=== SHOT 1 — 14 SECONDS ===
Live-action film footage from a period drama set. ARRI Alexa, 50mm spherical lens,
natural overcast daylight, cool desaturated grade, 35mm film grain. Real
photography of real human beings — visible skin pores and texture, stubble, fine
flyaway hairs, real catchlights in the eyes, subsurface light through ears and
fingers, natural blemishes and asymmetry, real fabric weave and wrinkles. A
photograph of real actors on a real location. Not a painting, not a render, not an
illustration.
The character in the reference image is the hero — keep their face, hair and
outfit exactly as shown, consistent in every frame.
LOCATION: A grand neoclassical museum façade — tall columns, triangular pediment,
arched doorway — above a wide grey stone staircase.
FIXED CAST AND BLOCKING (identical positions in every frame, never rearranged).
Hundreds of costumed background actors — ordinary real people, working actors and
extras, dressed by a wardrobe department in screen-accurate historical costume,
each styled to resemble a figure from a famous painting. They stand shoulder to
shoulder in tight rows filling the staircase edge to edge, only body-width gaps
between them, no aisle, no cleared path:
FRONT ROW, left to right: an elderly actress in a full black mourning dress and
white lace cap · a ballet dancer in a white tulle tutu and black ribbon choker · an
actor in a black suit and red tie with a bowler hat and a real green apple hanging
on a fine wire in front of his face as a practical prop · a gaunt actor with a real
red beard, straw hat and worn blue workman's jacket · a stunt performer in real
gilded plate armor.
SECOND ROW, left to right: a heavyset bearded actor in a gold-embroidered doublet,
fur collar and flat jewelled cap · an actress in a dark green-brown Renaissance
gown and sheer veil, hands folded, faint closed-lipped smile · an actress in a
yellow bodice, blue apron and white linen cap.
THIRD ROW, left to right: an actress in a red embroidered Mexican dress with fresh
flowers braided into her hair and strong dark brows · [THE HERO'S MARK — dead
center] · an actor in a bicorne hat and blue and white military uniform.
BEHIND THEM, hundreds deep: women in crimson turbans and white linen bonnets, men
in black coats with starched white ruffs, a young actress in a blue and gold
headwrap with a single pearl earring, rows of men in Edwardian tweed.
Every face is a real human face with its own bone structure, weight and age.
Nobody's skin is smooth or flat.
TIMING:
0:00–0:03 — CLOSE-UP on the hero's face filling the frame, facing camera front-on,
standing at the bottom of the steps. Background soft and unreadable. They take a
slow drag from a cigarette, lower it, and exhale a plume of smoke across the lens.
0:03–0:06 — The camera smoothly PULLS BACK and widens as the smoke clears,
revealing the hundreds of costumed figures packed on the staircase behind and
around the hero — completely frozen, statue-still, unblinking, staring into camera.
Settles into a medium shot, hero waist-up, crowd sharp and clearly visible behind.
0:06–0:07 — The hero turns around, putting their back to camera.
0:07–0:12 — They walk up the steps at a NORMAL, BRISK WALKING PACE — natural
real-time speed. They squeeze between the frozen bodies, turning their torso to
slip through, brushing shoulders. Their route: up between the ballerina in the
white tutu and the man with the green apple in front of his face, past the
gold-doubleted king on their left and the woman in the green-brown Renaissance gown
on their right, brushing the gilded armor as they pass. Nobody steps aside for
them. Nobody moves.
0:12–0:14 — They arrive at their mark, dead center of the third row, with the
woman in the red embroidered Mexican dress on their left and the man in the bicorne
hat on their right. They stop and turn back around to face camera. Hold. The hero
motionless, surrounded on all four sides, the crowd still completely frozen. END.
Sound: no music, no soundtrack. Only wind across stone and shoes on the steps.
DO NOT include any of the following. Nobody may look painted, illustrated, drawn,
brushstroked, flat, 2D, smoothed, airbrushed, waxy, plastic, doll-like, CGI,
rendered, cartoon or anime. No canvas texture, no brushstrokes, no oil-paint sheen,
no picture frames. The crowd must not move at all in this shot and must not change
position, costume or order. The crowd must not part, form an aisle, or leave empty
space around the hero. The hero must not be in slow motion or drift slowly. No
cuts, no camera shake, no morphing faces, no text, no watermark.
=== SHOT 2 — 15 SECONDS — CUT ON THE FIRST MOVE ===
Live-action film footage from a period drama set. ARRI Alexa, 50mm spherical lens,
natural overcast daylight, cool desaturated grade, 35mm film grain. Real
photography of real human beings — visible skin pores and texture, stubble, fine
flyaway hairs, real catchlights in the eyes, natural blemishes and asymmetry, real
fabric weave and wrinkles. Not a painting, not a render, not an illustration.
The character in the reference image is the hero — identical face, hair and outfit
to the previous shot.
LOCATION: The same grand neoclassical museum façade — tall columns, triangular
pediment, arched doorway — above the same wide grey stone staircase.
FIXED CAST AND BLOCKING — exactly the same people in exactly the same positions as
before, nobody added, removed or rearranged. Hundreds of costumed background actors
— ordinary real people in screen-accurate historical costume, each styled to
resemble a figure from a famous painting — standing shoulder to shoulder in tight
rows filling the staircase edge to edge, only body-width gaps, no aisle:
FRONT ROW, left to right: an elderly actress in a full black mourning dress and
white lace cap · a ballet dancer in a white tulle tutu and black ribbon choker · an
actor in a black suit and red tie with a bowler hat and a real green apple hanging
on a fine wire in front of his face · a gaunt actor with a real red beard, straw hat
and worn blue workman's jacket · a stunt performer in real gilded plate armor.
SECOND ROW, left to right: a heavyset bearded actor in a gold-embroidered doublet,
fur collar and flat jewelled cap · an actress in a dark green-brown Renaissance gown
and sheer veil · an actress in a yellow bodice, blue apron and white linen cap.
THIRD ROW, left to right: an actress in a red embroidered Mexican dress with fresh
flowers in her hair · THE HERO, dead center · an actor in a bicorne hat and blue and
white military uniform.
BEHIND THEM, hundreds deep: women in crimson turbans and white linen bonnets, men
in black coats with starched white ruffs, a young actress in a blue and gold
headwrap with a single pearl earring, rows of men in Edwardian tweed.
TIMING:
0:00 — Open on a WIDE SHOT of the full façade and the entire staircase, already in
motion. On the very first frame the whole crowd is mid-convulsion. No build-up, no
lead-in, nobody standing still.
0:00–0:10 — The crowd performs a wild, continuous, full-body rolling motion. The
cycle: heads thrown ALL THE WAY BACK, chins pointed up at the sky, spines arched
backward — then the entire torso whips forward and folds almost double at the hips,
heads hanging down near their knees, hair and hats flying — then the body unrolls
back up and the head snaps back again, chin to the sky. Over and over, without
pause, never resting at neutral. Arms hang loose and swing and flail with the
momentum. Loose, rubbery, boneless, possessed. Different sections of the staircase
are out of phase, so one block is folded double while the block beside it is arched
back with heads up, and the motion ripples across the crowd. Meanwhile the camera
pulls back and rises slightly, widening to take in the whole façade.
0:10–0:15 — The camera settles and holds locked off. The crowd keeps convulsing at
full intensity to the last frame. The hero has not moved once — standing relaxed and
unbothered at the dead center, facing camera, hands down, not dancing, not bending,
not reacting.
Sound: no music, no soundtrack. Only fabric snapping, armor rattling, breath and
shoes scuffing stone.
DO NOT include any of the following. Nobody may look painted, illustrated, drawn,
flat, 2D, smoothed, waxy, plastic, CGI, rendered, cartoon or anime. Nobody may
change position, costume or order from the previous shot. The crowd must never bow,
curtsy, nod, greet, dip gently, bend shallowly, keep their heads level, move
stiffly, or move in robotic unison, and must never stand still. The hero must not
dance, bend or move, must not stand off to one side or at the edge of frame, and
must not be in close-up. The crowd must not part, form an aisle, or leave empty
space around the hero. No slow motion, no cuts within the shot, no camera shake, no
morphing faces, no text, no watermark.