# Axis Desk

> Editing grammar is arithmetic on ADJACENT PAIRS, which is why almost nobody checks it: a jump cut
> is a property of two rows of a shot list and of nothing else in the document. Six shots, five
> cuts, one camera on the wrong side - and two illegal cuts, because a shot on the wrong side has a
> cut on each end. Five lanes over one shot list in cutting order, plus a free browser-side editing
> grammar checker.

URL: https://axis-desk.skillsafe.ai/
API: https://axis-desk.skillsafe.ai/api.html

Derived from coreyhaines31/marketingskills (https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills), MIT:
its `video` skill, which covers producing video with AI tools and programmatic frameworks.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by coreyhaines31.

## The size lattice

```text
els  <  ls  <  mls  <  ms  <  mcu  <  cu  <  ecu
```

An ORDER, not a set of categories. Two shots of the SAME SUBJECT fewer than 2 steps apart, from an
angle that has moved less than 30 degrees, is a jump cut - the subject reads as having twitched
rather than as seen anew.

Both halves matter. `ms` to `mcu` on one person is a jump; the same pair with the camera swung sixty
degrees is a new angle and cuts fine. Two shots of DIFFERENT subjects at the same size are not a
jump at all - that is an ordinary shot-reverse-shot.

The angle rescue is fragile: if the angle is not achieved on the day it becomes a jump and nobody
finds out until the edit, so it is reported separately rather than passed.

## The 180-degree line

```text
        side A
   [cam]   [cam]
  ---- ava ---- kit ----      <- the axis
           [cam]
        side B
```

Cut A to B with no neutral between and screen direction reverses: a character who looked right now
looks left, and two people talking appear to face the same way. A shot taken ON the line is neutral
and is the legitimate way across.

THE EYELINE IS THE SYMPTOM, NOT A SECOND FAULT. Fix the geometry and it goes with it.

A shot on the wrong side produces TWO illegal cuts, one at each end. The count of findings overstates
the count of causes, and saying so is part of the job.

A line is a property of a CONFIGURATION, not of a room. The moment somebody stands and moves the
axis is redrawn along their path.

## Coverage

- A wide, `mls` or wider, or the viewer never learns where anybody is.
- A close, `mcu` or tighter, or nothing in the scene is ever the point.
- Every subject in more than one shot, or there is no way to cut to them or away.
- The failure: ALL MEDIUMS. Neither geography nor moment, every shot fine, no way to cut them.

## What is exact and what is convention

The 2-step and 30-degree thresholds are conventions, not derivations - what a century of cutting
rooms settled on, and plenty of good work breaks both deliberately. The ARITHMETIC is exact: which
pairs fall inside the range, which cuts cross the axis, which subjects have no coverage. Report the
exact part as fact and the conventional part as convention, and say which cuts could not be checked
at all - a clean report over a list missing half its fields means nothing.

## The sheet

```text
SHOTS
s01 | ls  | subject=room | side=on | angle=0   | both of them at the table
s02 | mcu | subject=ava  | side=a  | angle=40  | looks=right | she asks
s03 | mcu | subject=kit  | side=a  | angle=220 | looks=left  | he does not answer
```

Shots are in CUTTING ORDER. Sizes: `els` `ls` `mls` `ms` `mcu` `cu` `ecu`, plus common spellings
(wide, medium, close-up, cowboy, insert). Sides: `a`, `b`, `on`. `angle=` is a compass bearing and
only its differences are used. `subject=` is what the jump rule groups on, so a shot without one is
never compared to anything.

## The lanes

- `cover` - works out a shot list that can be cut
- `check` - says whether an existing one cuts, and why not
- `repair` - fixes it against what is still available, cheapest first
- `eyeline` - draws the line and assigns every camera to a side
- `order` - reorders what already exists, which costs nothing

## What it does not do

It watches nothing and renders nothing. It reads the shot list you already have, so it is only as
good as the sides and sizes on it.