A cinematic cockpit prompt for any city
Originally posted on LinkedIn, July 25, 2025.
I generated a cinematic view of Tel Aviv entirely from a prompt. The image shows a first-person view from a plane banking sharply over the coastline at twilight, with both hands gripping the yoke and the cockpit lit by the soft glow of its control screens. The words "Tel Aviv" flash in electric green on the dashboard.
Through the curved window, Ayalon traffic runs in blurred lines below, the Azrieli Towers glow deep purple, and Neve Tzedek catches the last golden light of sunset. It looks like a frame from a movie, but every part of it was generated from text.
Text-to-image generation is becoming more precise, bolder, and more cinematic. Instead of generic scenery or vague fantasy, a prompt can define a deep composition with dramatic lighting, clean reflections, and motion that feels like aerial photography. This prompt specifies the lighting, lens, materials, movement, and even the city name inside the image itself.
This is part of my Friday prompt series, where I share a useful prompt that can be reused with a few small changes. To try this one, paste the following text into an AI image generator and replace [city] with "Jerusalem," "Haifa," or any other city whose story can be told from low altitude and at speed:
Generate the following image:
Create a cinematic poster with [x:y] aspect ratio. First-person view from the cockpit, gripping the yoke as the airplane banks sharply over [city], capturing the dynamic motion with motion blur effects. The city name '[city]' on the dashboard pulses with a soft electric light, casting dynamic reflections on the polished glass and metallic surfaces. The Cityscape with the main landmarks below glows with vibrant lights, seen through the curved aircraft window. Dramatic low-angle lighting from the cockpit instruments casts sharp reflections on the glass, while the twilight sky blends deep blues and purples with the warm golden hues of urban sprawl. The background features a slightly out-of-focus city skyline with streaks of light from moving vehicles, rendered in a high-detail semi-realistic style with cinematic depth and energetic brushwork to emphasize speed and movement.