ELA promo film · storyboard shotgun

Three directions for a 25–30 s, 16:9 launch film of the iOS app, to be built in code (Remotion + synthesized score). Light Evergreen Mint, deadman pre-dispatch, no timing promises, firm unnamed. Open each storyboard, rate, pick a preferred, write notes, then “Copy feedback” and paste it back.

Fixed for all three

Chair’s note

All three obey the brief (deadman flow, light mint, no firm name, no timing promise, disclaimers on the end card) and render clean at 1440. They differ where it matters: A is a film, B is an explainer, C is a story. For a launch hero on social, C carries the most feeling in 30 s; A is the closest to the Tessel craft (one object relayed through every seam, logo becomes product); B is the safest and cheapest to build because real captures run throughout.

Ranking

  1. C 2:11 a.m. — the night-to-light flood is the single best transition of the round and the copy is voice.md verbatim. Risk: 8 s of dark in a 30 s film and one dread line ("Your phone is about to be taken.") — keep it if everything after is exhale, as written.
  2. A Relay — the most cinematic and the truest to the reference discipline; the dot → disc → ring → node → keyhole relay is a real idea. Costs the most: five of eight frames are code-rebuilt UI, and the abstract opening leans on the score.
  3. B Four things — clearest product explanation and the watch beat is a plus, but frames 4–6 sit on one screen while lines land, so it reads as a slide deck unless the camera work is exceptional.

Remix suggestion

C's spine (night → hold → flood → light) with A's relayed dot as the connective tissue through the seams, and B's four-line cascade at the send instead of C's mono ledger. Runtime stays ≤ 30 s by trimming C's window frame.

A · Relay

One forest-green dot is handed from shot to shot and never leaves the frame: it becomes the disc, the hold ring, the countdown, the first case node, the live location, and finally the circle of the keyhole. No cuts; the app grows out of the dot.

Relay storyboard

Motif A single forest dot, relayed through every shot, that ends as the keyhole's circle.

Sound A low drone that rises a fifth on the hold; three tuned ticks; a soft metronome under the countdown; one pulse per case node; a single resolve chord on "Everything else is ours now."; two dry ticks to close. 84 BPM, every cue exported from the picture timeline.

Beat sheet (8 frames)
tOn screenMotionSound
0:00–0:03Three seconds.Light canvas. A 12 px forest dot fades in at centre and breathes once; the two words rise 16 px beneath it in Bricolage 300.Room tone, low drone (A♭), one tuned tick as the dot lands.
0:03–0:07The disc is the whole app. · Protected · Protection active · HOLD TO ARMThe dot swells into the 196 pt home disc, keyhole fades up inside; header, status line, label and standing-by card assemble around it on beats; the bezel draws in last.Drone; three quiet UI settles panned to position.
0:07–0:10Hold. Nothing else. · HOLD TO ARM · 1s / 2s / 3s · watch: 2s KEEP HOLDINGPush in; the ring draws in three equal arcs, one per second; the watch slides in on the second tick and mirrors it; the ring closes and snaps tighter on the third.Three tuned ticks at 0:07.5/0:08.5/0:09.5; drone rises a fifth; low thud on commit.
0:10–0:14If the moment passes, slide "I'm safe". If you can't, ELA sends. · 0:27 → 0:00 · app: Sending help in · Send help now · Slide to cancel — I'm safeReal pre-dispatch screen slides in left; the ring stays centre-right as the countdown with the dot riding its edge; 30 s compressed to 4 with a speed ramp; nobody slides; at 0:00 the dot drops out of the ring.Soft metronome per displayed second, accelerating and thinning; two beats of silence before the drop.
0:14–0:19Then the response runs without you. · Case opened · A vetted law firm notified · Your consulate's emergency desk informed · Your trusted contacts receive a private live link · A human ops team tracks the case · EXAMPLE timelineThe dot becomes the first node's check; rows lift off the real reaching-your-law-firm screen and land one per beat, stepping down and right; the fifth lands with a hollow node.One rising pulse per landing (four); the fifth is a held note.
0:19–0:23The people who love you watch help arrive. · Private live link · LIVE · Milestones · Acting lawyer's name appears here once a firm acceptsA browser-shaped card unfolds around the dot: the trusted contact's private link. The dot lands on the map, turns red and pulses at 1.4 s (the only red); milestones fill one per beat; slow drift across the map.Drone opens to a major third; the pulse is a very soft heartbeat for two bars.
0:23–0:27Everything else is ours now.Two lines in Bricolage 300 at 96 pt arrive from soft blur, one per beat; the dot settles as their full stop, breathes twice, then the keyhole body draws down from it.Resolve chord (I), held; two dry ticks.
0:27–0:30ELA · Coming soon to iPhone & Apple Watch · ela.now · ELA is a membership service, not an emergency service. In immediate danger, call 999. · Screens show how the service works; they are not a guarantee of any outcome.Lockup centre; URL fades up in mono; small print last; one-second hold with a final breath of the dot inside the mark.Chord decays under a final tick-tock an octave lower; 500 ms silence.
Build notes

Real recorded screens: home-protected (02, revealed under the rebuilt layer), watch holding-natural or watch-sequence.mp4 (03), countdown / 14-pre-dispatch (04), 15b-active-case-reaching with no firm name (05). Code-rebuilt: the dot, disc, hold ring and counter, countdown ring and numerals with speed ramp, the five timeline rows, the whole live-link card in 06 (no safe capture exists yet), type, mark and lockup. Beat grid 84 BPM 4/4 at 60 fps (beat 42.86 f, bar 171.4 f). Sync cues: dotIn 0:00.7; holdTicks 0:07.5/0:08.5/0:09.5; commit 0:09.55; countdownZero 0:14.0; nodeLandings 0:14.9/0:15.6/0:16.3/0:17.0; liveDotPulse 0:19.5–0:22.5 at 1.4 s; resolve 0:23.0; markBody 0:26.0; finalTicks 0:28.6/0:29.3. Discipline: no cuts, every seam a morph or a hand-off of the dot; one red surface at a time (Send help now in 04, live dot in 06); light canvas throughout; motion-blur pass on the swell, the countdown ramp and the dot's flight.

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B · Four things

Product-forward and the most buildable: one real phone runs the whole flow on the right and never leaves the frame; four lines land on the left exactly as the four timeline rows land on screen.

Four things storyboard

Motif The phone never leaves the frame: it enters at 0:00 and the camera only pushes, racks and pulls around it, until the watch takes its place and the lockup takes the watch's.

Sound A soft pulse at 100 BPM that only begins when the send happens and drops one warm note on each of the four lines; three quiet ticks on the hold; a metronome under the countdown; one chord at the lockup, then room tone.

Beat sheet (8 frames)
tOn screenMotionSound
0:00–0:06Three seconds. That's your whole job. / Press and hold the disc. You don't type anything, call anyone, or explain.Phone rises into the right half; fingertip lands at 0:02.4; forest hold ring draws over 3 s; display lines land on beats 1 and 3.Room tone, soft pad; three quiet ticks at 0:02.4, 0:03.6, 0:04.8.
0:06–0:09.6A short countdown begins. / If the moment passes, slide “I'm safe” and nothing happens. If you can't, ELA sends.Only the mono timer moves (0:23 → 0:20). Left copy swaps with a 300 ms rise. Red Send help now is the one red surface.Pad thins to a single held note; quiet metronome click per timer second.
0:09.6–0:12Everything else is ours now. / The response runs on our servers, not your screen.Slow push toward the phone (scale 1.0 → 1.25) framing the five-row timeline of the reaching-your-law-firm state.One low resolve note; the 100 BPM pulse begins.
0:12–0:14.4A vetted law firm is notified. / Engaged the moment it accepts. If it can't act, ELA is already finding another. (lines 2–4 ghosted)Push reaches scale 1.9 on rows 1–3; REACHING NOW pill breathes once; line one inks with its rail drawing down.Pulse; first of four ascending warm notes on the downbeat.
0:14.4–0:19.2Your consulate is informed. / Your family gets a private live link. / Live location, each milestone, the acting lawyer's name. Sent only to the people you chose.Pan 80 px per bar at scale 1.9 onto the consulate and trusted-contact rows; check discs fill forest as each line inks.Notes two and three on the downbeats of bars 7 and 8.
0:19.2–0:21.6A human team tracks the case. / Phone locked, dead, or taken: it still runs. / EXAMPLE TIMELINE — TIMINGS VARY BY CASEFinal pan; response-team node fills; EXAMPLE label fades in at 60 % and holds to the lockup.Fourth, highest note; pulse holds one bar then softens.
0:21.6–0:26.4On your wrist too. / The watch mirrors the hold. If your phone is out of reach, three seconds on the wrist starts the same response.Night panel rises with the sheet easing; watch plays the real sequence (ring closes, Case opened ledger); blurred phone drifts out.Three quieter ticks on the wrist; pulse stops on the ledger.
0:26.4–0:30ELA / Coming soon to iPhone and Apple Watch / ela.now / ELA is a membership service, not an emergency service. In immediate danger, call 999. / Screens show how the service works; they are not a guarantee of any outcome.Ring lands as the keyhole circle; polygon draws down; wordmark tracks in; coming-soon line and URL rise; small print last; one second of stillness.One warm chord on the mark, tail into room tone.
Build notes

Real screens recorded on the simulator inside a code phone frame: F1 home hold, F2 deadman countdown, F3–F6 the reaching-your-law-firm state via the force-state seed (code fills the check discs on the beat if the harness cannot step rows live), F7 the watch sequence. Coded in Remotion: phone frame, every camera move (push, pan, rack focus), fingertip, hold-ring overlay, four-line stack with ink travel, EXAMPLE label, night panel, ring-to-keyhole morph, lockup. Never on screen: firm name, 15-minute line, gold/dark v2. Beat grid 100 BPM at 60 fps (36 frames/beat, 144/bar), 12½ bars = 30 s; lines land on downbeats of bars 6–9. Sync cues: ticks 0:02.4/0:03.6/0:04.8 · countdown 0:06 · send 0:09.6 · lines 0:12/0:14.4/0:16.8/0:19.2 · wrist 0:21.6 · lockup 0:26.4. Open: F2 shows a tap on Send help now (deadman would send at zero anyway; waiting to zero adds 3 s); the family beat uses the Trusted contact row because no contact-side live page capture exists without the firm name.

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C · 2:11 a.m.

Editorial, night to dawn: the one dark beat the voice allows, the hold in the dark, then the frame floods to the light canvas as the response runs. Typography carries the story; the app is the answer, not the subject.

2:11 a.m. storyboard

Motif Light itself. Every seam is a change in light: a night that dims, a mint bloom that becomes daylight, a dawn that arrives with the lawyer, a morning canvas the lockup sits on.

Sound Room tone and distant marina traffic, one held low note under the hold that lifts a fifth when the countdown starts, a soft pulse on each event line, and a single resolve chord arriving with the dawn light; the hold's tick closes the film.

Beat sheet (8 frames)
tOn screenMotionSound
0:00–0:0402:11 · It's 2:11 a.m. in a city that isn't yours.Fade up from black onto the night marina; 4% push-in on the house ease; headline rises 16 px line by line on beats 2 and 3.Room tone, distant traffic, a far-off horn. No music.
0:04–0:08A checkpoint. / A complaint you never saw coming. / Your phone is about to be taken.Three short lines on three beats, each brighter; camera drifts right; on the third line the real dark home screen rises from the bottom edge, dim.One low note begins under the third line and holds. Traffic thins.
0:08–0:12Three seconds. That's your whole job. · 0:03 (three dots light in turn)Phone settles centre-right; a thumb-press ring draws clockwise around the real disc over exactly 3 s; the three dots light per second; the mint glow grows with the ring. The film's stillest moment.Three soft ticks, one per second, on the beat; the held note thickens under the third.
0:12–0:16If the moment passes, slide "I'm safe" and nothing happens. / If you can't, ELA sends. From here on, your silence counts as a yes. (phone: SENDING HELP IN 0:23 · Send help now · Slide to cancel — I'm safe)Bloom settles into the light canvas with a residual wash; the phone crossfades to the real light countdown, timer running live 0:27→0:19; the red button is the only red; copy fades in left, second paragraph two beats later.The held note lifts a fifth; a quiet one-per-second metronome joins under the timer.
0:16–0:21Everything else is ours now. / 02:11:44 Case opened — profile and location compiled into a case brief / 02:11:46 A vetted law firm notified, your brief in hand / 02:11:47 Your consulate's emergency desk informed / 02:11:49 Your trusted contacts receive a private live status link / EXAMPLE timeline — actual timings vary by case. A human ops team follows every case.Headline snaps in at 600 weight (first heavy weight in the film); four mono event lines type in one per beat, each lighting the matching row on the real 'reaching your law firm' screen; EXAMPLE label present from the first line.A warm pulse on each line landing, rising in pitch through the four. No metronome.
0:21–0:25Your phone can be locked, dead, or in someone else's pocket. / The response runs on our servers, not your screen. A human ops team follows every case from first second to last.Dawn skyline full-bleed, 2% drift; no phone in frame on purpose; the white card rises 16 px and holds; still camera for the one promise sentence.Warmth arrives with the light: the note resolves into a single held soft chord; room tone returns.
0:25–0:28By morning, it's a case — not a crisis. / A lawyer who accepted your brief. A consulate that knows your name. A family that saw every step.Daylight; the real light home 'Protected' (calm) slides in from the right, the same screen seen dark in frame 2; headline lands in two beats, last two words at 600.The chord opens with a second voice above it; distant traffic and birds.
0:28–0:30ELA (keyhole) / Built so one hold is enough. / Coming soon to iPhone & Apple Watch · ela.now / ELA is a membership service, not an emergency service. In immediate danger, call 999. / Screens show how the service works; they are not a guarantee of any outcome.Disc lands as the keyhole; wordmark slides out from behind it at .14em; posture line, chip and URL on three beats; small print static; hold 1 s clean.Chord decays; one final soft tick on the last frame, the same tick as the hold.
Build notes

Hybrid. Real recorded screens: dark home hold state (frames 2–3, simulator in dark appearance via the force-state deep link), light pre-dispatch countdown recorded live so the mono timer is genuine (frame 4), active case in the 'reaching your law firm' state with no firm name and no timing line (frame 5), light home calm (frame 7). Code: hold ring, dots and glow as Remotion overlays keyed to the disc position; the mint-to-white flood as an animated radial mask; panorama camera as scale/position tweens on the house ease; all type live in Bricolage / Instrument Sans / Spline Sans Mono so the 9:16 cut re-flows; the keyhole from the brief's SVG. Beat grid 72 BPM (1 beat = 50 frames at 60 fps, 9 bars = 30 s). Sync cues exported with the picture: tick1/2/3 at 8/9/10 s; flood at the frame the bloom crosses the frame edge (~11.4 s); metronome once per second 12–16 s stopping on the screen cut; lines[4] at 16.5/17.5/18.5/19.5 s; dawn at the frame the dawn panorama reaches 50% opacity (~21.6 s). Left out on purpose: firm name, '15 minutes', insurance, prices, watch. Dark family only in frames 1–3.

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Overall direction