Bring a Brand Still to Life

Use case: Product teaser (template 1)

| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Subject | A matte black ceramic pour-over coffee dripper with a thin polished copper rim, sitting on a clear glass carafe |
| Action | 1) A thin stream of dark coffee trickles from the dripper into the carafe while soft steam curls up from the rim; 2) the dripper and carafe turn a slow quarter turn; 3) the final second holds still on the dripper's front, copper rim catching the light |
| Scene | A walnut kitchen counter by a window, early morning just after sunrise, a faint haze of steam in the air, uncluttered background |
| Angle / Move | Vertical close-up at counter height, slightly above eye level / slow dolly in |
| Lens | 85mm-style telephoto feel, shallow depth of field, kitchen background in soft bokeh |
| Light / Palette / Mood | Soft low-angle morning sunlight from a window on the left with gentle fill and a warm rim on the copper / matte black, warm copper, honey-brown walnut, soft cream highlights / calm, quiet, unhurried |
| Style / Time | Premium commercial look, photorealistic / real-time pace, steady trickle throughout, still hold in the last second |
| Audio | Close, clear coffee trickling into glass, a faint soft drip, quiet low morning room tone, no music |
| Negative | text, logos, letters, labels, hands, people, clutter, reflections of people, plastic look |

Final prompt (paste into Veo / Gemini / Flow):

Premium commercial look, photorealistic, vertical close-up at counter height of a matte black ceramic pour-over coffee dripper with a thin polished copper rim, sitting on a clear glass carafe on a walnut kitchen counter by a window in the early morning just after sunrise. A thin stream of dark coffee trickles from the dripper into the carafe while soft steam curls up from the rim, and the dripper and carafe turn a slow quarter turn. Slow dolly in, 85mm-style telephoto feel, shallow depth of field with the kitchen background in soft bokeh. Soft low-angle morning sunlight from a window on the left with gentle fill and a warm rim light catching the copper, palette of matte black, warm copper, honey-brown walnut and soft cream highlights, calm and quiet mood. Real-time pace; the final second holds still on the dripper's front.
Audio: close, clear sound of coffee trickling into a glass carafe, a faint soft drip, quiet low morning room tone, no music.
Negative prompt: text, logos, letters, labels, hands, people, clutter, reflections of people, plastic look

Settings: 9:16, 8 seconds, audio on.

Beat sheet

| Beat | Purpose | What the viewer must get | Seconds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hook | A reporter in the rain, recording a source who is trusting him with something | 4 |
| 2 | Problem / stakes | The recording is precious and private; the small device in his wet hand is what holds it | 4 |
| 3 | Reveal | Later that night, at home, he sets Fieldnote down and starts it working | 4 |
| 4 | Proof | The words appear on its own e-ink screen: transcribed on the device, no laptop, no cloud | 8 |
| 5 | Payoff + CTA | He has every word, privately; music enters; end line | 4 |

Storyboard table (shots 1–3 of 6)

| # | Sec (gen → use) | Framing | Camera move | Subject action | Dialogue / on-screen text | Audio / ambience | Continuity notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 → 4 | Medium shot, eye level, over the source's shoulder (her back soft in frame-left foreground); he stands under the awning facing screen left | Slow handheld push-in | Holds Fieldnote out toward her at chest height; listens; gives one small nod | Source (on camera, from behind): "They said it would stay between us." | Location A bed; her voice close; rain on the awning | Location A. Faces screen left. Recorder in his right hand, red light on. Jacket zipped halfway, wet shoulders. |
| 2 | 4 → 4 | Extreme close-up on his right hand holding Fieldnote, the source's coat a soft blur beyond | Static | Rain beads on the graphite body; the red light glows steadily; his thumb shifts once on the edge | VO: "What they tell me stays with me." | Location A bed, close rain ticks on the device | Location A. Recorder points screen left. Screen pale grey and blank. Ends with recorder centred, for a match cut. |
| 3 | 4 → 4 | Medium close-up on the kitchen table under the pendant lamp | Static | His right hand enters from frame right and sets Fieldnote down, centred; his thumb presses the round button; hand withdraws | none | Location B bed; soft tap of the recorder on wood; one button click | Location and lighting change (B). Match cut from shot 2 on recorder position. Device dry now, red light off. |

[The full answer continues with shots 4–6 and a coverage alternate, the ten-line continuity block pasted word for word into all seven shot prompts, each prompt's first and last frame, and the stitch plan with voice-over script, caption placement and export settings.]

Settings: model `sora-2` · size `1280x720` · seconds `8` · characters: none

Before

A cool cinematic shot of a woman drinking coffee in a nice cafe, make it 10 seconds.

After

Style: Contemporary 35 mm film look, natural and understated, soft contrast, fine grain, warm-neutral grade.

A small neighbourhood cafe on a quiet weekday morning. A woman in her early 30s with shoulder-length dark hair tied loosely back, wearing an oatmeal knit sweater, sits alone at a round marble table by a large street-facing window. In front of her: a white ceramic cup of black coffee on a matching saucer and a folded paper napkin. Behind her, out of focus, a wooden counter with an espresso machine and a barista moving between shelves of cups. Thin steam rises from the cup and catches the window light.

Cinematography:
Camera: medium close-up, eye level, from across the table at a slight angle; slow dolly-in
Lens: 50 mm feel; shallow depth of field, sharp on her face and the cup, background soft
Lighting: soft morning daylight through the window from camera left as key; warm tungsten pendant glow from the counter as background fill
Palette anchors: cream, warm walnut brown, soft white, muted sage, coffee black
Mood: calm, quiet, unhurried

Actions:
- She wraps both hands around the cup and lifts it slowly (first two seconds).
- She blows lightly across the surface, then takes one small sip.
- She lowers the cup to the saucer and looks out the window with a faint, relaxed smile (final two seconds).

Background Sound:
Low hiss of the espresso machine, soft clink of cups at the counter, muffled murmur of a few voices; no score.

What changed and why

- Removed "make it 10 seconds". Duration is an API parameter, not prose, and 10 is not a supported value (4, 8, 12, 16, 20). Set `seconds: 8` in the call; the prompt now fits 8 seconds of action.
- "Cool cinematic shot" became a named style. A specific aesthetic instead of a vague adjective, set first so it frames everything else.
- "Drinking coffee" became three timed beats. Lift, blow and sip, lower and look out. Beats with timing cues are far more reliable than a single vague verb.

[five more changes in the full answer: subject anchors, concrete nouns, one camera move, named light sources, background sound]

Pack: `references/pack-product-shots.md`.

Three options

1. PS-09 Strawberry Milkshake Product and Infographic. A ready-made premium cold-drink hero shot: seamless pastel backdrop, realistic condensation droplets and "premium café advertisement" styling, which is exactly the look a chilled cold-brew can needs.
Prompt by @Strength04_X (𝐌), source: https://x.com/Strength04_X/status/2090665058980462697, via awesome-nano-banana-pro-prompts, CC-BY-4.0.

2. PS-02 Luxury Chocolate Ad Still Life. The only prompt in the pack that is a full ad layout with on-image copy, but you would have to delete its placeholder copy and invented logos and rebuild most of the props.
Prompt by @AiwithLucas_ (Lucas AI), source: https://x.com/AiwithLucas_/status/2089231817916420518, via awesome-nano-banana-pro-prompts, CC-BY-4.0.

3. PS-01 Premium Beverage Advertising Photography. Written for a beverage-brand hero ad and works from your attached references, but the prompt is only one line long, so lighting and composition would come from what you attach.
Prompt by @exywuu (Exywuu), source: https://x.com/exywuu/status/2092222318084788564, via awesome-nano-banana-pro-prompts, CC-BY-4.0.

Pick: PS-09

What to attach. Image 1: a clear, front-on photo of your real Northbound can, logo facing the camera.

Adapted prompt (4:5 Instagram ad)

Image 1: product photo of the Northbound cold-brew coffee can. Use this exact can.

A vertical 4:5 Instagram feed ad. A high-quality professional product photograph of a premium cold-brew coffee can, the 330 ml matte navy aluminium can from Image 1 with its white logo, standing upright and centered against a soft pastel pink seamless studio background. Preserve the can's exact shape, proportions, matte navy finish, white logo and label from Image 1; do not redesign it, recolour it or add any new graphics to it. The can sits on the same seamless surface with a few clear ice cubes and a small scatter of dark roasted coffee beans at its base. Realistic condensation droplets cover the can with soft reflections from the studio lights. Elegant soft lighting creates subtle natural shadows beneath the can. The can fills about 55% of the frame height in the lower two thirds of the image, logo facing the camera.

Text: the headline "Cold. Bold. Northbound." across the top third of the image, centered, in a bold clean white sans-serif with generous letter spacing, large enough to read on a phone. Render this headline exactly once, spelled exactly as written. Apart from the can's own logo from Image 1, no other text, no prices, no taglines, no extra logos, no watermark.

Ultra-sharp focus, DSLR macro beverage photography, premium café advertisement style, hyper realistic, clean commercial composition, 8K.

Tool settings: aspect ratio 4:5; in AI Studio or the API also set the output resolution to 2K so the headline stays sharp.

Prompt by @Strength04_X (𝐌), source: https://x.com/Strength04_X/status/2090665058980462697, via awesome-nano-banana-pro-prompts, CC-BY-4.0. Adapted: subject swapped from a strawberry milkshake in a glass to the Northbound can, Image 1 reference and preserve-the-product line added, 4:5 aspect ratio and headline added, the original's second (infographic) paragraph removed.

[The full answer ends with a one-fix-per-turn table for headline contrast, product drift, garbled text and framing.]

Template used: #2 YouTube thumbnail from `templates/use-cases.md`, with one extra line for the chart.

Defaults I chose, and why
- No numbers on the chart. The only figure in your request is 60%. If I asked for axis labels or dollar amounts, the model would make them up. The headline carries the number; the bars just show the drop.
- The "-60%" is spelled out. A minus sign next to a number is a common place for text errors, so the prompt names each character.
- `quality="high"`. The template defaults to `medium`; close-up faces and exact text both call for high.

Final prompt

A 16:9 YouTube thumbnail for a video titled "How I cut our AWS bill by 60%".

Scene: a dark, near-black navy studio backdrop, softly blurred, with a faint vignette and a subtle cool rim light. Simple and uncluttered, high contrast against the subject.

Subject: a photorealistic man in his early-to-mid 30s, fictional (not a real person), short dark hair, light stubble, plain charcoal crew-neck t-shirt. He fills the LEFT half of the frame, framed from mid-chest up and large in frame, head and shoulders slightly turned toward the right side. His expression is genuine surprise: eyebrows raised high, eyes wide, mouth open in an "O". One hand is raised near his cheek, palm open, fingers natural. He is looking toward the chart on the right, not at the camera. Sharp focus, bright key light on his face, real skin texture.

Chart: on the RIGHT half, a bold, simple bar chart of 5 glossy red (#E53935) bars that step down sharply from left to right, the tallest bar on the left and the shortest on the right. A thick red arrow runs diagonally downward along the tops of the bars, ending in an arrowhead at the bottom right. Flat, clean graphic style with a soft glow. No axis labels, no numbers, no gridlines and no legend on the chart.

Text (render exactly once, verbatim, no extra characters): "AWS BILL -60%". Spelled A-W-S, space, B-I-L-L, space, minus sign, 6, 0, percent sign. Heavy, condensed, all-caps sans-serif in bright yellow (#FFD400) with a thick black outline and a slight drop shadow. Placed on the RIGHT half, above the bar chart, the text block filling about one third of the frame height, left-aligned, never overlapping the man's face.

Style: bold, saturated, high-contrast YouTube thumbnail, readable at phone size. Yellow and red pop against the dark background.

Constraints: no other text anywhere, no AWS or Amazon logo, no other logos, no borders, no watermark, no emoji. Keep the bottom-right corner free of key detail (YouTube's timestamp sits there).

Settings: `model="gpt-image-2"`, `size="1536x864"`, `quality="high"`, `n=2`.

[The full answer also shows the filled template table, the Python call, and a one-change-per-turn fix table with a preserve list.]

Method: dual-agent (A: design review · B: detector + browser overlay)

Design Health Score, site/index.html (Persuade surface)
| # | Heuristic | Score | Key issue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visibility of system status | 3 | FAQ shows +/–; nav has no current-section state |
| 2 | Match system / real world | 3 | "$" pricing next to VAT and "categorise" blurs the market |
| 3 | User control and freedom | 3 | Nav links vanish under 760px with no menu |
| 4 | Consistency and standards | 2 | Primary CTA purple in nav, mint in hero; 01–03 means both "feature" and "step" |
| 5 | Error prevention | 3 | "Start free" never says whether a card is required |
| 6 | Recognition rather than recall | 3 | Labelled nav, scannable sections |
| 7 | Flexibility and efficiency | n/a | Single-pass marketing page |
| 8 | Aesthetic and minimalist design | 2 | Largest object is an empty placeholder frame; glow is decoration |
| 9 | Error recovery | 2 | Pricing CTAs link to #pricing, the section they sit in |
| 10 | Help and documentation | 3 | FAQ answers switching objections; nothing on security |
| Total | | 24/36 | Acceptable (67%) |

Design specificity verdict. Copy is authored for Ledgerly ("the 3% you need to confirm queued for Friday", reminders on day 3/7/14); the visuals are category-interchangeable dark SaaS: indigo radial glow behind a centred hero, mint pill CTA, three identical 01/02/03 cards, a "Most popular" chip, and a placeholder frame where the product should be.
Deterministic scan: `impeccable detect --json site/index.html`, 13 findings: dark-glow ×6, numbered-section-labels ×3, hero-eyebrow-chip ×1, kicker-above-heading ×1, cramped-padding ×1, overused-font ×1.

Priority issues
- [P0] Hero visual is an empty placeholder. Fix: render a mocked weekly-review screen (unmatched-transaction queue, client match, export). Command: bolder, or new-work for the hero shot.
- [P1] Dead pricing CTAs: "Start free / Start Pro / Talk to us" link to #pricing, so the conversion click silently fails. Command: harden.
- [P1] No trust line at the bank-connection ask: read-only / encryption / provider line under the hero CTAs and step 01. Command: clarify.
- [P2] Inconsistent CTA colour hierarchy plus dark-glow shadows. Command: polish.
- [P2] Generic composition (eyebrow on every section, numbered feature cards, centred glow). Command: bolder.

Persona red flags. Jordan (first-timer): "P&L", "VAT", "quarterly estimates" unexplained; "Start Pro" does nothing. Riley (stress tester): footer Privacy/Terms are "#"; "Talk to us" on a self-serve $29 plan. Casey (mobile): nav links disappear with no menu; long scroll to dead pricing buttons.

Then, "make the hero call-to-action bolder without touching the rest": per bolder.md, amplified what the system already owns (Bricolage Grotesque 800, the mint accent, the pill radius) on a new `.btn-hero` class scoped to the hero: 60px tall, display face at 19px/800, a neutral offset elevation shadow instead of the coloured glow, hover/active/focus-visible states. Nav, pricing and the secondary button untouched; no copy added. Detector after the edit: 12 findings (was 13), all outside the edit's scope. […]

Ledgerly launch film: storylines (source: README.md and public/landing.html; every claim quoted from them)

The one thing: "Bookkeeping that files itself." In the viewer's words: "I only spend ten minutes on Friday confirming a few transactions." Spine: one freelancer, one Friday review, one real transaction travelling from the bank feed to the tax-ready report.

A. "Friday, 4:50 pm" (recommended). Device: a moment in someone's day. Form: object-to-object chain. A freelancer's week ends with a notification, "12 transactions to confirm", and the viewer expects an evening of spreadsheet work. Instead each thing they touch opens the next: the notification becomes the review queue, a confirmed row becomes a paid invoice whose reminders stop, the invoice becomes the line in a tax-ready report, and the export button becomes the Ledgerly mark. First two seconds: a laptop desktop at 16:50 on a Friday, a notification slides in, the cursor is already moving toward it. Look: the brand's ink-dark ground #01010d, one violet glow behind the product only, Bricolage Grotesque 800 titles, mint #88f9c0 rationed to the confirm tick, the paid stamp and "Start free". Sound: warm minimal pulse ~110 bpm, soft ticks on each confirm, a "paid" chime when the reminders stop.

B. "The 3%". Device: a number lands. Form: an endless zoom. A bank feed scrolls past too fast to read, everything sliding into place on its own; the camera dives into the few rows that did not, the "3% you need to confirm", and each confirm zooms into the next world.

C. "Files itself" (the bold one). Device: type carries the argument. Form: one frame that rebuilds. "Bookkeeping" breaks into transaction rows, "files" becomes folders the rows drop into, "itself" folds into the export button, the full stop becomes the mint dot of the logo.

Assumptions: 18–22 s, 16:9 1920×1080 at 30 fps, music and effects, no voice. Only you can answer: the landing page has no product screenshot; can you send the Friday review queue, an invoice with its reminder schedule, and the report export? Without them those beats use labelled placeholders.

SPEC.md (storyline A, excerpt)
GOAL: a freelancer feels "my Friday admin is ten minutes now" and clicks Start free.
TIME: 20 s × 30 fps = 600 frames. Music 110 BPM = 16.4 frames per beat.
MOTION: enter power3.out 18 f; move power2.inOut 14 f; exit power2.in 10 f; one spring (damping 0.55) on the paid stamp only; row stagger 3 f.
S1 0–48 Hook: desktop, clock "Fri 16:50", notification in by f6, click at f40.
S3 120–168 Reveal: "Bookkeeping that files itself." 104 px, "files itself." in mint, rows file themselves behind it.
S4b 244–320 Proof, chase: reminder chips Day 3 / 7 / 14 light in turn; money lands, chips stop, paid stamp springs.
S7 528–600 End card: Export button collapses into the mark f528–546, "Start free" lands f564 and holds.
BANNED: the purple glow anywhere but behind the product window; a title over a dimmed screenshot; the logo strip (no source says they are customers); any claim beyond the source; "Introducing" as the first line.
Next, with the CLI: npx hyperframes init ledgerly-launch --skip-skills → scenes → npx hyperframes check --json → snapshot --review → preview. […]

Design plan: Spoke & Stand landing page

Subject: a volunteer-run bike repair co-op in Leeds. Audience: people with a bike that needs fixing (students, commuters, tight budgets), would-be volunteers, bike donors. Primary job: get someone to turn up to a drop-in session with their bike, knowing when, where and what it costs.

Colour
- Galvanised steel #DCE3E6: page background, the colour of a workshop wall
- Overalls navy #1C2B44: all text and rules
- Stand blue #2F62B3: links, buttons, the repair-stand clamp in the hero
- Patch red #D23B2E: used once, the punch-hole ring on the repair ticket
- Manila tag #EAD9AE: only the repair ticket itself, never a background

Type. One family, Archivo variable (width 62 to 125). Display at width 112, weight 800, tight tracking, set big and flush-left like stencilled workshop signage; ticket and small print at width 75 like a printed job tag; body at 18px/1.55, measure 62ch. Scale 14 / 18 / 24 / 32 / 43 / 76.

Layout (left-aligned throughout; the ticket breaks into the right gutter)
  Fix your own bike.                 +-----o----------+
  We'll lend the tools               | REPAIR TICKET  |
  and a pair of hands.               | Tue 6-8.30pm  *|
  [Come to a drop-in]                | Thu 6-8.30pm   |
   Pay what you can, from £0         | Sat 10-1       |
  HOW A SESSION WORKS  1 Bring the bike  2 Get a stand  3 Fix it with a volunteer  4 Pay what you can
  WHAT WE CAN HELP WITH | WHAT WE CAN'T (yet)
  GIVE A HAND · FIND US (address, directions, accessibility note)
Alternative considered: a pegboard of tool outlines as the hero. Rejected: prettier, but hides the one thing visitors need (when to come).

Principles: the repair ticket is the one bold element, everything else quiet navy on steel; say the practical thing first (when, where, cost), no mission statement, no stats strip; structure only where the content has it (numbered steps because a session is a sequence; no cards, no shadows); one motion, the ticket swings once into rest on load, off with prefers-reduced-motion.

Review against the brief
- First instinct was warm cream, a serif display and a terracotta accent ("friendly community workshop"). That fits any cafe or charity. Changed to steel, navy and stand blue, taken from the actual workshop.
- First draft had a stats band ("2,400 bikes fixed, 60 volunteers"): generic big numbers, invented. Cut; the ticket with real session times replaces it.
- Small-caps eyebrows removed; headings in plain sentence case. A monospace face for the ticket is template chrome; Archivo's condensed width instead.

Built on approval as a single index.html (inline CSS, Archivo via Google Fonts, no JS): breakpoints at 860 and 560px, :focus-visible ring, ticket swing disabled under prefers-reduced-motion. […]