Visual brief: Ad-hoc Brief, Bipartite research-authority reel on ADHD + the unopened email

Source verdict: approved/2026-05-23/unread-inbox-reel.md Source draft: drafts/2026-05-23/unread-inbox-reel.md Format: reel (12-15s, hook-and-caption, bipartite static overlay) Generated: 2026-05-23T00:45:00Z

Visual register summary

One continuous near-static cinematic 9:16 shot of a mid-thirties woman at a small home desk in late-afternoon side light. Warm grounded palette dominates the frame (cream walls, warm-neutral wardrobe, deep brown ink for overlay type, single muted-blue accent on the inbox count badge as the brightest single element in the scene). Typography is humanist serif on top (Recoleta semi-bold, deep brown) and humanist sans on bottom (Inter medium, deep brown, 88% opacity), both lines visible from frame 1 with zero animation. Photography register is honest, slightly desaturated, shallow depth of field, faint film grain, no music, ambient room tone only. The bait is the silence and the held breath, not a sting.

Production-ready units

Beat 1: 0-15s (single near-static cinematic shot, full duration)

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft, bipartite, both lines visible from frame 1, no motion, persistent for the full 12-15s, no replacement):
  • Top line: brain scans revealed why ADHD brains treat opening a 3-day-old email as a brand new problem
  • Bottom line: (and the fix is never time management)
• Layout (9:16 frame, 1080x1920 canvas, IG Reels safe zones respected):
  • Top line block: centered horizontally, top edge at ~10% from top of frame (vertical center of the block at ~22% from top of frame). 3 lines of wrap maximum, line-height 1.15. Left and right margin 7% (74px each side). Vertical block height ~24% of frame.
  • Bottom line block: centered horizontally, top edge at ~38% from top of frame. Single line, no wrap. Vertical block height ~6% of frame.
  • Total overlay footprint: top 10% to 44% of the frame, leaving the lower 56% clear for the desk + inbox scene.
  • Strict avoid zones: bottom 20% of frame (IG caption + username area) and right 12% (IG action rail with like / comment / share / save icons). Nothing in the overlay enters those zones.
  • Cursor and unread email badge must sit in the lower-middle of the frame (between 50% and 75% from top) so they are visible under the overlay and outside the right action rail.
• Background (in-camera scene, not a graphic background):
  • Cream-painted wall behind the woman, soft sand tone reading approximately #E8D9B8 under the late-afternoon side light. No props on the wall (no posters, no calendar, no shelf clutter). One faint shadow gradient from the window light is acceptable and brand-typical.
  • Optional: warm off-white #FAF3E2 curtain edge entering from the right at 5-10% of the frame, slightly out of focus, to anchor the light source. Not required.
• Typography:
  • Top line: Recoleta semi-bold (fallback Lora bold), ~64pt on a 1080x1920 canvas, sentence case (as written, no caps change), color deep brown #3D2818 at 100% opacity. Tracking -1%. Line-height 1.15.
  • Bottom line: Inter medium, ~36pt on a 1080x1920 canvas, sentence case in parentheses (as written), color deep brown #3D2818 at 88% opacity. Tracking 0%. Single line. The 88% opacity + smaller weight is what makes it parse as visually subordinate to the top line within 1s while still being readable in under 1.5s.
  • Both lines: NO drop shadow. NO outline. NO highlight box. The frame's shallow depth of field gives sufficient contrast against the soft background behind the woman's head and shoulders.
  • Contrast handling for the bipartite frame (light window-key side on the right vs shadow side on the left):
    • The deep brown #3D2818 reads against both the soft sand wall (right, lit) and the slightly darker shadowed wall (left). If the test render shows the top line losing legibility against the brightest highlight band of the wall (the strip where the late-afternoon sun spills directly), nudge the top-line block 30-50px down (still within the top third) until the text sits on mid-tone wall, not on the highlight band. Do not switch to white type. Do not add a box.
• Image / illustration (the live-action scene itself):
  • Subject: woman, mid-thirties, seated at a small wooden home desk, three-quarter view (camera slightly off-axis from her right shoulder so the laptop screen is partially visible to the viewer). Shoulders slightly raised. Jaw soft. Eyes on the screen, not the camera. Breath held a half-beat too long (a single visible held-breath moment in the first 2-3 seconds, then a soft exhale at around second 6, then another held breath through second 12).
  • Hands: right hand on the trackpad or mouse. Cursor on screen hovers near the unread email but does not click for the full duration.
  • Laptop: open, screen visible at a slight angle to camera. Standard inbox UI on screen (no specific email client branding, generic mail interface). ONE unread email at the top of the inbox list. Sender name bold, plausibly real-feeling: Rachel Tanaka (no honorific, no company suffix, no obvious brand association). Subject line deliberately illegible: small point size and slightly soft focus so the viewer perceives "there is a subject line" but cannot read the words. Suggested subject string for the prop, intentionally vague and unreadable: Re: Tuesday check-in + the thing we talked about. The viewer must NOT be able to read it; soft focus and small size handle the illegibility, not redaction.
  • Inbox count badge: small circular badge near the inbox folder label in the left sidebar of the mail UI, showing the number 1. The badge is the single brightest element in the frame, 1 to 1.5 stops brighter than its surroundings (achieved with a soft inner glow in post or by holding the badge in the brightest UI tone in the original screen capture). Badge fill color: dusty blue #7C95A6 (the brand's "focus / science" accent). Badge numeral color: warm off-white #FAF3E2. This is the only saturated color in the frame.
  • Desk surface (max 3 props per protocol): (1) the laptop, (2) a small ceramic mug to the upper-left of the laptop with a tea bag tag visible over the rim, (3) a folded pair of reading glasses to the right of the trackpad. Nothing else on the desk. No phone, no notebook, no plant, no second screen.
  • Wardrobe: warm-neutral oversized cardigan or knit, color in the soft sand to warm taupe range (think #D9C5A0 to #B89F7E). No logos. No bright accent color. Hair down or loosely tied back. No statement jewelry.
  • Lighting: late-afternoon natural light coming sideways through a window on her right (camera-left side of her face). Light is warm and soft (golden hour tone, but not overtly orange). Slight desaturation in post. Shallow depth of field (f/2.0 to f/2.8 equivalent) so the inbox screen detail is sharp on the laptop while the back wall and her face fall slightly soft. The cursor and the count badge stay tack-sharp.
  • Composition: rule of thirds. The woman's eye line sits on the upper third horizontal. The laptop and the inbox count badge sit at the intersection of the lower third and the right third. The bipartite overlay occupies the top third + first half of the middle third.
  • Color grade: warm, slightly desaturated, faint film grain. Highlights warm, shadows neutral (no teal shadow push). No vignette. No bloom on the badge beyond the 1 to 1.5-stop brightness lift.
  • Camera: locked off. No move. No handheld float. No push-in. No rack focus.
• Color accents: one accent only, the dusty blue #7C95A6 inbox count badge as described above. Everything else is in the cream / sand / warm-neutral / deep-brown range from the brand palette section 0. No sage. No terracotta in this frame.
• Motion: the overlay is fully static for the entire 12-15s (no fade-in, no fade-out, no scale, no slide). The underlying live-action scene carries the only motion (the woman's small held-breath / soft-exhale / re-held-breath cycle, and the cursor hovering with subtle micro-movements that do not click). No cuts. No transitions. The reel loops by virtue of the static overlay and the repeating breath cycle, no explicit loop point needed.

Cross-unit consistency

Single-beat reel, so consistency is internal to the one shot:

• The bipartite overlay does not change, move, or replace at any point in the 12-15s.
• The unread count stays at 1 for the full duration (the count climbing happens in the caption, not in the visual; the visual holds on the single held-breath moment).
• The cursor never clicks.
• No brand mark or watermark on the frame itself (IG handle reads in the caption area, not over the video).

AI generation prompt

Video prompt (reels, model-agnostic, ~150 words)

A quiet, slightly tense moment of a woman about to open an email she has been avoiding, late-afternoon golden indoor light, warm and grounded register.

The camera holds a static three-quarter shot at chest height, slightly off her right shoulder so part of the laptop screen is visible to the viewer.

A woman in her mid-thirties sits at a small wooden home desk in an oversized warm-neutral cardigan, shoulders softly raised, jaw soft, eyes on her laptop screen, holding her breath a half-beat too long. Her right hand rests on the trackpad and the on-screen cursor hovers near the top email in an open inbox without clicking. One unread email sits at the top of the list. A small circular unread-count badge in the sidebar reads "1" and is the single brightest element in the frame, glowing about one stop above its surroundings in a soft dusty blue.

Cream-painted home office wall behind her, a ceramic mug and folded reading glasses on the desk, no other clutter.

Soft natural side window light from camera-left, warm and slightly desaturated, faint film grain, shallow depth of field with the screen and badge tack-sharp and the back wall soft.

Audio: quiet ambient room tone, faint laptop fan hum, no music, no voice, no key clicks.

9:16 vertical, 12 to 15 seconds, no on-screen text.

Designer notes

• What is locked (do not deviate):
  • The bipartite overlay text is verbatim from the approved draft. Do not edit, abbreviate, or re-order.
  • Both lines visible from frame 1 for the full 12-15s. No motion on the type. No fade.
  • Top-line typeface is Recoleta semi-bold (or Lora bold fallback). Bottom-line typeface is Inter medium. Two typefaces total, brand-spec.
  • All overlay copy is deep brown #3D2818. No white, no black, no terracotta, no sage in the type.
  • The unread email badge is the single brightest element by 1 to 1.5 stops and is dusty blue #7C95A6. No other saturated color on screen.
  • The cursor hovers and does not click for the full duration.
  • No music. Ambient room tone only.
  • Subject line of the unread email is deliberately illegible (small + soft focus, not redacted).
• Where Andrii or the designer has creative latitude:
  • The exact sender name on the unread email can swap to any plausibly real-feeling first-name + last-name pair (no brand, no celebrity, no in-joke). Rachel Tanaka is the suggested default.
  • The illegible subject line can swap to any plausibly mundane work string as long as it remains unreadable to the viewer. The illegibility is the point, not the words.
  • The mug and reading-glasses props can be swapped for any two equivalently restrained warm-neutral desk objects, as long as the desk holds a maximum of three items including the laptop.
  • The exact wardrobe color within the soft sand to warm taupe range is open.
  • The window-light angle can come from camera-left or camera-right, as long as the side-light register is preserved and the bipartite overlay still reads against the resulting back-wall tone.
• Asset export specs:
  • Canvas: 1080x1920, 9:16.
  • Color profile: sRGB.
  • Frame rate: 24 or 30 fps (24 preferred for the cinematic register).
  • Duration: 12-15s, no hard cap inside that window. Aim 13-14s.
  • Audio: stereo, -14 LUFS integrated for IG, ambient room tone only, no music track.
  • Format: MP4 (H.264, high bitrate).
  • Captions: do NOT burn the bipartite overlay into the source video file if it will be added in CapCut or Premiere in post. If the overlay is being baked in at export, render it as a separate layer at the spec above and confirm legibility on a phone screen before publishing.
• AI-generation route (if Andrii ships the AI clip instead of a live shoot):
  • The AI prompt above is model-agnostic. Veo 3.1 will use the audio cue natively; Runway Gen-4.5 / Kling 2.0 / Sora 2 will need ambient room tone added in post.
  • Flag for Andrii: the inbox UI detail (one unread email, a "1" count badge as the brightest element) is the load-bearing prop. If the model renders a vague laptop screen with no readable inbox, re-roll or composite a real screen recording over the laptop screen area in post. The badge brightness and the cursor-not-clicking are non-negotiable for the concept to land.
  • The model will not render Recoleta or Inter type cleanly. The overlay is added in post, not in the generation. The AI prompt explicitly excludes on-screen text.
• Open questions: none, asset is fully specified above.