skills/ai-film-pipeline-master/references/phase-07-image-prompt-engineering/ads-trailers.md

# Ads, Trailers and Motion Design

13 cards. These decide a frame: what is in it, how it is lit, and what it is made of.

Every card carries what it is, what it does to the audience, where it works best, what to avoid, and the prompt written out in full.

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### Lifestyle B-Roll

**Also called:** aspirational footage, brand world shots  
**What it is:** Shots of people living a life associated with the product: a calm morning, a walk in the street, laughter with friends, the product naturally present in the background.  
**Effect on the audience:** It sells the feeling rather than the object. The viewer buys the life in the picture and the product comes along as part of the deal.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Placed between product shots to give human context, and it works best in golden hour or soft window light. Keep the movement slow and the faces relaxed. In vertical ads keep one person in frame so it reads fast.  
**Best in:** formats: Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Fashion Film, Corporate / Training, Travel / Real Estate / Hospitality, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Wedding / Event Film | genres: Romance, Slice of Life, Family, Comedy, Drama, Adventure  
**Avoid when:** Lifestyle footage with no link to the product makes the ad look like stock. A forced smile kills the credibility instantly.  
**Prompt:** `warm morning window light, a person moving slowly through their routine with the product naturally present in frame`  
**Yields to:** `promo.ugc_day_in_life` — Polished aspiration reads as stock footage.  
`promo.lifestyle_broll`

### Testimonial Frame

**Also called:** customer interview setup, review shot  
**What it is:** A fixed interview frame: the person in a medium close-up, looking just off lens or into it, against a tidy background that speaks to their work or home.  
**Effect on the audience:** It gives the words formal weight. The stillness and the composed background make the testimony read as documented rather than improvised.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Used in service, corporate and education advertising. Put the name and role in a lower third for three seconds and lay cutaways of their work over the audio. Looking off lens reads as documentary; looking into it reads as direct address.  
**Best in:** formats: Commercial / TVC, Corporate / Training, Interview / Video Podcast, Documentary Series, Explainer, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok) | genres: Drama, Slice of Life, Science / Educational, Family, Political Thriller  
**Avoid when:** A blank white background makes the testimony look manufactured. Word-perfect memorised speech gives the game away and destroys the value.  
**Prompt:** `seated medium close-up interview, subject looking just off lens, soft key from a window, tidy contextual background`  
**Yields to:** `promo.ugc_single_take_testimonial` — The composed frame makes the testimony look manufactured.  
`promo.testimonial_frame`

### The Super

**Also called:** superimposed text, on-screen claim  
**What it is:** A short line superimposed over the image during the ad carrying a claim, a number or a legal condition, distinct from captions and subtitles.  
**Effect on the audience:** It fixes the information the picture cannot state and gives the claim a formal, documented look.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Use it for numbers, promises and conditions: the warranty length, the saving, the offer date. Keep its position fixed and clear of the face and the product. Legal conditions go smaller at the bottom but they must still be genuinely readable.

**The lower third is not the bottom of a vertical frame.** In 9:16 the bottom band belongs to the platform — the caption, the handle, the buttons — so a mandated line placed there is covered by the interface on the format the ad is most likely to run in, and covered legal text is the same as absent legal text. **In vertical, the super sits above the reserved band, never inside it.** The numbers are in [`../phase-03-shooting-script/vlb-formats.md`](../phase-03-shooting-script/vlb-formats.md) and they are a delivery rule, so they outrank the composition: the line moves, the frame does not get relit around it.

**Yields to:** `vertical.safe_zones` — on any 9:16 delivery, on where the super may sit.
**Best in:** formats: Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Corporate / Training, Explainer, News Report / Reportage, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok) | genres: all  
**Avoid when:** A super covering the product or the face at a key moment ruins the shot. Legal text too small to read exposes you legally and damages trust. And a mandated line placed in a vertical frame's lower band, where the platform's own interface will sit on top of it.  
**Prompt:** horizontal — `short claim line supered in the lower third of the frame in clean type, fixed position, clear of the product` · vertical — `short claim line supered in the middle third in clean type, fixed position, clear of the product and well above the reserved lower band`  
`promo.super`

### Kinetic Typography

**Also called:** motion type, animated text  
**What it is:** The words themselves are the picture: they appear, scale, move and get cut with the audio, over a simple or plain colour background.  
**Effect on the audience:** It makes speech visible rather than only audible, so the message is stored through two channels. It also works completely with the sound off.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Ideal for advertising with no shooting budget, for explainers and for lyric video. Keep one or two words on screen and let the movement serve the meaning: a falling word drops, a fast word rushes. Cut every word on the audio beat.  
**Best in:** formats: Commercial / TVC, Lyric Video, Explainer, Title Sequence / Opening Credits, Product Video / Motion Design, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Corporate / Training | genres: Musical, Comedy, Science / Educational, Slice of Life, Political Thriller  
**Avoid when:** A whole sentence in small type defeats the entire idea. Excessive movement on every word makes reading tiring and irritating.  
**Prompt:** `two words at a time filling the frame, each word animating in on its beat, bold sans type on a flat colour background`  
**Yields to:** `promo.title_cards` — Text must alternate with images, not replace them.  
`promo.kinetic_typography`

### The Braaam

**Also called:** brass hit, trailer horn  
**What it is:** A long low brass hit placed on a big image or on the arrival of the title, cutting off the music before it.  
**Effect on the audience:** Low frequencies are felt in the chest rather than heard, so the shot they land on gains instant weight and threat.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Use it twice in a trailer at most: once at the end of the second movement and once on the title. Put a large wide image under it that deserves the weight. Useful in epic and historical content and in vertical teasers.  
**Best in:** formats: Trailer / Teaser, Commercial / TVC, Game Cinematic / Gameplay, Music Video, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Title Sequence / Opening Credits | genres: Action, Thriller / Suspense, Sci-Fi, Fantasy / Epic, War, Horror, Historical / Biopic, Mythology / Ancient Epic  
**Avoid when:** A hit on a small or ordinary shot makes the trailer look overblown and comic. Repeating it every ten seconds drains it of all meaning.  
**Prompt:** `long low brass hit landing on the wide hero image as the music underneath drops out completely`  
**Example:** The Inception (2010) trailer campaign made the low brass hit a standard trailer device.  
**Yields to:** `promo.silence_drop` — No image large enough to carry the hit.  
`promo.braaam`

### Audio-Hit Sync

**Also called:** hit points, music accents  
**What it is:** Specific visual events are placed exactly on chosen musical accents: a cut, a title appearing, a movement, an impact.  
**Effect on the audience:** It makes picture and sound feel made together, and that sense of craft is what separates a professional trailer from an amateur one.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Mark the important accents before you lay a single shot, then assign an event to each one. Put the big images on the big accents and the details on the small ones. The same rule applies to vertical advertising and to episode recaps.  
**Best in:** formats: Trailer / Teaser, Commercial / TVC, Music Video, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Game Cinematic / Gameplay, Title Sequence / Opening Credits, Sports Broadcast / Sports Film | genres: Action, Thriller / Suspense, Musical, Fantasy / Epic, Sports Drama, Sci-Fi, War  
**Avoid when:** Syncing to every accent without choosing makes the edit mechanical and thoughtless. An important shot forced onto an accent that does not suit it usually loses both, because the picture and the beat pull in different directions; the exception is a deliberate clash marking the turn.  
**Prompt:** `place the cuts and the title reveals exactly on the marked musical accents, big images on the heavy hits`  
**Yields to:** `promo.product_sound` — The product's own sound owns the moment, music ducked.  
`promo.audio_hit_sync`

### Trailer Voice Over

**Also called:** voice of god, announcer narration  
**What it is:** One off-screen voice introduces the world and the story in short lines separated between shots.  
**Effect on the audience:** It delivers authority and certainty: the voice tells the viewer what they are seeing and how to read it, and unifies disconnected images.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Still the best tool in documentary, historical and institutional work: three short lines across the whole trailer are enough. Let the voice go quiet during the fast sequence and give the music the floor. In Arabic watch the rhythm: a short formal line carries more weight than a long one.  
**Best in:** formats: Trailer / Teaser, Heritage / Historical Documentary, Documentary Series, Commercial / TVC, Corporate / Training, Explainer | genres: Historical / Biopic, Heritage (civilisation-focused), War, Drama, Science / Educational, Mythology / Ancient Epic, Faith / Biblical Epic  
**Avoid when:** Narration explaining every shot makes the viewer stop looking. An over-grand announcer voice now reads as comic in modern content.  
**Prompt:** `three short voice over lines spaced across the trailer, silent during the fast montage, warm authoritative delivery`  
**Yields to:** `promo.dialogue_as_narration` — Modern content where an announcer reads as comic.  
`promo.trailer_voice`

### UI Animation

**Also called:** screen demo, app motion  
**What it is:** The app or website interface is presented in motion: fingers tap, screens transition, elements animate in and out by design.  
**Effect on the audience:** It makes a digital product tangible and understandable in seconds and proves it actually works rather than being marketing art.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Put the screen inside a real phone in a hand or in a clean device frame. Enlarge the important part of the interface so it reads in vertical, and never show more than three screens. Give every tap its own click sound.  
**Best in:** formats: Product Video / Motion Design, Commercial / TVC, Explainer, Corporate / Training, Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Game Cinematic / Gameplay | genres: Science / Educational, Slice of Life, Family, Comedy  
**Avoid when:** Showing the full interface at actual size is unreadable on a phone. Rushing through many screens leaves the viewer unclear what the app even does.  
**Prompt:** `phone held in hand with the app interface enlarged and legible, three screens only, each tap carrying a click sound`  
**Yields to:** `promo.ugc_screen_recording` — Real use proves more than designed motion.  
`promo.ui_animation`

### The Results-After-30-Days Time Jump

**Also called:** 30 day test, time lapse proof  
**What it is:** You film at the same angle in the same light on separate days, day one, day ten, day thirty, and present them in sequence with the day number on screen. Time itself is the evidence.  
**Effect on the audience:** It signals commitment: this person waited a month and kept a record. That alone makes the result more believable than any claim.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Health, skincare, fitness, plants and learning. Fix the filming position on day one, a mark on the floor, the same window, the same hour, or the comparison falls apart.  
**Best in:** formats: Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Vlog / YouTube Long-Form, Corporate / Training, Explainer | genres: Science / Educational, Slice of Life, Medical Drama, Sports Drama, Family, Drama  
**Avoid when:** Do not change the light or the distance between days, because a difference in light makes the viewer doubt the whole result. And an outcome you cannot support is the one that brings the account down, so claim only what the footage itself shows.  
**Prompt:** `the same locked framing filmed on day one, day ten and day thirty, identical light and distance, day number captioned on each`  
**Yields to:** `promo.ugc_before_after_oner` — The result shows in one take; a month is not needed.  
`promo.ugc_thirty_days`

### The Screen-Recording Proof Shot

**Also called:** screen capture proof, in-app recording  
**What it is:** You record the phone or desktop screen while using the app or showing the result: the order, the balance, the message, the dashboard. It usually runs with your voice explaining over it. It differs from Screen Recording as Evidence in the documentary chapter, which shows a source, a document or a post as journalistic proof: here you are demonstrating your own use of the product.  
**Effect on the audience:** The screen is material evidence that is hard to dismiss, and the viewer sees exactly what will happen when he does it himself. That removes the fear of the unknown before the download.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Apps, software, financial and educational services. Record with a slow clear finger, punch in on the important region in the edit, and blur any personal information before publishing.  
**Best in:** formats: Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Commercial / TVC, Explainer, Corporate / Training, Product Video / Motion Design, Vlog / YouTube Long-Form | genres: Science / Educational, Slice of Life, Comedy, Family  
**Avoid when:** Real personal data and account numbers have no place on screen, so mask anything private before you record. A fast recording nobody can read also proves nothing, so slow down and hold on the moment that matters.  
**Prompt:** `phone screen recording of the app being used step by step, slow deliberate taps, punch in on the key result, personal data masked`  
**Yields to:** `doc.screen_recording` — The screen is a source or document, not your own use.  
`promo.ugc_screen_recording`

### The Whisper / ASMR Product Close-Up

**Also called:** ASMR product, sound-led close-up  
**What it is:** An extremely tight shot on the product where sound is the lead: a lid opening, a spray, fabric rubbing, a pour, a crunch, with a quiet whisper instead of ordinary delivery. The microphone is close and the music is gone.  
**Effect on the audience:** Close sound produces a physical response: the viewer feels the texture on his own skin. That creates direct desire with no sales argument at all.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Skincare, food, drinks, textiles, candles and packaging. Shoot very tight with raking light so the texture reads, and let every action produce one clean sound rather than several.  
**Best in:** formats: Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Kids Content, Vlog / YouTube Long-Form, Fashion Film | genres: Slice of Life, Romance, Family, Comedy, Preschool / Early Learning  
**Avoid when:** Without headphones it does not land, so do not build a whole campaign on it alone. A long whisper with no event also bores; give the ear a new sound every couple of seconds.  
**Prompt:** `extreme close-up with the microphone near the product, one clean sound per action, raking light on the texture, no music at all`  
**Yields to:** `promo.macro_texture` — Sound-off viewing; texture must read by eye alone.  
`promo.ugc_asmr_closeup`

### The Caption Carries It Sound-Off

**Also called:** sound-off caption design, silent readable ad  
**What it is:** You design the ad so it is fully understood with no audio: every selling point appears on screen in sequence, and sound becomes a bonus rather than a requirement. The message reads from the captions alone.  
**Effect on the audience:** Most viewing happens muted, so an ad that cannot be read in silence loses most of its audience before it starts. Sequential captions also pull the eye from line to line, which extends watch time.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Every social ad. Write the four core points as short phrases, place each at its own moment, and keep them in the middle band away from the platform interface.  
**Best in:** formats: Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Corporate / Training, Explainer, Vertical Micro-Drama | genres: all  
**Avoid when:** Do not put a paragraph on screen, because a long line cannot be read in a second and a half. And do not let the captions repeat the speech word for word; let them carry the idea in its shortest form.  
**Prompt:** `every selling point appears as a short caption in the middle band, one at a time, readable with the sound off, safe from the interface edges`  
**Yields to:** `vertical.captions` — The job is verbatim accessibility, not designed selling points.  
`promo.ugc_caption_carries`

### The Split-Screen Comparison

**Also called:** side by side test, versus format  
**What it is:** You split the screen and run the test on both sides at once: your product on one side and the alternative on the other, under identical conditions, angle and timing.  
**Effect on the audience:** A simultaneous comparison delivers a verdict with no argument, and the eye decides in two seconds. The synchronised timing is what makes the test look fair.  
**Used for and where it works best:** Cleaning, absorbency, durability, speed and taste. Make the conditions genuinely identical and say so out loud, and let the result be visible in frame rather than asserted.  
**Best in:** formats: Vertical Short-Form (Reels, Shorts, TikTok), Commercial / TVC, Product Video / Motion Design, Explainer, Corporate / Training, Meme / Comedy Edit | genres: Science / Educational, Comedy, Slice of Life, Dark Comedy / Satire, Family  
**Avoid when:** Do not name a competing brand or show its logo; keep it a generic alternative, and avoid any claim you cannot support. An unfair test is also caught in the comments and costs you the trust you were building.  
**Prompt:** `vertical split screen, the same test running on both sides at the same moment, identical lighting and framing, result visible in frame`  
**Yields to:** `promo.ugc_before_after_oner` — Comparison against a rival is not legally safe.  
`promo.ugc_split_compare`