---
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.

## 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.