ai-shortfilm-prompts

The complete methodology + prompt library + Claude Code Skill behind Zombie Scavenger by Mx-Shell — the AI short that Hollywood director PJ Ace called "one of the best short films I've seen in years."

中文版 →

⚡ Quick start: one-page cheat sheet · failure→fix gallery

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🎬 The tweet that started it all

"This is one of the best short films I've seen in years. Very soon, we'll stop calling it 'AI film' and just call it film."

Film name: Zombie Scavenger by MX-Shell.

— PJ Ace (@PJaccetturo), May 10, 2026

13.4M views	82K likes	7.4K reposts	39K bookmarks	2.3K replies

Stats are from PJ Ace's original tweet (@PJaccetturo, May 10, 2026), as of mid-May 2026.

This repository is the complete workflow behind that film, made available because Mx-Shell himself published his prompt collection documents and walked through his entire method on a public Douyin livestream.

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⚡ The single-line magic prompt (try it tonight)

Copy this into Sora / Seedance / Kling / Veo. Replace {{...}}:

Anamorphic widescreen cinematic. Simulated IMAX film camera +
Panavision C-series lens (35mm focal, f/4 aperture). Handheld
shot — extremely subtle, breath-like camera float throughout.
{{your scene description}}.
No score. Production audio only.

Why this works: real camera bodies + "breath-like float" anchor the AI to actual film aesthetics — not the vague "cinematic feel" keyword everyone else uses. Full breakdown in methodology.md.

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❌ vs ✅ — what the method actually changes

Same idea: a female mech warrior raises an energy shield in a thunderstorm.

❌ The naive prompt (what most people write):

Epic cinematic shot of a beautiful female mech warrior activating a
stunning energy shield in the rain. Highly detailed, 4K, photorealistic,
movie-quality, dramatic lighting.

Vague praise — epic / stunning / 4K / movie-quality — gives the model nothing concrete to anchor to. You get generic game-CG output.

✅ With the 5-stage method (excerpt):

Core theme: gritty hard sci-fi mech | rainy dock | battle-damage aesthetic | energy shield | post-apocalyptic live-action
Atmosphere: simulated IMAX film camera + Panavision C-series (35mm, f/4). Low-saturation teal base, film grain.
Camera: handheld — extremely subtle, breath-like float throughout.
9–12s: hexagonal energy cells light up unevenly, some flicker as if faulty; rain bends around a 2m dome.
Ending: no dialogue, no light burst — just rain vaporizing on the shield, a lightning flash across the dock.

Real camera/lens names + physical reactions + battle damage + an empty ending = visceral realism. Full sample with the 10-item self-check: examples/02-skill-output-sample.md.

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The story

May 2026. A 29-year-old vocational-school graduate from rural Yunnan, China — handle Mx-Shell — used 10 days and ~20,000 RMB of cloud credits to make a 3-minute AI short called Zombie Scavenger: an atomic-punk robot wanders into a beachfront villa after a zombie apocalypse, meets a confused ostrich, and starts dancing 1980s-style breakdance moves while kicking a zombie's head across the floor.

On the cost: the widely-quoted "3,000 RMB" figure came from Mx-Shell himself, but on livestream he later revised it to "tens of thousands / 20k+." The real spend was likely well above 3,000 — still far below a comparable live-action shoot.

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