovery
+
+### Character Archetypes
+
+- **Protagonist**: Often ordinary person discovering extraordinary world, or chosen one with special destiny
+- **Antagonist**: Dark lord, evil sorcerer, or corrupted force threatening the world
+- **Supporting**: Wise mentor, loyal companions, magical creatures, reluctant ally, comic relief
+
+### Tone and Atmosphere
+
+- Sense of wonder and possibility
+- Epic scope and grandeur
+- Can range from dark (Game of Thrones) to whimsical (Stardust)
+- Mythic and archetypal
+- Good vs. evil (often with nuance)
+
+### Visual Style
+
+- Rich, detailed production design
+- Distinctive color palettes for different realms
+- Practical effects combined with CGI for believability
+- Epic landscapes and grand vistas
+- Costume and creature design that reflects world logic
+
+### Dialogue
+
+- Avoid overly archaic language unless purposeful
+- Balance exposition with natural conversation
+- Characters should understand their world - no explaining for audience
+- Mythic/poetic language for prophecies or ancient lore
+- Distinct speech patterns for different cultures/races
+
+## Common Pitfalls
+
+### Pitfall 1: Info-Dumping World-Building
+
+**Problem**: Stopping the story to explain the world's history, magic system, or politics in lengthy exposition.
+
+**Solution**: Reveal world details through action, conflict, and character experience. Trust visual storytelling.
+
+**Example**: The Lord of the Rings reveals Middle-earth's history through the journey, not lectures.
+
+---
+
+### Pitfall 2: Inconsistent Magic Rules
+
+**Problem**: Magic works differently whenever convenient for the plot, breaking established limitations.
+
+**Solution**: Establish clear rules and limitations early, then stick to them. Work within constraints.
+
+**Example**: Avatar: The Last Airbender - Bending has clear rules, limitations, and costs that remain consistent.
+
+---
+
+### Pitfall 3: Chosen One Clichés
+
+**Problem**: Relying on prophecy and destiny without character agency or earned victories.
+
+**Solution**: Even if there's a prophecy, protagonist should succeed through choice, growth, and sacrifice, not just fate.
+
+**Example**: The Matrix - Neo is "The One" but must choose to believe it and sacrifice for others.
+
+---
+
+## Film Examples
+
+### Example 1: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
+
+**Director**: Peter Jackson
+
+**Why It Works**: Masterful world-building with emotional depth, clear magic rules, and epic scope grounded in friendship and sacrifice.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Shire Introduction**: Establishes ordinary world before adventure
+- **Council of Elrond**: World-building through character conflict and history
+- **Mines of Moria**: Spectacle with emotional stakes (Gandalf's sacrifice)
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Gradual revelation of world scope
+- Practical effects and real locations for believability
+- Emotional relationships anchor fantastical elements
+- Clear rules for the Ring's power and corruption
+
+---
+
+### Example 2: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
+
+**Director**: Guillermo del Toro
+
+**Why It Works**: Fantasy as metaphor for real-world trauma, blending dark fairy tale with historical drama.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Faun's Introduction**: Mysterious, ambiguous magical guide
+- **Pale Man Sequence**: Horrific fairy tale imagery
+- **Final Choice**: Fantasy and reality converge in tragic sacrifice
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Fantasy reflects protagonist's psychological state
+- Ambiguity about whether magic is real or imagined
+- Dark, mature themes in fairy tale framework
+- Practical creature effects for tactile horror
+
+---
+
+### Example 3: Spirited Away (2001)
+
+**Director**: Hayao Miyazaki
+
+**Why It Works**: Imaginative world-building with coming-of-age story, rich Japanese folklore, and environmental themes.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Bathhouse Arrival**: Overwhelming introduction to spirit world
+- **No-Face Corruption**: Greed and consumption as monster
+- **Name and Identity**: Magic tied to identity and memory
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Visual storytelling over exposition
+- Fantastical creatures with internal logic
+- Protagonist grows through work and compassion
+- Environmental and cultural themes woven throughout
+
+---
+
+### Example 4: The Shape of Water (2017)
+
+**Director**: Guillermo del Toro
+
+**Why It Works**: Adult fairy tale blending fantasy, romance, and social commentary with Cold War backdrop.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **First Connection**: Wordless communication between woman and creature
+- **Musical Fantasy Sequence**: Fantasy as expression of desire
+- **Transformation**: Love transcends species and form
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Fairy tale structure in realistic setting
+- Creature as metaphor for otherness and acceptance
+- Romance grounded in genuine connection
+- Fantasy elements serve thematic purpose
+
+---
+
+## Integration with Other Features
+
+### Compatible Themes
+
+- **Good vs. Evil**: Core fantasy conflict
+- **Coming of Age**: Growth through magical journey
+- **Power and Corruption**: Magic as metaphor for power
+- **Identity and Destiny**: Discovering who you're meant to be
+- **Sacrifice and Redemption**: Heroic journey requires loss
+
+### Compatible Styles
+
+- **High Fantasy**: Epic scope, world-threatening stakes (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones)
+- **Urban Fantasy**: Magic in modern world (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts)
+- **Dark Fantasy**: Mature themes, moral ambiguity (Pan's Labyrinth, The Witcher)
+- **Fairy Tale**: Archetypal stories, magical realism (Stardust, The Princess Bride)
+
+### Hybrid Combinations
+
+- **Fantasy + Adventure**: Quest-driven narratives (The Hobbit, Willow)
+- **Fantasy + Romance**: Love across magical boundaries (The Shape of Water, Ladyhawke)
+- **Fantasy + Horror**: Dark magic and monsters (The VVitch, Sleepy Hollow)
+- **Fantasy + Comedy**: Whimsical magic and humor (The Princess Bride, Shrek)
+
+## Best Practices
+
+1. **Establish Rules Early**: Define how magic works and stick to it
+2. **Show, Don't Tell**: Reveal world through visuals and action
+3. **Ground in Emotion**: Fantastical elements serve human stories
+4. **Create Costs**: Magic should have limitations and consequences
+5. **Build Gradually**: Introduce wonder in stages, don't overwhelm
+6. **Make It Specific**: Unique details make fantasy worlds memorable
+7. **Respect the Audience**: Trust them to understand without over-explaining
+8. **Use Archetypes Wisely**: Familiar patterns with fresh twists
+9. **Visual Consistency**: Maintain coherent aesthetic for your world
+10. **Earn the Ending**: Victory through character growth and sacrifice
+
+## Resources
+
+- "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell - Mythic structure
+- "The Writer's Journey" by Christopher Vogler - Hero's journey for screenwriters
+- "Wonderbook" by Jeff VanderMeer - Fantasy worldbuilding
+- "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien - Masterclass in worldbuilding
+- "The Princess Bride" screenplay by William Goldman - Perfect fantasy-adventure blend
+
+---
+
+**Depth Coverage**: 85%
+**Last Updated**: 2026-01-31
+**Version**: 1.0.0
+

package/augment-extensions/writing-standards/screenplay/genres/rules/historical.md

@@ -0,0 +1,293 @@
+# Historical Genre
+
+**Category**: Screenplay Genre  
+**Type**: Primary  
+**Complexity**: High
+
+## Overview
+
+Historical films are set in specific past eras and strive for period authenticity while dramatizing real or fictional events. The genre emphasizes accurate recreation of time periods, exploration of historical themes, and making the past feel immediate and relevant.
+
+## Core Concept
+
+Historical screenplays transport audiences to specific past eras, using period detail to create immersion while exploring timeless human themes through historical lens. Success depends on balancing authenticity with dramatic storytelling, making historical events accessible and emotionally resonant, and using the past to illuminate the present. Great historical films feel both accurate to their period and relevant to contemporary audiences.
+
+## Core Rules
+
+### Rule 1: Research Thoroughly, Dramatize Wisely
+
+**Description**: Ground the story in historical fact, but don't let accuracy strangle drama. Find the emotional truth within historical events.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Audiences expect authenticity, but they need compelling drama. Balance is essential.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Compress timeline or composite characters for clarity while maintaining historical spirit
+- ❌ **Bad**: Invent major events that contradict known history or ignore period entirely
+
+**Film Reference**: Lincoln (2012) - Focuses on specific period (passing 13th Amendment) with dramatic compression but historical accuracy.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 2: Make the Past Feel Present
+
+**Description**: Avoid museum-piece stiffness. Characters should feel like real people, not historical figures posing.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Emotional connection requires seeing historical figures as human, not icons.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Period-appropriate language that still feels natural and accessible
+- ❌ **Bad**: Overly formal, archaic dialogue that creates distance
+
+**Film Reference**: The Favourite (2018) - Period setting with contemporary energy and naturalistic performances.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 3: Use Period to Explore Themes
+
+**Description**: The historical setting should illuminate universal themes or comment on contemporary issues, not just provide costumes.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Historical films should have relevance beyond period recreation.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Using past events to explore timeless questions of power, justice, or humanity
+- ❌ **Bad**: Period setting is arbitrary; story could happen in any era
+
+**Film Reference**: 12 Years a Slave (2013) - Historical slavery narrative with urgent contemporary relevance.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 4: Authentic Details, Not Info Dumps
+
+**Description**: Convey period through visual details, behavior, and context, not exposition or history lessons.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Show don't tell applies to historical context. Audiences should absorb period through immersion.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Period details visible in production design, costumes, behavior
+- ❌ **Bad**: Characters explaining historical context to each other for audience benefit
+
+**Film Reference**: Barry Lyndon (1975) - Period conveyed entirely through visuals, behavior, and atmosphere.
+
+---
+
+### Rule 5: Respect Historical Figures
+
+**Description**: When depicting real people, honor their complexity. Avoid hagiography or simplistic villainy.
+
+**Why It Matters**: Real people are multidimensional. Complexity creates richer drama.
+
+**Examples**:
+- ✅ **Good**: Historical figures shown with flaws, contradictions, and humanity
+- ❌ **Bad**: One-dimensional heroes or villains that ignore historical complexity
+
+**Film Reference**: The Social Network (2010) - Recent history treated with complexity and multiple perspectives.
+
+---
+
+## Guidelines
+
+### Structure
+
+- **Act I**: Establish period and world, introduce historical situation/conflict, protagonist's position in historical moment
+- **Act II**: Historical events unfold, protagonist navigates period challenges, stakes escalate toward historical climax
+- **Act III**: Resolution of historical conflict, consequences shown, epilogue often provides historical context
+
+### Pacing
+
+- Balance spectacle with intimate character moments
+- Use historical events to create natural act breaks
+- Allow time for period immersion
+- Build to historically significant climax
+- Epilogue can provide historical outcome
+
+### Character Archetypes
+
+- **Protagonist**: Historical figure or fictional character in historical events
+- **Antagonist**: Historical opponent or forces of the era
+- **Supporting**: Historical figures, composite characters, witnesses to history
+
+### Tone and Atmosphere
+
+- Varies by period and subject (epic, intimate, tragic, triumphant)
+- Sense of historical weight and significance
+- Period-appropriate social norms and attitudes
+- Can be reverent or irreverent depending on approach
+- Often elegiac or reflective
+
+### Visual Style
+
+- Meticulous period production design
+- Authentic costumes and props
+- Locations or sets that recreate period
+- Cinematography that evokes period (or deliberately contrasts)
+- Color palette appropriate to era and tone
+
+### Dialogue
+
+- Period-appropriate without being impenetrable
+- Balance authenticity with accessibility
+- Avoid modern slang unless deliberate choice
+- Characters speak naturally within period constraints
+- Subtext over exposition
+
+## Common Pitfalls
+
+### Pitfall 1: Sacrificing Drama for Accuracy
+
+**Problem**: Letting historical fidelity make the story boring or confusing.
+
+**Solution**: Serve the emotional truth and dramatic arc while respecting historical spirit.
+
+**Example**: Amadeus (1984) - Takes liberties with history but captures emotional truth of Mozart's genius and Salieri's envy.
+
+---
+
+### Pitfall 2: Modern Attitudes in Period Setting
+
+**Problem**: Characters with 21st-century values and perspectives in historical setting (presentism).
+
+**Solution**: Show period attitudes authentically while allowing audience to judge from modern perspective.
+
+**Example**: Mad Men (TV) - Shows 1960s sexism and racism without endorsing it.
+
+---
+
+### Pitfall 3: Overwhelming Detail
+
+**Problem**: So much historical detail that story gets lost in period recreation.
+
+**Solution**: Use details to support story, not replace it. Every detail should serve character or theme.
+
+**Example**: Dunkirk (2017) - Minimal dialogue and exposition; period conveyed through action and visuals.
+
+---
+
+## Film Examples
+
+### Example 1: Schindler's List (1993)
+
+**Director**: Steven Spielberg
+
+**Why It Works**: Holocaust drama balancing historical horror with individual heroism. Devastating and essential.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Girl in Red Coat**: Individual humanity amid mass atrocity
+- **Liquidation of Ghetto**: Historical horror depicted unflinchingly
+- **"I could have saved more"**: Personal guilt and historical weight
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Black and white cinematography for documentary feel
+- Historical accuracy in depicting Holocaust
+- Individual stories within massive historical tragedy
+- Moral complexity of Schindler's character
+
+---
+
+### Example 2: Dunkirk (2017)
+
+**Director**: Christopher Nolan
+
+**Why It Works**: WWII evacuation told through three timelines. Immersive, visceral, minimal dialogue.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Beach Bombing**: Chaos and terror of war
+- **Civilian Boats**: Ordinary heroism
+- **Spitfire Gliding**: Sacrifice and duty
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Three interwoven timelines (land, sea, air)
+- Minimal exposition or dialogue
+- Immersive sound design and IMAX cinematography
+- Focus on experience over explanation
+
+---
+
+### Example 3: The King's Speech (2010)
+
+**Director**: Tom Hooper
+
+**Why It Works**: Intimate character drama set against historical backdrop (WWII). Personal struggle with public stakes.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **First Session**: Unconventional therapy breaking royal protocol
+- **"Because I have a voice!"**: Personal stakes revealed
+- **War Speech**: Private triumph becomes public leadership
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Personal story (speech impediment) against historical moment
+- Relationship between king and commoner
+- Period detail supporting character drama
+- Historical climax (war declaration speech)
+
+---
+
+### Example 4: Roma (2018)
+
+**Director**: Alfonso Cuarón
+
+**Why It Works**: Personal memory as historical document. 1970s Mexico City through domestic worker's eyes.
+
+**Key Scenes**:
+- **Beach Rescue**: Heroism in everyday person
+- **Corpus Christi Massacre**: Historical violence intruding on personal life
+- **"We are alone"**: Solidarity among women
+
+**Techniques Used**:
+- Black and white cinematography
+- Long takes and observational style
+- Historical events through personal perspective
+- Domestic life as historical record
+
+---
+
+## Integration with Other Features
+
+### Compatible Themes
+
+- **Power and Politics**: Historical struggles for control
+- **War and Peace**: Conflict and its human cost
+- **Social Change**: Movements and revolutions
+- **Individual vs. System**: Personal agency in historical forces
+- **Memory and Legacy**: How history is remembered
+
+### Compatible Styles
+
+- **Epic Historical**: Large-scale events and battles (Braveheart, Gladiator)
+- **Intimate Historical**: Personal stories in historical setting (The King's Speech, Brooklyn)
+- **Period Drama**: Character-driven stories in specific eras (Pride and Prejudice, Little Women)
+- **Historical Thriller**: Suspense in historical context (Argo, Munich)
+
+### Hybrid Combinations
+
+- **Historical + War**: Combat in specific historical conflicts (Saving Private Ryan, 1917)
+- **Historical + Biography**: Lives of historical figures (Gandhi, The Theory of Everything)
+- **Historical + Romance**: Love stories in historical settings (Titanic, Atonement)
+- **Historical + Drama**: Character studies in period (There Will Be Blood, The Master)
+
+## Best Practices
+
+1. **Research Deeply**: Know the period intimately
+2. **Find the Human Story**: History through personal lens
+3. **Balance Accuracy and Drama**: Serve both truth and story
+4. **Show, Don't Lecture**: Immerse, don't explain
+5. **Period-Appropriate Language**: Authentic but accessible
+6. **Use Details Purposefully**: Every detail should serve story
+7. **Avoid Presentism**: Respect period attitudes while allowing critique
+8. **Make It Relevant**: Connect past to present themes
+9. **Respect Complexity**: Historical figures are multidimensional
+10. **Visual Authenticity**: Production design creates immersion
+
+## Resources
+
+- "The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media" by Marcia Landy
+- "Screening the Past: Film and the Representation of History" by Tony Barta
+- "Lincoln" screenplay by Tony Kushner - Masterclass in historical drama
+- "The Favourite" screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara - Irreverent historical approach
+- "Schindler's List" by Thomas Keneally - Historical novel adapted to film
+
+---
+
+**Depth Coverage**: 85%
+**Last Updated**: 2026-01-31
+**Version**: 1.0.0
+