Core Concepts

Lazer is an orchestration and traceability layer for AI-assisted film production. It does not generate media itself. Instead, it manages the complete lifecycle of AI-generated content: from initial concept through generation on external platforms, capture, comparison, selection, approval, and final assembly.

This section covers the fundamental concepts that underpin how Lazer organizes and tracks your production work.

Understanding the System

Lazer operates on a few key principles:

Orchestration, not generation. You generate content on platforms like Sora, Midjourney, Veo, Runway, ElevenLabs, and others. Lazer captures, organizes, and tracks those outputs.

Immutability and traceability. Every asset version is preserved. Selection does not mean deletion. You can always trace back to see what was generated, when, how, and why.

Platform-agnostic comparison. Generate the same prompt on multiple platforms, bring all versions into Lazer, and compare them side-by-side to choose the best result.

Rights and provenance tracking. Every asset records its licensing state, platform origin, and provenance metadata. You always know what's safe to ship commercially.

Core Concept Pages

Object Model

Learn about the hierarchical data structure that organizes your production: Project, Script, Scene, Shot, and Asset Version. Understand why Shots exist as first-class objects and how the model supports both narrative structure and production workflow.

Asset Lifecycle

Understand how assets move through statuses from initial draft to final approval. Learn about the nine lifecycle states, valid transitions, and how immutability and versioning work together.

Prompt Packages

Discover how to create reusable prompt bundles that work across multiple AI platforms. Learn about versioning, fan-out generation, and how to maintain consistent creative intent across different tools.

Rights & Provenance

Learn how Lazer tracks licensing rights, commercial use permissions, and content provenance for every asset. Understand the four rights states and how platform-specific licensing affects your ability to ship.

Workflow Overview

A typical Lazer workflow follows this pattern:

1. Plan: Create a project, upload or write a script, break it into scenes and shots.
2. Prepare: Attach prompt packages to scenes or shots, defining creative intent.
3. Generate: Use the Chrome extension to generate content on external platforms (Sora, Midjourney, Veo, etc.).
4. Capture: The extension automatically saves outputs to Lazer with full metadata.
5. Compare: Group versions from different platforms for side-by-side comparison.
6. Select: Mark preferred versions as "selected" without deleting alternatives.
7. Approve: Move selected versions through review and approval stages.
8. Ship: Export final assets with full traceability and rights documentation.

Next Steps

Start with the Object Model to understand the foundational data structure, then explore the other concept pages to build a complete mental model of how Lazer works.

For hands-on guidance, see the Getting Started guide.