Free · v1.1 · full contents
The Free Production Starter, in full
One 15-second build documented end to end — the same structure the paid systems use at full scale. Nothing here is truncated or locked. Read it, copy the tables into your own project doc, and run it on your next shoot.
How the starter runs
Eight documents, one build
Each document below has a job. Run them in order and the build cannot fall apart in the middle, because every decision is written down before it is needed.
- 01
Concept
Brief and constraint list.
- 02
Pre-produce
Shot manifest and storyboard.
- 03
Shoot
Checklist and clean plates.
- 04
Transform
Recipe card and generation log.
- 05
Edit
Beat-marked edit map.
- 06
Finish
Grade reference and export QC.
Concept brief
One page, written before anything is shot. If you cannot fill this in, the build is not ready.
- Working title
- Table Anomaly — 15s vertical
- One-line intent
- An ordinary object placed on an ordinary table behaves impossibly, once.
- Format
- 9:16, 15 seconds, silent-legible with captions off
- Constraint list
- One room · one lens pair · one anomaly · no dialogue · no on-screen text
- Reference language
- Overhead practical, hard shadow, matte surfaces, single warm source
- Success test
- A viewer can describe what happened in one sentence after one watch
- Failure test
- The anomaly needs a caption to be understood
- Runtime budget
- Hook 1.5s · build 2s · reveal 3s · settle 2.5s · loop tail 3s
Why the constraint list matters. Every AI-assisted build fails in the same place: too many variables changing at once. One anomaly, one room and one lens pair means that when a pass looks wrong you can identify what caused it.
Shot manifest
Every shot gets an ID, an intent and an explicit decision about whether it will be transformed. Filled example below; the blank version is the same six columns.
| ID | Slug | Lens | Movement | Dur | Transform intent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Hook — hand enters frame | 24mm | Locked | 1.5s | Keep real. No transform. Establish that the space is physical. |
| A2 | Object placed on table | 35mm | Slow push | 2.0s | Light transform. Surface material shift only, geometry untouched. |
| A3 | Clean plate — empty table | 35mm | Locked | 3.0s | Plate. Never cut in. Feeds the mask and the anomaly pass. |
| B1 | Anomaly reveal | 35mm | Locked | 3.0s | Full transform against A3 plate. One change only. |
| B2 | Reaction / exit | 24mm | Handheld drift | 2.5s | Keep real. Grounds the anomaly by contrast. |
| C1 | Loop tail — return to A1 framing | 24mm | Locked | 3.0s | Match A1 exactly so the cut back is invisible. |
- Keep real — never touched by a model. At least a third of a build should be this, or the piece stops feeling shot.
- Light transform — surface, material or light only. Geometry and motion stay as captured.
- Full transform — the anomaly itself. Budget one per build at this length.
- Plate — never cut into the edit. Exists to give the transform pass a clean reference and to rescue a mask later.
Storyboard sheet
Four frames, drawn or blocked with your phone. Vertical first, then check the same beats read in horizontal.
Hand enters
Empty frame, then hand. Nothing strange yet.
Object down
Push begins. Surface starts reading wrong.
Anomaly
One impossible change. Hold it long enough to register.
Return
Match the first frame. Loop closes.
Draw badly and quickly. The sheet exists to fix framing and eyeline before you are standing in the room with the light going, not to look good.
Transformation recipe card
Model-neutral. It describes what the pass must achieve and what must not move, so it survives whichever tool you use.
- Goal
- One object behaves impossibly while the room stays completely unchanged.
- Reference frame
- A3 clean plate + first frame of B1 as structural anchor.
- Must not change
- Table edge, wall line, shadow direction, hand skin tone, lens character.
- Allowed to change
- The object's material, mass behaviour or continuity across time.
- Strength guidance
- Start 0.75, drop in 0.05 steps until the table edge stops warping.
- Conditioning order
- Structure from the plate first, style second. Never style-first.
- Accept criteria
- Anomaly readable within 1 second; no drift on any straight edge.
- Reject criteria
- Second unintended change anywhere in frame — kill the pass, do not fix it.
Generation log
The document that makes AI work repeatable. Every pass gets a row, a verdict and a reason — so a good result can be reproduced and a bad one is never re-run by accident.
- A2p01 · ref A2-f001 · str 0.35 — Material shift only; edges held, no drift on hand.keep
- B1p01 · ref A3-plate · str 0.75 — Anomaly read well but table edge warped — reduce strength.retry
- B1p02 · ref A3-plate · str 0.58 — Edge stable, anomaly still legible at 1s glance.keep
- B1p03 · ref B1-f012 · str 0.58 — Second variation broke continuity with A2 surface.kill
shot_id · pass_id · date · reference_frame · strength · seed · tool · verdict(keep|retry|kill) · note · output_filename
Rule: nothing enters the edit unless it has a keep row. If it is not logged, it does not exist.
Edit map (15 seconds)
Timing decided before the timeline is open. Beats are written as durations, not vibes.
6 clips · 90 beat units
- The anomaly lands before 6 seconds or the piece is restructured.
- The reveal shot is the longest shot; everything else is shorter than it.
- One sound event only, placed on the first frame of the reveal, not after it.
- The final frame matches the first frame within a few pixels so the loop is seamless.
Grade reference and finishing
A fixed palette keeps real footage and transformed footage looking like the same piece.
- Match transformed shots to the untouched hook, not the other way round
- Check the grade on a phone at half brightness before exporting
- Confirm no straight edge drifts across the reveal shot
- Room tone runs unbroken under every cut, including the loop point
- Export a 9:16 master, then check the same cut in 1:1 for reuse
Shoot-day checklist
Printed and taped to the wall. Each item exists because forgetting it costs a reshoot.
- Frame rate, shutter and picture profile locked and written down
- Manual white balance set from a neutral surface in the room
- Phone or camera on a fixed support for every locked shot
- Storyboard sheet visible at the camera position
- Battery and card headroom checked for the whole session
- Clean plate shot for every planned transformation, 3 seconds minimum
- Two seconds of handle on head and tail of every take
- Continuity photo at every setup change
- Say the shot ID out loud at the head of each take
- One safety take of each keep-real shot before moving on
- Every shot ID on the manifest has at least one usable take
- Plates confirmed as steady and unobstructed on playback
- Offload verified by opening files from the copy, not the card
- Room reference photo taken in case of a pickup day
- Reference frames exported and named to the shot IDs
- Generation log open with the first row written before the first pass
- Recipe card accept and reject criteria re-read
- Keep-real shots moved to a separate folder so they cannot be touched
This is one build. The systems are the whole pipeline.
Same documents, at full scale: multi-day shoots, continuity bibles, treatment builders, release cycles and delivery QC. All four systems together are $149 instead of $216 bought separately.