openfilm/openfilm

# Collage

Make a collage film an art director would sign: pictures cut from real material and put together by hand, so that what
they make together says what none of them says alone. Surprise us; the expected version is not the goal.

## What has to be true

- **Every piece says something.** Each picture, word and scrap is there for what it means in this film, not to fill
  space. If the same pieces could tell another story, it is not done yet.
- **Every picture's source is clear**: the person's own, licensed, public domain, or made for this film. A made one is
  never passed off as a real person, place or record.
- **People as they are**: their photos are cut, cropped, colored and printed, never their faces changed.
- **Words spelled right**, and readable, in the titles, labels and clippings.
- **It holds up next to the best collage work you know.** Watch the whole film as a viewer would, and keep refining

# Keynote

Make the launch film this product deserves: the real product on stage, each moment making one claim and showing the
proof, so the viewer leaves knowing what it is and wanting it. Surprise us; the expected version is not the goal.

## What has to be true

- **The real product.** Its own screens, words, name and logo, from the person or captured from the live product; never
  a redrawn interface. Where a screen must be simpler, crop and zoom into the real one.
- **Every claim true.** What is shown has shipped, or is said to be coming; numbers, comparisons, customers, prices and
  dates come from the person or the product's own pages, never made up. A demo sped up or put together says so.
- **One claim at a time**, with its proof on screen, readable at the size it will be watched.
- **It holds up next to the best launch films you know.** Watch the whole film as a viewer would, and keep refining
  until it does. If it could launch another product, it is not done yet.

# Long video to shorts

Find the moments in this recording that people would stop scrolling for, and make each one a short a channel would post
as it is: it opens on its strongest real line, ends on its point, and makes sense to someone who never saw the long
video. The speaker, watching it, would say: yes, that is what I meant.

## What has to be true

- **The speaker's meaning, intact.** Nothing said in different places is joined into a claim they did not make; an
  "if", a "not" or an "in some cases" is never cut away; an answer keeps its question. A title or any other text on
  screen says only what the recording says, or is plainly yours.
- **It stands alone**: a viewer knows who is speaking and what they are answering.
- **Every word exact.** The transcript says exactly what was said; names, numbers and terms you cannot confirm are named
  in your reply. Each cut falls in a pause: no clip starts on a clipped word or stops mid-thought.

# Lyric video

You are the director this song has been waiting for. Make its lyric video: the one the artist releases as the official
video, that people play again and send to friends because of how it makes the song feel. It belongs to this song and
no other. Surprise us; the expected version is not the goal.

In a lyric video the sung words are the heart of the picture: they live in the image and move with the voice. Lyrics
shown as subtitles are not a lyric video.

## What has to be true

- **The words live on the voice.** Each word arrives the moment it is sung, within two frames. Measure it against the
  audio, check it independently of whatever made the times, and report honestly, in numbers, how close it is.
- **The lyrics are the person's**, word for word and line for line, in their language.

# Motion graphics

Make the piece a top motion studio would put in its reel: an idea for this subject, designed and moved with intent,
that makes people understand it or want it. Surprise us; the expected version is not the goal.

## What has to be true

- **It belongs to this subject.** The idea, the pictures and the motion come from what it is about; nothing in it could
  be moved into another company's film.
- **The person's facts and brand.** Every number, name, quote and claim as they gave it, none made up; a chart's shapes
  match its values, with units and where the data comes from; when there is a voice, the picture shows what it says as
  it says it. Their logo, colors and type are used as given, never redrawn.
- **It holds up next to the best motion work you know.** Watch the whole film as a viewer would, and keep refining until
  it does.

# Presenter in a window

Make the video that keeps the person present and puts what they talk about in charge: each thing they mention fills
the screen the moment they say it, and they speak from a window that never gets in its way.

## What has to be true

- **The picture follows their words.** Each slide, screen, chart, number or picture arrives as they say it and leaves
  when they move on. Check it in the frames against the transcript's word times, and say how close it is.
- **The window never covers what matters**: the content, the subtitles, or a phone app's buttons; their face is never
  cut badly.
- **Their words and meaning.** Cuts fall in pauses; ums and false starts go only when they ask; nothing appears that they
  did not say or give. A number on screen is the one they say, from their data or its source.
- **It holds up next to the best explainers you know.** Watch the whole film as a viewer would, and keep refining until

# Replicate a video

Remake a video the person admires, as close as they want it: the same film frame for frame, or its form (the parts,
the rhythm, the look, the way things move) carrying their own content. When their words do not say which, ask. Either
way it is made again in OpenFilm, so every part of it can be changed.

## What has to be true

- **The same moments.** Where the reference cuts, a word appears, something moves or a sound hits, the film does too,
  scaled when the lengths differ; for an exact copy, each frame matches the reference's frame at the same time. Compare
  the two at the same times with `npx openfilm look`, and report honestly, in numbers, how close it is.
- **Made again.** The reference stays in `references/` and is never a clip of the film: what the film shows is made
  anew, and the reference's own music, footage or voice go in only when the person asks for them.
- **Their version is theirs**: when they want their own content, every part carries their topic, product, words and

# Screen demo

Make the demo that shows this product at its best and is effortless to follow: the viewer always knows where to look,
sees each step land, never waits, and could do the same in the product today.

## What has to be true

- **The real product.** Its own screens, actions and results, from the person's recording or captured from the live
  product; never a redrawn interface or a result that did not happen. Where it must be simpler, crop and zoom into the
  real thing.
- **Clear where to look**, at the size it will be watched: the action, its text and its result readable on that
  screen, a phone too when the demo is vertical.
- **Nothing private in any frame**: keys, tokens, passwords, emails, names, customer data, notifications, other tabs
  and bookmarks are hidden, or that part is recorded again.

# Vintage film

Make the memory film the people in these pictures will watch again and send to each other: their own photos and clips,
as if found on an old reel or in a box of prints. Surprise us; the expected version is not the goal.

The pictures are the film. The film look is how they were taken and printed, part of each picture rather than a filter
laid over it, and it never changes who or what is in them.

## What has to be true

- **The people and moments untouched.** Faces, bodies, who was there and what was behind them stay as they were: what a
  darkroom could do (crop, scale, color, grain, light) and nothing more. No face restored, no picture extended, no
  person made to move or smile, unless the person asks; then say it is generated.
- **Only true words.** Dates, places and names come from the person or the pictures' own metadata, never guessed; the

# Whiteboard explainer

Make the explainer a great teacher would draw: a voice explains and the board grows with it, so the viewer watches the
idea being built and remembers it.

The drawing is the explanation: each mark is drawn as the words that name it are spoken. A finished picture that fades
or slides in is not a whiteboard explainer.

## What has to be true

- **Drawn as it is said.** Each mark starts when the voice reaches it and is done before the next idea. Check it in the
  frames against the voice's word times, and report how close it is.
- **True to the source.** Every fact, number, term and example as the person's document has it. What you add is your own
  sentence, never a new fact; what you correct, you say.

# OpenFilm

Run `npx -y openfilm@latest` and follow the manual it prints: it is the whole of OpenFilm, about a thousand words. Run it
again whenever you need it.