---
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.

When passage or a handoff is uncertain, track each participant's task and the
space occupied by the body and carried object. Choose who continues, yields or
waits from the encounter; a glance alone does not establish a shared stop. A wait
may end on clearance, a partner event or another authored reason. At a cut, pass
on the relevant position, facing, target, travel and held-object state; a changed
camera side changes the view, not the world placement. Resolve only the spatial
relations needed by this shot rather than prescribing the same encounter stages.

## 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.