How we built the VR Flashback product film

1. Decide what the video is

The loop sells VR FLASHBACK Series 01, not the short film. No Virtual logo, no workshop language, no “AI short.” Arc locked early:

MYSTERY → OBJECT → INTERFACE → EXPERIENCE → SCARCITY

Beat sheet we settled on (v8):

• Signal — black / cyan pulse (question, no product yet)
• Case closed — orbital beauty pass around the walnut case
• Earpiece hero — turntable orbit (held longer; no lid-open beat)
• Capture — live plate from /recording/?frame=film
• Restore — live plate from /wake-up/?frame=film
• Claim — MEMORY IS NOT A RECORDING. / IT'S AN EXPERIENCE.
• Scarcity last — ONLY 7 SYSTEMS WILL EXIST.

If the video communicates “cool VR gadget,” it failed. It should communicate: we built something that captures an experience — and only seven exist.

2. Lock the product before you animate

AI video invents a new earpiece every take if you only use text. We treat geometry as law.

1. MASTER — single earpiece plate (faceted body + rose-gold honeycomb grille + matte tip).
2. T3 hero — same object, macro, parts left in black.
3. T2 case open — earpiece inside must match master.
4. T1 case closed — walnut / matte black / rose-gold lid. No cardboard.

Generate in that order. Attach the locked plates. Reject any take where the grille, tip, or case materials drift.

On this worksite the plates live under /media/characters/vf-earpiece*.png and the loop stills under /media/vr-flashback/landing-loop/.

3. Do not start with text-to-video — and do not fake motion with Ken Burns

For product work, image-to-video (I2V) beats pure T2V. You feed a locked still and ask only for motion. Ken Burns / zoompan on stills reads as amateur on a device that costs thousands of euros. Every product beat in the master is a real I2V clip.

What worked for us on Replicate · Kling v2.1:

• Standard I2V (start image only) for orbit / turntable motion — case closed, open case, earpiece hero. No end frame locking the camera to a push-in.
• Pro + start/end only when you need a true transition (closed case → open case lid hinge).
• Two takes per beat, then pick. Measure motion (frame difference), not just “looks sharp.” A Pro take with identical start/end can be almost static — we threw those out.

Prompt pattern that helped for orbit:

Luxury product film. [exact object]. Near-black void.
Slow orbital / turntable yaw. Hold subject scale steady —
no zoom, no push-in, no morphing, no people, no text.
Keep exact geometry.

Negative: text, watermark, people, AirPods, cardboard, shaky cam, Ken Burns, zoom-in, warp.

Audio from the model: off. We keep Neural Bed 62 under the open so the film sound language stays consistent.

4. Interface beats come from the storyboard, not from I2V

The Capture hexagon bloom and the Restore construction are already diegetic UI in the worksite:

• Capture — grabando.js canvas
• Restore · 16:9 — restore.js canvas

We added a matching ?frame=film plate to Capture, froze animation time with &t=, screenshot the 16:9 embeds with headless Firefox, then assembled 24fps clips. Those replace any “AI HUD” or still zoom of a status panel. Same language Dex sees in the cut.

5. Budget reality (so you can plan)

Public Replicate ranges for Kling 2.1 are roughly $0.25–$0.90 per run (5–10s, standard→pro). Product orbit takes + one Pro lid open sat near ~$7 estimated under a $15 ceiling. Leave money for retakes: the bad take is part of the method, not a failure.

Do not “save” budget by Ken Burns-ing the case and earpiece. Spend on I2V for those beats; HUD is free if you already built the storyboard UI.

6. Edit like a film, not like a demo reel

Stitching AI clips end-to-end looks amateur even when each clip is pretty. We assemble in ffmpeg (scripts in the landing-loop folder) with:

• Hard cuts between product and HUD beats — dissolves made the earlier masters feel like a photo slideshow.
• One grade on I2V product clips only (HUD plates stay as captured).
• Typography as cards, not baked into the AI frame — claim in two beats, scarcity last and smaller.
• Sound: Neural Bed low under product; duck under claims; short mechanical / UI ticks — not generic sci-fi score.

Placement on the site: its own section after the hero, container width — not a full-bleed takeover, not a tiny HUD replacement.

7. Checklist you can copy

1. Write the 18s beat sheet and the “never do” list (no cardboard, no visor while recording, no film branding, no Ken Burns on product).
2. Lock MASTER → T3 → T2 → T1 stills.
3. I2V each product beat (orbit in standard; lid hinge in Pro with start/end). Two takes. Reject static or off-geometry takes.
4. Record Capture + Restore from the live storyboard plates (16:9 film frame).
5. Edit: hard cuts, grade on product only, type cards, cue bed, foley.
6. Watch once muted, once with sound. Ask: gadget trailer or experience system?
7. Only then embed on the landing.

8. Files on this worksite

• Stills + master: /media/vr-flashback/landing-loop/
• I2V sources used in v9: …/replicate-tests/v7/t1-orbit.mp4, …/t3-i2v-*.mp4
• Live HUD clips: …/replicate-tests/hud-live/
• Scripts: replicate_v7_product.py, capture_hud_plates.py, build_v8.py
• Master: vf-landing-loop-18s-v9.mp4
• Landing section: /vr-flashback/landing/en/#product-film