hyperframes/skills/product-launch-video/references/story-design.md

Story design — product launch video

Step 3 of the product-launch flow. Output: STORYBOARD.md (the narrative plan, one frame per beat) and SCRIPT.md (the locked spoken narration).

This step decides what the video says, in what order, and how each beat is said — and it says each beat in the SHAPE of a proven script. It does not design layout, composition, or motion (that is Step 4). For exact file syntax follow ../hyperframes-core/references/storyboard-format.md and ../hyperframes-core/references/script-format.md.

What story design produces

For every beat, four things:

1. Position in the SEQUENCE — the shot order. Story truth decides which beats exist and in what order (the arc).
2. Voiceover written in a blueprint's script shape — the spoken line, drafted to sound like the proven script for the shape this beat is reaching toward (see the script bank below).
3. A candidate blueprint: id — the proven shot SHAPE this beat leans toward (a tag, not a commitment; Step 4 confirms or overrides).
4. transition_in — how this beat enters from the one before it.

The big idea: the blueprint is applied from the very first step. The blueprints were reverse-engineered from 50 golden clips; each one implies a proven script. So we write the VO in that script's shape from the start — the voiceover is blueprint-shaped before Step 4 ever runs, which makes the blueprint's hit-rate downstream high.

This is still a SOFT discipline. Story truth comes first: never invent, bend, drop, or reorder a beat to fit a blueprint. The script patterns only shape HOW a beat is said and which proven shape it leans toward — they never decide which beats exist.

Read first

1. hyperframes.json — locked brief: angle, length, aspect ratio, language.
2. frame.md — tone, mood, design system, brand register.
3. capture/extracted/visible-text.txt — product facts, page copy, positioning, proof, CTA.
4. capture/extracted/asset-descriptions.md — the ONLY source for the captured asset inventory.
5. user_script.txt and VO_MODE, when present.

Do not inspect capture/assets/, contact sheets, screenshots, or raw files in Step 3. Treat asset-descriptions.md as the canonical asset list. Never invent asset filenames.

Method

1. Extract the product truth

From the brief and captured text, name:

• Audience — who the video speaks to.
• Pain / desire — what they already want fixed or achieved.
• Promise — the one-line thesis of the whole video.
• Product role — what the product does in the story.
• Proof — features, UI moments, metrics, logos, demos.
• CTA — what the viewer should do next.

Build the sequence around the promise, not a feature list. A website is an information layout; a video is an emotional sequence. Reorder, merge, and omit captured content freely — do not follow page order.

2. Choose the arc (the sequence backbone)

Pick ONE arc — it fixes the beat order. Compound only when useful (e.g. PAS with feature-benefit progression).

Arc	Use when	Beat order
PAS	Pain is known and urgent (broken B2B workflows).	hook → pain → agitation → solution tease → product intro → proof/demo → CTA
Future Pacing	Sells a new future / category / paradigm.	imagine → name product → remove pain → mechanism → outcome → CTA
Demo Loop	UI is self-explanatory; best shown working.	question → product intro → demo cycle 1 → demo cycle 2 → trust → CTA
BAB	Bridges an old workflow to a better one.	before → after tease → bridge/product → step 1 → step 2 → wow → CTA
Feature-Benefit Cascade	Feature-rich or desire/status-driven.	category hook → feature → benefit → feature → benefit → climax → CTA

Use feature→benefit rhythm inside any arc when there are many capabilities — always translate a feature into viewer value, never stack raw features.

frame.md tunes the VOICE, not the arc: restrained/B2B → plain, low-hype; bold/launch → short, punchy; warm/human → friendly direct address; premium/cinematic → aspirational, fewer words.

3. Lay out the beats, each with a role

One clear job per beat — never "more benefits" or "another feature." Beat type (= blueprint role):

hook | pain_point | product_intro | feature_showcase | benefit_highlight | social_proof | branding | cta

The opening 3–5s needs ONE hook that creates tension, curiosity, or desire — a shocking stat, pain validation, a rhetorical question, direct address, an imagine/future-pace, a category announcement, or visual spectacle. Never open with generic company description. Per ../hyperframes-creative/references/story-spine.md: the hook speaks the viewer's outcome language (what they gain, never a feature list), and the promise (message) lands by beat 2 — features after that are its evidence.

A UI demo is usually a SEQUENCE of 3+ consecutive feature_showcase / benefit_highlight beats on the same surface (input → response → result → benefit), not one isolated frame.

4. Write each beat's VO in its blueprint's script shape

For each beat, look up its role in the script bank below, find the blueprint whose SHAPE fits the beat you already chose, and draft the voiceover to sound like that blueprint's pattern. Tag the candidate blueprint: id on the frame.

• The bank is the heart of this step: proven product-launch clips reversed into the one VO line each implies, grouped by role → blueprint, each with a pattern to imitate.
• If two blueprints fit the beat, prefer the one whose script shape matches the line you'd naturally write.
• If NO shape fits the beat, omit blueprint: and write the VO plainly — Step 4 composes that frame freely. Do not force a wrong shape.
• Vary the shapes across the video. Reaching for the same blueprint every beat re-creates the sameness this exists to avoid. kinetic-type-beats is the workhorse (6 roles) — lean on it, but not everywhere.
• Write each VO as discrete cues, not one run-on breath. Step 5 reveals each on-screen piece when the voiceover names it (the anti-PowerPoint mechanism — motion-language.md Part 2). A line with clear phrase boundaries — "Content, sentiment, engagement — in one place" — hands the shot its reveal cadence for free; a single long clause leaves the frame nothing to pace to. The bank patterns are already cue-segmented — keep that rhythm.

Step 3 only TAGS the candidate id and writes the shaped VO. Step 4 (visual design) picks and instantiates the blueprint into a time-coded shot; it may override or drop a Step 3 candidate. The full menu with picking guidance lives in ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md.

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The script bank — what each beat's VO sounds like

Proven product-launch clips, each reversed into the one spoken line it implies. Grouped by role → blueprint. Real product names kept (swap in your own). Draft your beat's VO in the SHAPE of the matching pattern.

HOOK

kinetic-type-beats — the words ARE the motion

• Mailoji — "Still using a @gmail address? Or @outlook, or @hotmail, or @yahoo?"
• Outrank — "Getting traffic is hard. Insanely hard."
• AiAgent — "An AI agent that's easy to use — and optimised for you."
• Uizard — "Transform your sketches into prototypes — automatically."
• Pattern: a punchy claim or rhetorical jab whose KEY WORD swaps in place (or escalates beat by beat) — the swap/escalation is the joke.

typewriter-reveal — someone is typing this

• "Need answers about your audience — right now?"
• Contra — "You are more than your job title. You are more than your resume."
• Pattern: a relatable line typed live and edited mid-stream (a word backspaces and retypes) — the everyday thought, in your own words.

spatial-pan-stations — a panned timeline

• Rows — "From VisiCalc to Excel to Google Sheets — the spreadsheet has barely changed since 1979."
• Pattern: a march of named milestones across time, landing on "...until now / ...up to us."

constellation-hub — nodes ring a center, camera pushes in

• "Content, sentiment, engagement, analysis — every platform you're on, in one place."
• Pattern: a spread of tools/channels collapsing onto one center — "it connects everything."

ticker-takeover — options cycle, then a hero crashes in

• Notion — "A doc? A database? A wiki? — no, it's all of them, in one place."
• Pattern: a "could be X, or Y, or Z?" cycle on one swapping word, then a hero claim crashes in and replaces it — "actually, this is what it is."

PROBLEM

kinetic-type-beats — pain lands alone on a bare canvas

• Butter — "What if your sessions didn't have to be boring and unstructured — or buried under a dozen tabs?"
• SmartCue — "You asked for better leads. We were the cure — MQLs that actually convert, a sales team that becomes your ally."
• Pattern: 3–5 short pain statements (or a "what if?" framing), each landing solo before the next — no product yet.

spatial-pan-stations — a panned web of pain

• Vauban — "Coordinating legal documents, signatures, and cross-border transactions — it's a tangled mess."
• Pattern: pain "stations" traversed one by one, ending on a knot — "too many disconnected steps."

dataviz-countup — the data IS the argument

• "67% of professionals say leadership is disconnected — and it's costing them a 65% boost in profitability."
• Pattern: a count-up / chart / stat the camera pushes through to dramatize a worsening or large-scale problem.

overwhelm-surround — buried by your own tools

• "Slack, email, docs, tickets, three more tabs — and somehow it all lands on you."
• Pattern: recognizable tools pile in until they surround and bury the viewer — the pain is being swamped, not one bad number.

PRODUCT_INTRO

kinetic-type-beats — "Introducing…" name-drop

• "Elevating experiences, removing manual touchpoints, automating processes — so you can focus on the customer."
• Uizard — "Introducing Uizard — the design tool for everyone."
• Pattern: hard-cut through "Introducing…" / tagline / value beats and resolve on the brand name or logo.

logo-assemble-lockup — wordless premium sting

• Manifold — "Manifold." (wordless mark assembles; VO optional — just the name)
• Pattern: an abstract system assembles around a fixed mark — no copy, or just the product name landing.

cursor-ui-demo — first cursor-led look

• ClickUp — "This is ClickUp — click through and watch your whole workspace change."
• "Pull up any contact, find the right advisor, and you're matched in seconds."
• PaLM 2 — "Meet PaLM 2 — what is it, what can it do, and how was it built?"
• Pattern: a cursor sweeps in to introduce the surface — a light first look landing on a hovered hero element or fresh result.

dataviz-countup — open on the result

• SuperX — "X growth — discover what really works: 19.6 million impressions."
• Pattern: a confident "look at the data / the result" open — scroll a tilted card grid to one glowing hero metric, tagline assembling word by word.

video-text-pivot — show it work, then the number

• "Watch it run — then look at what it saved: 14 hours, every week."
• Pattern: the product video plays, then slides aside to hand the frame to one impact stat — "see it work, now see what it's worth."

KEY_FEATURE

grid-card-assemble — enumerate breadth at once

• Postcards — "Want more? Unlimited exports, 1,400 fonts, an AI assistant, version history — and it's free to try."
• ClearVPN — "ClearVPN is built to help you: streaming access, secure browsing, location changing — only the essentials."
• Copilot — "Command bar, Zapier, white-labeling, API, SOC2 — and a whole lot more."
• Pattern: a tile/pill/card grid self-assembles to show many capabilities at once — "look how much it does."

cursor-ui-demo — one workflow, end to end

• "Scroll your feed, then jump straight to your notifications — it's all one click away."
• Flowrite — "Pick your recipient, set your intention, choose a tone — and Flowrite writes it for you."
• Descript — "Tune your edits, add a crossfade, automate the volume, normalize loudness — then export."
• Pattern: one specific multi-step workflow shown end-to-end across 2–4 real edits, landing on the action button or result.

device-surface-showcase — experienced inside its real interface

• HRS — "Your flight's cancelled — so book a hotel, a taxi, and get reimbursed, all in one digital journey."
• HelpKit — "A dynamic table of contents that follows your readers as they scroll."
• Graphite — "Use unique themes, recolor one element or several, and configure it all in a handy window."
• Contra — "Pick a template, make it yours, and launch a portfolio that's unmistakably you."
• Pattern: a feature shown being USED inside its real surface — the device/window is the hero and its screens advance through a flow.

comparison-split — two paired capabilities, side by side

• "Design on the left, code on the right — always one source of truth."
• Pattern: two complementary capabilities of equal weight shown together — "X and Y, in lockstep."

video-text-pivot — the feature, then its result

• "Here's the editor in action — and the result: a publish-ready cut in minutes."
• Pattern: a feature clip runs, then yields the frame to a metric / impact line — the clip proves it, the number lands it.

BENEFITS

kinetic-type-beats — rapid-fire value montage

• AiAgent — "No API keys, GPT-4 access, simple UX, clean UI — moving fast."
• Uizard — "Export to Sketch, create style guides, share, collaborate — and code less."
• Pattern: a staccato montage of 8–12 short value phrases, each flashing and clearing at high tempo.

grid-card-assemble — an accumulating value list

• Lineicons — "Consistent and clean, tons of free icons, a Figma plugin, a powerful editor, every format you need."
• Plutio — "Manage projects, track time, send invoices, write proposals — all deeply customisable."
• Pattern: short value phrases populate a vertical list ~1/sec, co-resident and accumulating, each popping into its slot.

titlecard-reveal — the calm value beat

• CSS Scan Pro — "A smart color picker — with instant tints and shades."
• Pattern: one clean two-line value title, one slide-up crossfade, then held still. Low motion is the point.

SOCIAL_PROOF

constellation-hub — the hub at the center of your stack

• kyvos — "On any BI tool — Tableau, Looker, Power BI — Kyvos sits at the center of your stack."
• Pattern: the product mark is the hub and partner logos orbit it — "sits at the center of everything you use."

grid-card-assemble — a logo wall pulling back to a vast ecosystem

• Lineicons — "Used by more than 100,000 designers, developers, and companies — including these."
• ClickUp — "Connect Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Stripe — your whole ecosystem in one place."
• Copilot — "With thousands of partner apps — Airtable, Calendly, Jira, Asana — you can embed anything."
• Pattern: a wall of partner/app logos builds, then a camera zoom-out reveals a vast ecosystem.

titlecard-reveal — busy → clean proof card

• Trumpet — "We supply the trumpet, you bring the band — loved by 1,000+ sales, success, and marketing teams."
• Pattern: wipe a busy open away to a clean lockup plus a "loved by N+ teams" line that settles and holds.

CTA

kinetic-type-beats — punchy closing line beat-by-beat

• Stylebit — "Go pro, connect up to five Figma accounts — more features coming. Join now."
• revid.ai — "Boost your engagement and turbocharge your social media."
• Pattern: a closing line (or short value stack) that snaps in beat by beat and lands on the logo or URL.

logo-assemble-lockup — logo build → push-through into the URL

• Strapi Cloud — "Deploy on Strapi Cloud — no server hassle, same flexibility. Try it now at strapi.io/cloud."
• Highlander — "Highlander is ready for the future you're building. Let's raise — at highlander.ai."
• STUDIO AI — "Get early access to STUDIO."
• Glorify — "Get started for free now — no credit card required."
• Pattern: the logo builds, a fast camera push-through streaks giant CTA letters past the lens, resolving on the URL or action verb.

cta-morph-press — identity condenses into one click

• Linear — "This is Linear. Start building — it's free."
• Pattern: the brand mark condenses straight into the single thing you click — "here's us → click here," no spatial set.

BRAND_OUTRO

kinetic-type-beats — a verb barrage resolving on one word

• Phantom — "Buy, store, stake, swap, send, connect, explore — multichain."
• Pattern: a rapid center-channel barrage of single-word verbs asserting breadth, resolving on the brand's one defining word. No logo lockup needed.

typewriter-reveal — persistent mark + typed CTA rail

• Collato — "Next time, just Collato it — sign up for free today."
• Pattern: the mark holds dead-center the whole time while a sub-line types or swaps into the final CTA.

logo-assemble-lockup — elements clear, the lockup draws itself in

• Copilot — "Copilot." (pills disperse off-frame, the mark draws on; VO optional — just the name)
• Dora AI — "Dora AI — join the waitlist."
• Pattern: feature/UI elements clear the stage off all four edges, then the logo mark draws itself on and the wordmark completes the lockup.

ticker-takeover — use-cases cycle, the brand takes the frame

• "For notes, for tasks, for plans, for teams — [brand] holds it all."
• Pattern: closing use-cases/verbs cycle through one slot, then the brand mark crashes in and owns the final frame.

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VO_MODE handling

No pasted script — write the VO yourself, in the matching blueprint's script shape:

• 1–2 sentences per spoken beat, usually 6–20 words.
• Concrete and human; active verbs; say what the product does for a person.
• Avoid: "seamless experience," "unlock the power of," "streamline your workflow," long noun-phrase lists, a whole beat that is just "Or…".
• Silent beats are allowed when the visual proves the point — leave them out of SCRIPT.md.

VO_MODE = restructure — treat user_script.txt as source material. Rewrite, reorder, merge, or omit to fit the arc and target length. You may still shape each segment toward its beat's blueprint pattern.

VO_MODE = verbatim — do NOT change the user's words. Segment the script into beat-sized chunks at sentence/paragraph boundaries (split a long sentence only at a natural clause boundary). Final duration follows the provided script. Blueprint shaping does not apply to wording — only to which shape each verbatim chunk is paired with.

Asset candidates

asset_candidates is the Step-3 → Step-4 handoff. Rules:

1. Read only capture/extracted/asset-descriptions.md to know what exists.
2. Use only filenames listed there; write as assets/<basename>.
3. One line, candidates separated by semicolons, a short description after —.
4. Prefer [video] assets when motion proves the product better than a still.
5. Use content assets (UI, screenshots, product photos, charts, demos). Skip tiny icons, favicons, badges, decorative chrome, repeated logo variants — unless the beat needs them. Partner / third-party logos come from /media-use (resolve --type logo --entity <brand>) — never redrawn by hand.
6. Pure-typography beats may use an empty asset list. Do not use nested lists.

Example:

- asset_candidates: assets/dashboard-hero.png — dark analytics dashboard, wide screenshot; assets/demo-loop.mp4 — query-to-result interaction clip

transition_in

Between-frame transition — how each frame ENTERS from the one before it. The harness's injector stamps it onto the two whole-frame clips (opacity / transform / filter on the frame wrappers). Name a registry type directly; optionally add a direction and/or a duration (push-slide LEFT, crossfade 0.4s). cut / none / empty = a hard cut.

The five registry types:

• crossfade — a plain opacity dissolve; the neutral choice when two frames sit in the same visual world.
• blur-crossfade — dissolve through a soft blur + slight scale; use when the two frames' backgrounds differ a lot, so the blur masks the color clash a plain crossfade would expose.
• push-slide [LEFT|RIGHT|UP|DOWN] — outgoing slides off, incoming pushes in from the opposite edge; a lateral "next beat" feel for a run of consecutive cards / feature beats.
• zoom-through — outgoing scales up + blurs out, incoming scales up from small into focus; for a STATE CHANGE / turning to a new section (hook → context).
• squeeze — outgoing compresses to a line on one edge as incoming expands from the other; a snappy, mechanical beat change.

Pick a small set and repeat them: default to crossfade (or blur-crossfade when the backgrounds clash), and reach for zoom-through at section boundaries. Frame 1's transition_in is a placeholder.

Frame template

Use the exact fields required by the core storyboard format. The narrative shape each frame satisfies:

## Frame N — Short name

- scene: one clear visual idea
- voiceover: "spoken line, written in the candidate blueprint's script shape, or empty"
- duration: rough estimate in seconds
- transition_in: crossfade
- status: outline
- src: compositions/frames/NN-short-name.html
- type: hook
- persuasion: Pain validation
- beat: urgency
- blueprint: kinetic-type-beats — candidate shape from the role→blueprint menu; omit when none fits
- asset_candidates: assets/example.png — short asset description

narrativeRole: what this beat does in the viewer journey.
keyMessage: the one idea the viewer should remember.

• persuasion — a concrete move (Pain agitation, Negative contrast, Friction reduction, Show-don't-tell proof, Feature-to-benefit translation, Statistical proof, Authority by association, Social proof, Risk reversal, Future pacing, Value stacking, Rule of three, Scarcity/urgency, Status seeking…). Never "show benefit." Invent one if none fits and explain it in the prose.
• beat — a specific emotion (anxiety, frustration, overwhelm, tension, urgency, skepticism, FOMO → relief, curiosity, clarity, intrigue, aspiration → trust, confidence, control, ease, power, awe, excitement, belonging → triumph, motivation, urgency-to-act, peace of mind, inevitability). Compound allowed (e.g. relief + control).

Final checklist

• The arc is named; the sequence is narrative-driven, not page-order-driven.
• The opening uses one clear hook strategy that creates tension/curiosity/desire.
• Each beat has one job; every beat has type, persuasion, beat.
• Each beat's voiceover is written in its candidate blueprint's script shape (from the bank), with the candidate blueprint: tagged wherever a shape fits — and omitted where none does.
• Each voiceover is phrase-segmented into cues (each cue a piece Step 5 can reveal on) — not one long run-on clause.
• Shapes vary across the video; no single blueprint on every beat.
• Story truth was never bent to fit a blueprint — no beat invented/dropped/reordered for a shape.
• Every visual beat has suitable asset_candidates (filenames only from asset-descriptions.md), unless intentionally typography-only.
• UI/product demos use a multi-beat sequence when the value depends on workflow.
• transition_in is a registry type (crossfade / blur-crossfade / push-slide / zoom-through / squeeze) — default crossfade (blur-crossfade on a background clash), zoom-through at section boundaries, repeated across the video.
• SCRIPT.md contains only locked spoken narration; silent beats are intentional and omitted.