Recoup Music Video

Music video — the Small Room workflow

Follow the production sequence used to finish SMALL ROOM / The Projectionist on 2026-09-03. This is the combined workflow recorded in its bible, identity sheet, final shot table, generators and render, not a ten-step procedure from one Higgsfield skill. Read references/small-room-production.md for the evidence, final model settings and historical-versus-current execution differences before selecting generation routes.

Song → bible → scene audit → character and audition → props and plates → shot list → reviewed stills → revised clip table and end frames → motion → verified edit.

Start at the earliest unfinished step. Reuse approved artifacts and keep their approval state in the project; do not regenerate the song or reopen unchanged decisions on resume. Carry forward the user's visual direction. Reproduce the workflow, not Small Room's protagonist, photoreal style, palette, plot, duration or exact number of shots.

Supporting skills and precedence

Load the linked skill at its relevant step. The Higgsfield links are pinned to the reviewed community library; its character-design framework credits @vavavinca. The essential instructions used by Small Room are included below so no private project checkout is needed. If an external skill cannot be loaded, disclose that limitation and use the included method.

Small Room adapted these methods: its shot list was SCRIPT.md, its audition was silent, and its scene motion was H3 Max Turbo. Do not import the linked skills' Seedance multi-cut prompts, HTML shot-list deliverable, Soul training or dialogue audition as extra stages. The finished bible supplies the visual identity for HyperFrames; do not choose a new style while assembling the already approved film.

1. Approve the song and establish the actual timings

Use the exact approved recording and lyric sheet. If no song exists, follow recoup-song: approve idea, genre, exact lyrics/prompt, then the paid request. Its current default is maximum supported duration (300 seconds), allowing a natural ending. Do not copy Small Room's historical 120-second request or generate another song merely to enter this workflow.

Save the master, generation ID and approved inputs under audio/. Measure the actual file with ffprobe. Transcribe with ElevenLabs Scribe, retaining word timestamps in audio/scribe.json; compare them with the approved lyrics and flag changes, omissions, repeats and cutoff. Do not use Whisper for this workflow. Get the user's listening approval before developing the film. An existing approval satisfies this gate.

The recording determines the film's musical runtime. A later end card has its own separately approved duration. Do not truncate the song to a generic social-video target.

2. Write the story bible

Use the character-design method to write one project-level BIBLE.md, in this order:

1. Premise: an arguable claim, the counter-argument it must respect, and emotional promise.
2. World: physical, social, economic, ideological, historical and sensory rules, limited to the detail this film needs.
3. Character: thematic role, external/internal goals, psychological/moral needs, wound, spark, silhouette, contradiction and relevant relationships. World before casting.
4. Story spine: causal beats connected by consequences, with a turning point and ending.
5. Style: palette, lighting, materials, proportions, camera language, wardrobe, props, continuity and forbidden elements. Derive it from the approved song and user direction.

Record the audio source and measured length. Propose missing creative choices explicitly. The bible is a reviewable file, not only prose scattered through the conversation.

3. Audit the story, then approve the bible

Run the scene-engine audit inside BIBLE.md before any character or scene generation:

• Goal: the lead's fixed objective; each scene must contribute to it.
• Obstacle: what threatens that goal or its current stage, and at what scale.
• Tactic: the action taken with available knowledge; a failed attempt must teach something.
• Reversal: at least one turn against expectation in each resolved sequence.
• Value shift: how that reversal changes the audience's judgment of the character.

Name the weakest point and offer a minimal fix and a fuller alternative. Apply the user's choice, present the revised bible, and obtain approval. A plot turn without an audience reassessment is not enough. Preserve approval for unchanged decisions; approve affected revisions before they propagate into paid assets.

4. Design, audition and lock the character

Use Muse Image for the candidate stills and reference edits. Build character sheets on plain grey, then separate face and body references: front/back wardrobe, face close-up and needed angles; include mouth-open/closed variants when relevant. Present the candidates and let the user select the character before motion testing.

Decide the medium here, because it decides the motion model. A photoreal cast animates with H3 Max i2v from Muse start stills (the Small Room pipeline). A stylized or animated cast can instead go to Seedance 2.5 with the sheets as references, one take per song section: Seedance's input filter (through fal) rejects every photoreal face of any origin but accepts a stylized one and holds it across shots. Cast photoreal from the user's references first, approve, then re-render every asset in one style string. Recipe, prompt architecture and costs live in the Seedance reference of the staff-only recoup-internal-marketing skill (The decision gate), not in this skill.

Stage a silent five-second screen test of an actual demanding beat from the film, using H3 Max Turbo at the settings in the production reference. It must prove the character can act with gaze, posture and hands. Small Room tested looking from a failing lamp to the projector, deciding, and beginning a hand movement; derive this film's test from its own bible. Use the agreed audition take count, review the motion, and obtain the user's choice before locking a winner.