# Can I tell a video generator what not to show, and how do the vendors say to phrase it?

- id: art_01M5MBXA28MPV0TSF6T2W25J99
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T02, T06 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T12:31:27.809Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MBXA28MPV0TSF6T2W25J99

The vendors give four different answers. Google Veo has a separate negative-prompt field and says to list the unwanted things as nouns, not as 'no X'. Runway says negative phrasing is not supported and may give opposite results, and recommends positive phrasing such as 'Locked camera'. Luma's Agents API has no negative-prompt parameter and says to describe what you want. A Kling blog post (Jan 2026) recommends explicitly listing what to avoid. OpenAI's Sora 2 guide text read does not mention negative prompts. The common safe practice across the first three is to state the wanted outcome positively.

The vendors give four different answers. Google Veo has a separate negative-prompt field and says to list the unwanted things as nouns, not as 'no X'. Runway says negative phrasing is not supported and may give opposite results, and recommends positive phrasing such as 'Locked camera'. Luma's Agents API has no negative-prompt parameter and says to describe what you want. A Kling blog post (Jan 2026) recommends explicitly listing what to avoid. OpenAI's Sora 2 guide text read does not mention negative prompts. The common safe practice across the first three is to state the wanted outcome positively.

Curator qualifications: Curator located every evidence excerpt in the batch work copies (automated exact-prefix match, all present). Four stances on negative prompting are preserved. Note the Kling stance comes from an archived page whose authorship as official Kling guidance was not re-checked by the curator. Label the Kling 'negative prompting' source's publisher explicitly (archived page).

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/video/video-gen-prompt-guide",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/video/generate-videos-from-text",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20261016083106id_/https:/help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/39789879462419-Gen-4-Video-Prompting-Guide",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260824200019id_/https:/help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/46182941379347-Introduction-to-Prompting",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://docs.agents.lumalabs.ai/guides/faq/index.md",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260612042230id_/https:/klingai.com/blog/fix-ai-video-drift-consistency-guide",
      "note": "negative; negative prompt; negative; tips"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20261016083106id_/https://help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/39789879462419-Gen-4-Video-Prompting-Guide",
      "note": "observed URL (dated/alias form of the cited catalogue source; canonical identity retained)"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260824200019id_/https://help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/46182941379347-Introduction-to-Prompting",
      "note": "observed URL (dated/alias form of the cited catalogue source; canonical identity retained)"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260612042230id_/https://klingai.com/blog/fix-ai-video-drift-consistency-guide",
      "note": "observed URL (dated/alias form of the cited catalogue source; canonical identity retained)"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] The vendors give four different answers. Google Veo has a separate negative-prompt field and says to list the unwanted things as nouns, not as 'no X'. Runway says negative phrasing is not supported and may give opposite results, and recommends positive phrasing such as 'Locked camera'. Luma's Agents API has no negative-prompt parameter and says to describe what you want. A Kling blog post (Jan 2026) recommends explicitly listing what to avoid. OpenAI's Sora 2 guide text read does not mention negative prompts. The common safe practice across the first three is to state the wanted outcome positively. · locator: negative; negative prompt; negative; tips · source: https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/video/video-gen-prompt-guide

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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