# Broadcast News Package — Style Prompt

> A television newsroom's on-air package, built entirely in code: a sting that becomes the channel bug, a rundown of today's stories that opens and closes the bulletin, a lower-third strap that never leaves the bottom of the frame, and full-frame graphics (split-flap price boards, a line breaking a threshold, explainer maps, documents flying out of a city, quote cards, spec cards with proportion bars, stamps) that carry the facts. The style is the **package system plus its cutting rules**, not a drawing style. 16:9, a clean frame: no burned-in subtitles, no news crawl.
> References (grammar only): evening network news headline menus, financial-channel market graphics, European news channels' explainer maps, tech-desk spec cards. Never copy a broadcaster's logo, set, fonts, colours, music or idents, and never name them in the film.

## 1. Essence, and what it is not

1. **One package system, used consistently.** Every graphic is built from the same few parts: a brand plate (parallelogram), a tab in the accent colour, a paper strap, ink cards with an accent top edge, mono datelines, stamps. Viewers read the system before they read the words.
2. **The bulletin's order.** Sting → rundown ("today we have four stories") → item → item → … → back to the rundown, ticked off → sign-off. Each item opens with its category on the strap's tab and its date on the first graphic.
3. **One fact per screen.** A full-frame graphic states one thing: the price, the break, the two stocks, the place, the two letters, the quote, the verdict.
4. **The strap holds the headline.** One lower-third strap is on screen from the first story to the recap and changes its words with a vertical flip; the picture above it is free for the graphic.
5. **Clean panel.** No crawl, no burned-in subtitles; subtitles ship as a separate `.srt`. The frame is the graphic, the strap, the bug and a source line.

Not **Caption News** (that is captions-first social video: huge slammed captions are the lead, no rundown, no strap; here type is small and orderly and the graphics lead). Not **Data Storytelling** (one chart per beat, never a dashboard; the chart is an insert in a bulletin). Not a keynote: no centred title-and-bullets, no page turns. Not a studio show: no virtual set, no anchor, no fly-throughs — the package is flat graphics over ink.

## 2. Frame and layout (1920×1080)

| Zone | Position | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Content | x 96–1824, y 56–840 | the full-frame graphic; when a strap is up, nothing important below y 840 |
| Lower-third strap | tab x 96 y 856, 48 high; strap x 96 y 904, 1250×104, + 120 px ink end block | category tab (accent, ink text, Chinese + English), headline in Chinese 50 px + one English line 27 px |
| Source line | right-aligned at x 1836, y 950 / 978 | `SOURCE: …` mono 13 px + Chinese 16 px, 75 % opacity; English ≤ 36 characters or it slides under the strap's end block |
| Channel bug | top right, plate centre (1739, 86), 0.327 of the sting plate | the plate plus `AI NEWS` |
| Corner tag | top left x 96 y 56, 330×64 | `ILLUSTRATION / 示意 · AI 生成画面` on generated plates, `SCHEMATIC / 示意图` on schematic charts; flips in and out 0.2 s |

Content layers sit lower than a subtitled layout would put them (a 60–110 px downward shift) so the bottom strap does not leave an empty band above it. When you remove subtitles and the crawl, re-lay the page; never leave the space they used.

## 3. Package parts (specs)

| Part | Spec | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Sting | 0–1.5 s | two accent slashes (0.04, 0.10 s) → the plate slams in with an overshoot, an impact ring and shake (0.16–0.42) → letters drop in one by one → wordmark and dateline open from the centre → a glint → the plate flies to the top right and **becomes the bug** while a vertical band wipes into the first shot. A hit within 0.4 s |
| Brand plate | parallelogram 520×180, accent gradient, ink and gold bars at the left, name in condensed 800 | the same object is the sting, the bug, the desk front and the end card |
| Rundown | left: date block (big numerals, month, week); right: three rows, 1024×140, number block in accent | rows flip in vertically on the beat (back ease) with a glint; at the close the same object returns and each row is ticked |
| Lower-third strap | see §2 | enters with the first story, flips (new words up from below, old up and out, 0.32 s; the tab flashes white when the category changes), leaves with a slide when the recap starts. A **profile** version (tab `人物 PROFILE`) names a speaker |
| Split-flap board | tiles 220×130, top and bottom halves clipped separately | old value and new value on the same board, so the change reads in one look; ×2 / +x % called out to the right |
| Threshold chart | line from the peak, the threshold as a dashed gold line | the line head advances one trading day per step; the last step crosses the threshold in accent with a shake and a ring; the readout panel slides in after; axes show only what the data supports |
| Bars | grow from a zero line downward for losses, values roll | a reference line at the shared threshold plus a badge |
| Explainer map | the same projection, one long take | members light in order of distance from the city; the city label, the institution label with leader, a stamp; the camera pushes, then pans to make room |
| Documents | 380×490 paper, ink header | fly out of the city dot on an arc (0.5 s, scale 0.08 → 1, rotation settles); check boxes tick on the voice's key words |
| Quote card | ink background with the package's light streaks, a large accent quotation mark lands first, lines push up one by one (0.18 s apart), then the Chinese gist, a gold rule, name, occasion and date | the official wording, in the language it was said; never paraphrase inside quotation marks; an underline sweeps the key word as the voice says it |
| Spec card | eyebrow (source · date), the product name pushed up from a mask, a category stamp, proportion bars on one scale (the whole vs the part, values rolling), a percentage badge, a context chip; a second group on the right for the hardware or the place, filling cell by cell, joined by a bracket to its total | one scale for every bar, so the proportion is true; every number from the source page |
| Stamps | accent fill or ink with a double accent frame, −6° to −10° | land from 1.9× in 0.16 s with an expanding ellipse; one per story at most |
| Transitions | vertical band wipe (accent 84 px + ink 5 px + gold 14 px edge, 0.3 s) between stories and programme parts; hard cut + timpani inside a story; slanted wipe into the end card | nothing else: no dissolves, no 3D flips, no page turns, no fly-throughs. **The package layer travels with its picture**: under a wipe each side draws its own strap words, tab, source line and corner tag (old state on the old side, new state on the new side), so the band brushes the headline over; on a hard cut they change on the same frame. Strap words never flip or overlap. The incoming picture's entry animation starts under the band, so its first revealed frame already has content |

## 4. Colour

| Role | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| ink | `#121417` | backgrounds, panels, strap end block |
| ink2 / ink3 | `#1B1E23` / `#22262C` | cards, land on maps |
| accent (lemon) | `#F2CF1D` (light `#F8DE4A`, dark `#D8B30C`) | plate, tabs, band wipe, bars, stamps, the line that breaks |
| gold | `#D4B064` | thresholds, datelines, source lines, light fins, badges |
| paper | `#F4F1E8` | strap, documents, the chart line |
| breaking | `#FE6B3D` | only for BREAKING and LIVE. A weekly round-up has neither, so it never appears |

Structure to keep when you change the brand: one accent + one gold-like secondary + paper + ink, and a reserved alarm colour. Ink text on the accent; on paper, English secondary lines in a dark olive (`#6E5A1E`) because gold is too weak there.

## 5. Type

- Chinese: Noto Sans SC 900 (headlines, strap) / 700 (labels).
- Latin: Barlow Condensed 800 (numbers, names, the plate), 600 (secondary lines, quotes), 600 italic (the end-card English title).
- Mono: IBM Plex Mono 500 for datelines, sources, axis labels, all caps with 1–4 px tracking.
- All OFL, subset from Google Fonts by `demo/tools/fonts.sh` (the character list is read from `main.js`; delete `fonts/*.woff2` after a text change). No handwriting faces in this style.
- Every label is bilingual on one line each (Chinese first, English smaller); never wrap.

## 6. Picture layer and grade

- When there is no footage, the picture layer is data graphics drawn in code plus, at most, a few **illustrative plates** (generated or stock), each tagged `ILLUSTRATION` for as long as it is on screen. They set a mood (a server room behind a model launch, a wafer behind chip stocks); they never stand in for the event, the place or the people.
- One grade for every plate: greyscale → auto black/white points (0.5 / 99.6 percentile) → γ 1.05 → 35 % S-curve → black 8, white 232 → duotone `#0E1013` → `#ECE7D8` (`tools/prep.py: grade()`), plus a left-dark ink gradient for type, a 50–55 % vignette and 7 % overlay grain cycling through six tiles. Graphics and the package are never grained.
- Real footage, if you have it, takes the same grade path; modern footage ≤ 1.5× scale, archive ≤ 2.5× after deblocking; crop out station logos.

## 7. Editing grammar

- **120 BPM grid**, beat 0 at the end of the sting (1.5 s). Every cut and wipe on a beat or half-beat.
- **Shot lengths**: sting 1.5 s; rundown 4–5 s; story shots 3–7 s; a map long take (6–12 s) as the bulletin's breath; a comparison stays until every item has been fully on screen ≥ 2.5 s.
- **A package action every 0.5–1 s** inside a shot (flip, count, stamp, tick, strap change, map light, line step). No frame flat for more than 1 s; a strong action within 0.5 s of every cut.
- **Date every story**: a weekly bulletin's items happen on different days; the date sits in the rundown row, the eyebrow line, the readout or the document.
- **The order inside an item**: what (the name or the number) → how big (the line, the bars, the price board) → who it hits or who said it (bars, documents, a quote) → the verdict stamp.

## 8. Sound palette

| Layer | What | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor voice | one narrator, one sentence per graphic, starting 0.1 s after the cut; HP 90 Hz, 3:1 compression. Default: the library's Kokoro (`core/tts/tts.py`, free, Apache 2.0) in English or Chinese. The user's own recording, or another TTS they have a key for (for example Doubao, as in the demo), replaces it — never required | music ducked ≈ −7 dB and its 1.2–5 kHz band thinned under speech |
| News theme | 120 BPM, minor key: spiccato violins in root–fifth–octave eighths, pizzicato bass on the beat, horn pads, a low-passed 16th-note saw pulse, kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4 | full under the rundown and the first story |
| Section moods | markets: violins down an octave, tremolo, four-on-the-floor kick (heartbeat); policy: pizzicato and horns only | |
| Signature hits | sting tutti; glockenspiel notes as the rundown rows land; timpani on hard cuts and story changes; one beat of silence before the biggest break, then the heaviest hit of the film; a held drone after the verdict stamp; a major-key lift for the last story; tutti on the end card | |
| Foley | whoosh on wipes, flap clicks on split-flaps, stamp thump + clack, trading-room ticks under market charts, map clicks per lit country, a sonar ping on a city, paper and typewriter ticks on documents, click + glockenspiel on ticks | |
| Room | server-room hum under a tech plate, soft air under maps | very low |

Master −14 LUFS, true peak −1.2 dB (`core/render/mux.sh`). Samples: VSCO 2 CE and VCSL (CC0); foley synthesised (`core/audio/sfx.py`).

## 9. Native moves

1. **Sting becomes the bug** — the brand plate slams in, then flies to the corner and stays there for the whole bulletin; opening and programme are one object.
2. **Strap tab = category** — the strap's tab changes category (模型 MODELS, 市场 MARKETS, 监管 POLICY …) with a white flash when a new story starts; no separate item cards between stories.
3. **Rundown, then ticked off** — the same list opens and closes the bulletin; at the end each row gets its tick.
4. **Spec card** — a launch reduced to its proportions: the whole and the part on one scale, then what it runs on, joined by a bracket to the total.
5. **Strap that never leaves** — one strap group from the first story to the recap; words flip, the strap itself never exits mid-programme.
6. **Split-flap before/after** — old and new value on one board, each tile flipping from the old to the new.
7. **Breaking the threshold** — a line advances one period per step towards a dashed threshold; the music stops for one beat before the last step and the crossing gets the heaviest hit.
8. **Date in the eyebrow** — every graphic's eyebrow line carries source and date in mono caps, so a weekly round-up never blurs which day each item happened.
9. **City sends the letters** — on a map long take, documents fly out of the sending city to their addressees; one world→screen function keeps labels and documents attached through push and pan.
10. **Quote card + verdict stamp** — the official's own words in type, with name, occasion and date; an underline on the key word as the voice says it; one stamp.

Where each move lives in the demo's code: [DEMO.md](DEMO.md) (build notes).

## 10. Material

1. **Facts first.** Every on-screen number and every sentence of the voice comes from an official source (the company's own page, the exchange's data, the institution's press release or speech), recorded in `demo/FACTS.md` with claim, URL, quoted wording and any arithmetic. When a fact exists only in a news report, attribute it on screen and in the voice ("据…报道 / … reports") and keep to the plain claim; never put a single report's allegations about a real company or person on screen.
2. **Data.** Draw charts from real series only; when you have just a few reported numbers, draw a *schematic* line, tag it `SCHEMATIC`, and label only what you know. Exchange closes: the exchange itself, the central bank's statistics portal, or a market-data file whose source you log.
3. **Pictures: ask in this order.**
   a. **The user's own images** — photos, b-roll stills, their logo and colours (the package is rebuilt around their brand). Use these first.
   b. **Generated illustrative plates**, if the user wants them. Before generating, tell the user how many images and what each shows (one line per plate). With the Codex CLI installed and able to generate images, `demo/tools/gen_image.py` (driven by `demo/tools/gen_plates.sh`) makes them and saves JPEGs to `demo/assets/plates/`. With any other image tool (an API or a web app), give the user the prompts and the target file names; they generate the images and drop them into `demo/assets/plates/`. Prompts ask for no text, letters, logos, flags or people.
   c. **No generated images**: public-domain, CC0 or CC BY photographs (licences below), or abstract backgrounds drawn in code (gradients, grids, light fins — the package already carries the frame).
   Whatever the source: every word on screen is typeset in code, never baked into an image; a generated plate is only ever an illustration behind a graphic, tagged `ILLUSTRATION / 示意` for as long as it is visible, and never stands in for the event, a place in the news, or a person. No generated anchor.
4. **Photo and footage licences** (judge each file on its own page, not the search result):
   - **Wikimedia Commons**: CC0, public domain or CC BY (credit author, title, licence on the end card and in `CREDITS`). Not used: CC BY-SA, "no known restrictions", unclear licences, YouTube re-uploads, colourised or "restored" versions.
   - **U.S. federal agencies** (NASA, NOAA, NARA, USGS…): public domain; check the page does not credit a contractor or third party.
   - **Internet Archive**: only items whose page states public domain, CC0 or CC BY; U.S. works published before 1931 are public domain.
   - **Library of Congress / national archives**: read each rights statement; "no known restrictions" is not enough.
   - **Institutions' audiovisual services** (for example the European Commission's): read their reuse terms per item; many require attribution and forbid implying endorsement.
   - **Maps**: Natural Earth (public domain), via `world-atlas` TopoJSON.
5. **Before downloading, tell the user** what you will fetch, from where and under which licence. The finder copied into this style, `demo/tools/footage.py` (`search commons|archive|nasa`, `fetch`, `used`, `md`), logs licence, author, page and the seconds used into `SOURCES.jsonl` and writes `SOURCES.md`. Keep `raw/` under ~1.5 GB.
6. **Logos**: never use a company's logo for a company in the news; set its name in type.
7. **People**: public figures in the news can be named on a profile strap; no close-up or slow motion of private individuals.
8. **Voice and music**: ask whether the user has a recorded anchor, a preferred voice or a theme of their own before synthesising one.

## 11. Pitfalls

- **Package left behind.** If the strap, source line or tags are drawn once on top of everything, a wipe changes the picture under yesterday's headline and the strap catches up 0.3–0.5 s later. Draw them per picture, inside the wipe's clip.
- **Leftover layout.** Removing subtitles or a crawl without moving the content down leaves a dead band above the strap.
- **Masked type peeking in.** A push-in title clipped by a mask shows its top edge before it moves if the travel distance doesn't clear the mask; start it fully below and don't draw at progress 0.
- **Words stronger than the source.** "Request for information" is not "investigation" or "penalty"; write "no fine, no case opened" or "for the first time" only if a source says so — and check the institution's own pages, which can contradict a report ("first requests" may have gone out months earlier).
- **Thresholds depend on the reference.** "Bear market" = −20 % from *which* high? Name the reference on the axis; from a different peak the claim can be false.
- **Attribute what only a report says.** When the official source does not name the companies, the graphic carries "据… 报道 / reported by …" and so does the voice.
- **A schematic posing as data.** Rolling counters on a close price flash values that never existed; set the close with a mask push instead. Don't label axes the data doesn't support.
- **Source lines under the strap.** Right-aligned mono 13 px: ≤ 36 characters.
- **Stamps over key words.** A stamp hit can mask the voice ("fines"); take the brass off the stamp and low-pass its clack.
- **Gold on paper** has too little contrast: use ink or dark olive.
- **Generated plates** carry stray corner marks: crop them in `prep.py`.
- **Short preview text.** Rundown rows are previews of the stories; `readcheck` flags them as short in the opening — they return in the recap and as straps, so accept the flag or leave them out of `TEXTS`.
- **Names in synthetic speech.** Spell brand names, model numbers and abbreviations the way they should sound in the TTS text (a respelling, a number written as a word, an abbreviation without dots) while the strap and subtitles keep the real spelling; when speech-to-text mishears an unusual name, put the expected transcript in the line's `asr` field instead of rewriting the line.

## 12. Variation space

Decide per film: the channel's name, plate and accent colour; how many items (one lead with a long package, three or four equal items, a five-item round-up); which full-frame graphics each item needs; where the long take goes; the anchor's voice.

- **Three structures:** rundown → items → rundown ticked (round-up); one lead package with a correspondent two-box and a short "also today" grid; a countdown of items (election-night, sports results).
- **Three openings:** sting → rundown; cold open on the biggest graphic, then the sting; sting straight into the first story with the rundown as a recap only.
- **Three endings:** rundown ticked → end card; a "coming up next week" teaser card; the last stamp freezing into the end card.

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How our demo was made (story, shots, score, end card, build): [DEMO.md](DEMO.md). Read it after your treatment exists.