skills/ai-host-video/references/motion-style-documentary-collage.md

# Documentary Collage

Use this direction for history, economics, biography, investigation and explanations
built around source material. The composition reveals relationships among documents,
images and places; the tactile treatment should support that reading.

## Still composition

- Organize a source image or document as the visual anchor, with a quieter region
  for context. Layer supporting material along a meaningful path or shared edge.
- Pair editorial serif/sans contrast or a restrained condensed display face with
  legible source captions. Preserve the distinction between quotation and annotation.
- Use cut-paper edges, image windows or a torn mask selectively. Overlap can show
  association; an actual timeline or map should supply the spatial logic when needed.
- Begin with warm paper or monochrome and one signal colour for attention or a
  relationship. Preserve source colour when it is itself meaningful evidence.
- Choose a subtle print or photocopy treatment, leaving important text and details
  intact. Tape, pins and hand marks are optional organizing devices.

## Motion vocabulary

- **Place and connect:** material enters as if deliberately positioned, then a
  line or annotation explains why the items belong together.
- **Isolate a detail:** a mask or crop reveals the relevant part while enough of
  the original remains to preserve its context.
- **Trace a relationship:** a route, underline or timeline develops in the order
  needed to understand the information, with labels following their referents.
- **Carry the evidence:** retain a document fragment or object between compositions
  as its role changes from background context to the subject of examination.
- **Resolve the cluster:** simplify a layered arrangement into the key relationship
  or conclusion, leaving a deliberate reading hold.

## Adjustable starting points

- Try 300–600 ms for a paper placement or reveal, with a firm ease-out and little
  or no overshoot. A small tilt may suggest placement without making every piece rock.
- About 60–140 ms between related placements can establish order; longer intervals
  may be necessary when the sources contain copy worth reading.
- A slow crop change around 3–6% across a held passage can direct attention to a
  detail. Use an unchanged image when movement would distract from examination.
- Draw an annotation over roughly 250–500 ms when that allows its target to register.

## Example development

A document is shown with its source caption. A relevant passage is isolated while
the page remains visible. A line connects that passage to a related image; the two
items align into a comparison. The marked detail carries into the next composition
as the anchor for the next question, rather than resetting to another paper slide.

## Standalone typography

A verified quotation or date can hold directly on a quiet field with a readable source
line. Reveal the text in meaningful groups, then isolate a key phrase through weight
or an underline while retaining its context. Editorial type contrast supplies the
character; a paper rectangle, torn edge or image is optional.

## Avoid

Fabricated evidence, misleading quotation crops, decorative aging on every surface,
chaotic scrapbooks and unsupported historical claims. Never invent source labels,
dates or official-looking stamps to make the composition feel more authentic.