chrislas/documentary-timeline-template/documentary-visual-development

Documentary Visual Development

Preserve the documentary edit as the authority. Treat animation and retrieval systems as supporting tools, never as reasons to change narration, source boundaries, historical claims, or editorial rhythm.

Start safely

1. Read the project AGENTS.md, brief, status, timeline, source ledger, current

edit notes, and render scripts.

1. Run git status --short and identify the preferred assembly plus the exact

script and data that produced it.

1. Preserve source masters, narration masters, timecodes, music decisions, and

approved renders. Produce versioned outputs.

1. Resolve existing audio defects before adding visual polish.
2. Read visual-workflow.md before planning or

rendering visual changes.

Select the smallest useful tool path

• Use the project's existing FFmpeg and HTML/CSS renderer for cards, document

reveals, simple diagrams, and restrained staged motion.

• Use Video Shotcraft as a motion-reference library when a documented shot

concept materially improves the explanation.

• Use OpenMontage only as an isolated sidecar for candidate B-roll retrieval,

contact sheets, source-media analysis, checkpoints, or QC experiments.

• Use Remotion for a self-contained insert only when it provides a clear

implementation advantage. Render the insert and return to the FFmpeg timeline.

Read upstream-integrations.md before cloning, running, adapting, or attributing either upstream project.

Build the visual pass

1. Audit the timeline and rank visual needs by explanatory value.
2. Choose two or three treatments with one clear visual idea per shot.
3. Verify every document, label, date, relationship, portrait, and license

against the source ledger.

1. Render each treatment as an isolated review clip with at least two seconds

of surrounding program context.

1. Watch the rendered motion at normal speed and inspect both boundaries frame

by frame. Check that movement settles before reading begins.

1. Obtain approval before promoting inserts into the full assembly.
2. Use scripts/apply_visual_overlays.py for approved full-frame inserts when

its manifest model fits. It re-encodes picture for frame accuracy, copies the base audio stream, and rejects an audio packet-hash change.

1. Decode-check the complete promoted assembly and preserve the prior version.

Enforce editorial guardrails

• Never move narration or archival in/out points to make an animation fit.
• Never conceal a broken word, slate read, retake instruction, or audio dropout

with B-roll and call it repaired.

• Prevent isolated host-camera frames from appearing between adjacent visuals.
• Preserve a small natural beat between host narration and archival clips.
• Prefer authentic documents to recreated approximations.
• Preserve enough surrounding document text to establish authenticity.
• Use one motion concept per shot and finish on a readable hold.
• Avoid perpetual movement, choppy zooms, crash zooms, product-launch styling,

unnecessary SFX, and mandatory beat synchronization.

• Keep music subordinate to speech and use only cleared project audio.

Finish with evidence

Record the output path, runtime, checksum, codec and frame-rate probe, audio packet hash, full-decode result, boundary-review evidence, upstream commits, licenses, direct code adaptations, commands, and remaining human decisions.