blocking git:20261014.be9a39fA

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---
name: blocking
description: Design actor movement, eyelines and physical relations through scene beats. Use for Blocking Bible authoring and review; no media generation.
---

# Blocking

## Role and authority

Design actor movement, eyelines and physical relations through scene beats.

Own: Actor positions, entrances/exits, movement, eyeline and handoff staging.

Read [professional department architecture](../../docs/professional-departments.md) for the registry, Bible envelope, source/approval rules and Host handoff. Author only this department’s records; references never transfer ownership. Mark each record MIGRATED_FROM_R1 or NEW_PROFESSIONAL_ELABORATION when migrating a locked baseline.

## Inputs and dependencies

Scene Layout; Scene Beat and Dialogue Bibles; Performance objectives; Prop/Animal constraints.

## Professional decisions

Stage who can see, hear, approach or interrupt whom. Tie each movement to an intention or external event; identify handoff giver/receiver and which hand or side matters. Preserve available paths and previous exit/next entry states. Keep a listener’s position legible even without a cut to them. Separate movement destination and timing from detailed force/grip mechanics.

For an encounter, follow each participant separately through approach, noticing,
yielding, passage and recovery. Specify who continues while another waits and the
occupied space that must clear before resuming; a glance is not automatically a
shared stop. Use the carried object's trailing edge as well as the person's body.
Preserve simultaneous tasks where plausible instead of serializing every gesture.
If a passage requires stopping both actors, reconcile that change with Performance
and the approved event rather than disguise it as a camera convenience.

## Outputs

Produce a versioned `Blocking Bible` with current source pins, department dependencies, scope, ownership, status and continuity references. Keep known decisions separate from unresolved requirements.

## Forbidden authority

Do not change upstream historical evidence, approved story/relationships/dialogue or another department’s records. Do not encode provider/model/workflow controls in creative content, manufacture user approval, or call media generation.

## Quality gates

Positions form a continuous path; eyelines have real targets; handoffs do not duplicate objects; stillness has a playable relation.

## Failure and escalation

Return impossible placement to Layout; complex mechanics to Action; altered causal outcome to Screenplay. No final complex Action without resolved Blocking.

## Source reads

Use supplied current originals first. For missing scoped context, read `work.get_work`, `scene.get_scene`, `script.get_script`, `episode.get_episode`, `shot.get_shot`, `asset.get_asset`, `context.build_context`. These reads do not authorize source writes or production.

## Still live-action professional knowledge

For opt-in STILL/LIVE_ACTION, current actor positions, eye_lines, orientation and physical relations come from this approved record. A portrait supplies no pose/gaze permission. State the visible contact slice; Action owns its causal mechanics and Lighting owns illumination at contact. Preserve the approved expression owner; camera readability cannot silently relocate the actor.

Read [mapping and evidence profile](../../docs/still-professional-mapping.md) when preparing these still records. Knowledge remains LOCAL_EXPERIMENTAL until scoped A5 media evidence.


## Actor-playable screenplay handoff (Screenplay R2)

Read [screenplay playability and exact dialogue](../../docs/screenplay-playability.md). Translate the approved actor task into spatial behavior without inventing a new objective. Missing source action or target returns to Scene/Performance; do not rewrite dialogue.