Moh4696/cinematic-film

Cinematic film

A film made this way is one camera move over one world. Every photo, card, clipping, map and number lives on one big board, and the camera travels between them along string, routes and arrows as the story moves. Every visual hit is timed to the word the narrator says. It is all code (Skia in Python), so it renders the same every time, any topic fits, and a new voice re-times the whole film by itself.

Built from a 5:22 documentary about Al Capone, then opened up to any subject. The rules here were written from what broke while making it.

Tools

File	What it does
scripts/check_setup.py	Checks Python, skia-python, ffmpeg, fonts and memory; says what to install
scripts/get_fonts.py	Fetches open-licensed fonts (Bebas Neue, Homemade Apple) for any text role this machine lacks
scripts/new_project.py	Starts a project from assets/template/ (a runnable explainer), or the documentary example with --example
scripts/make_beats.py	Writes beats.md, the table you approve; lints chronology, line length, digits in spoken text
scripts/tts_say.py	Free scratch voice (macOS say, espeak-ng, or any TTS command) to time the film before the final voice
scripts/split_takes.py	Cuts whole-section takes into one clip per line and flags suspect cuts
scripts/build_narration.py	Joins the lines into audio/narration.m4a and audio/timing.json, which the film is built on
scripts/fetch_commons.py	Searches Wikimedia Commons, downloads with licence and credit, refuses non-free files, writes credits.md
scripts/make_map.py	Projects public-domain boundaries (any country or region) for the map
scripts/prep_assets.py	Grades every image into one look (black and white, sepia or natural colour); generates the board textures
scripts/engine.py	The film engine: camera, spotlight, items, maps, looks, film finish
scripts/render.py	Stills, contact strips, the cue list, and the parallel MP4 render
scripts/build_sfx.py	Synthesises every sound effect from the cue list (no samples, nothing to license)
scripts/mix_soundtrack.py	Voice, effects and optional music, ducked and loudness-normalised
scripts/burn_captions.py	Burns one of four caption styles into the finished film and writes an SRT

Needs Python 3.9+, pip install skia-python numpy pillow (scipy optional) and ffmpeg. Run scripts/check_setup.py first; on Linux or Windows, also run scripts/get_fonts.py per project. All commands take --project <folder>.

Pick the film

Kind	Look	Images	Typical items
History, true crime, investigation	wall, slate	Archive photos and documents, graded bw	Prints, torn clippings, stamps, red string, map routes
Product launch, brand or founder story	studio, charcoal	Your product shots and team photos, graded natural	Cards, big numbers, counters, arrows
Science, engineering, how it works	blueprint, paper	Diagrams, archive or AI stills	Cards, counters, pen marks, maps
Tech, space, trailers	night	Screenshots, renders, AI stills	Big type, counters, routes, cards

Mix freely: the looks are a board and a finish, and every item works on every look. references/story.md has a story shape for each kind.

The rules

1. One hero per line. Each narration line has exactly one thing the camera is on. The spotlight dims everything else.
2. Hits land on the spoken word. A stamp slams on "charged", not on the line start. Time everything with doc.W(line, "word").
3. Show a phrase one way. Either type it on screen or show it on a real document, never both. Body copy on documents is grey rows, never filler words.
4. Time only moves forward after the opening. A cold open may jump ahead. After one bridge line ("Four years earlier..."), story time only goes forward.
5. Type you can read on a phone in one second. Big condensed caps. A typed label on screen should be about 3% or more of frame height.
6. Less is more. Strings fade after their beat, and old items dim. The final pull-back should look composed, not cluttered.
7. Nothing invented that looks real. Real photos and documents get credits. A document drawn in code is labelled a recreation and quotes only words that were really written. AI images are fine for illustration, but never as evidence of a real event or a real person.

Workflow

Stop for the user's approval at the four gates (marked Gate).

1. Story. Research, then write script.json: takes (sections) of lines, each with text, spoken (numbers as words), hero and typed. Keep fact notes alongside. 60 to 90 seconds is about 150 to 230 words. Details are in references/story.md.
2. Beat table. Run scripts/make_beats.py and fix every lint warning. Gate: the user approves beats.md, including the facts.
3. Images. List every image in photos.json: its id, kind and where it comes from.
   • Archive images: fetch_commons.py search, category and get.
   • The user's own files: drop them in <project>/assets/photos/.
   • AI stills: generate them in one style (the motion-assets skill plans and prices them).
   • references/archive.md covers other archives and the rights rules.
4. Scratch voice. Run tts_say.py, then split_takes.py, then build_narration.py. Listen to every line split_takes.py flags. Now the timings are real.
5. Assets. Run make_map.py if the story travels, then prep_assets.py.
6. Scene. Write scene.py: lay out the board in clusters per section, add items on doc.L/doc.W times, then camera and spotlight keys (film.shot). Read references/film.md. Both shipped projects show the patterns: assets/template/scene.py (explainer, studio look) and assets/wright-flyer/scene.py (documentary, every item type).
7. Look test. Run render.py --probe on one still per line at 1280x720 and look at all of them, then --strip on every big camera move. Gate: show the user stills of the opening and the look.
8. Draft. Render the first 30 seconds at 1280x720 with the scratch voice. Gate: the user watches it.
9. Final voice. Record it with any TTS or a person (references/voice.md). Run split, build, and probes again; nothing in the scene changes.
10. Sound. Run render.py --cues, then build_sfx.py, then mix_soundtrack.py, adding a score if wanted. Read references/sound.md.
11. Finish. Do the full render, then burn_captions.py and the SRT. Read references/performance.md before rendering at 1440p or 4K. Hand over credits.md with the film.

Self-review, every time

Look at the stills before you claim anything works. These are the mistakes that showed up, every one in a real render:

• Dark ink on a dark board: invisible. Use light type on dark looks, or bar_h=0.92 for a full label block behind dark type.
• The camera moved on but the spotlight stayed behind, leaving a dark frame. Use film.shot() unless they should part.
• Map scale too small: a whole coast smaller than one photo. Pick K so each place with prints gets its own room (references/film.md).
• Map labels colliding. Put the label on the side away from its neighbour.
• A cluster straddling the map's edge. Keep clusters either on the map or clearly off it.
• Highlights a few pixels off their words. Use PaperDoc.phrase_spans, and doc.on(print, fx, fy) with fractions read off a grid overlay of the image.

Shipped projects

• assets/template/: "From Cherry to Cup", a 25 second explainer in the studio look, made of cards, arrows and a counter, with no images. new_project.py my-film copies it. Give it a scratch voice and it renders.
• assets/wright-flyer/: "Twelve Seconds", a 90 second documentary about the first flight and the $50,000 rival who crashed twice. It uses seven public-domain photos, the US map, two typeset documents and every item type.

python3 scripts/new_project.py wright --example
python3 scripts/fetch_commons.py get --project wright
python3 scripts/make_map.py --project wright && python3 scripts/prep_assets.py --project wright
python3 scripts/tts_say.py --project wright && python3 scripts/split_takes.py --project wright && python3 scripts/build_narration.py --project wright
python3 scripts/render.py --project wright --size 1280x720 --out out/draft.mp4 --audio audio/narration.m4a

Related skills

From Open 3D Skills: motion-assets plans and prices AI stills when a film needs illustration, and frame-capture records web pages instead of code-drawn films.