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It was a Tuesday sort of a Wednesday

Vertical 9:16, woodcut, black and white with red. Self narrated by the detective. 47 shots.

4:35

Runtime

Shots

4:14

VO measured

~$45

Est. cost

Title card, on the shades

Serif treatment you picked, moved onto the window shade plate. Pick one in the decisions below.

Look reference

The lead, framed medium so he stays handsome

Narration, Bill

The red rule

You liked the leak, so it becomes a system instead of an accident. Red escalates with her panic and resets when she is composed. The audience will feel it without being told.

NonePure black and white. His world.

ContainedRed on her and nothing else.

BleedingRed spills onto the frame, door, floor or light around her.

FloodRed takes the whole frame. Used exactly once.

Shot by shot

Every shot reframed for vertical. Fewer wides, more verticals: the alley drop, the stacks of paper, the doorway, the look straight up. Tap a header to collapse an act.

Title1 shots · 4s

TITLE CARD. Black. The title builds line by line, last word lands in red.

Red: None

Act I. The desk, no red exists yet10 shots · 53s

Vertical. The building from the street, looking straight up. Fire escape, one lit window near the top. Late sun.

VO "It was a Tuesday sort of a Wednesday."

Red: None

Vertical wide of the office floor to ceiling. Towers of paper, one tall blinded window, him small at the bottom of frame.

VO "I have got a pile of three days worth of work, but only two days left to get it all done."

Red: None

Tilt down a leaning stack of case folders to the desk. Cold coffee, dead matches.

VO "Somehow I have worked myself to the bone these past few days, yet I have got nothing to show for it."

Red: None

Wall calendar, vertical, days crossed off in heavy strokes. The crossings stop two days short.

VO "It did not help that it is also just after the daylight savings time change, and my internal clock is all messed up."

Red: None

Medium. He pushes back from the desk and throws his head back against the chair. NOT a close up.

VO "With a sigh, I push away from my desk and throw my head back in my seat to stare up at the ceiling."

Red: None

His POV straight up the vertical frame. Ceiling, water stain, a slow bleed out of focus.

VO "That is, until I see nothing at all."

Red: None

Black. Full silence. The only true black in the film.

Red: None

Hard cut. He snaps upright, chair rocking, a sheet of paper sliding off the desk.

VO "I jolt awake with such a force that I nearly fall out of my chair."

Red: None

He rakes papers into the briefcase. Shot low from the desk surface so the stacks tower over him.

VO "I will start fresh tomorrow, I think to myself, and begin packing my things."

Red: None

The sun finds his eyes through the blinds. He turns his face away, hand up.

VO "With the sun peeking in through the blinds. Blinding me in the process."

Red: None

Act II. The woman below, red is born10 shots · 64s

He crosses the room toward the tall window. Full figure, bars of light on the floor ahead of him.

VO "I stride over to the only window in my cramped office to close the blinds."

Red: None

HERO SHOT. Steep vertical look down the alley through the slats. She is small, far below, the only colour in the film so far.

VO "And that is when I see her."

Red: Contained

Closer, still from above. Red dress, matching hat, scarf, oversized dark glasses.

VO "In stark contrast to my own appearance, she is well put together."

Red: Contained

Detail pass down her: the hat brim, the glasses, the hem moving, the shoes on cracked pavement.

VO "Walking down the street below, wearing a one of a kind vibrant red dress that looks like it was made exclusively for her, with top of the line matching accessories to boot."

Red: Contained

Full vertical of the alley. Filth, trash, a dented car, and one perfect red figure moving through it.

VO "Her whole ensemble looks like it cost more than what I pay to rent this shabby room, in this worn down building, on this side of town."

Red: Contained

Him at the glass, slats across his face. Medium, not close. Unimpressed.

VO "She looks like the kind of person that knows what day of the week it is."

Red: None

She passes a black doorway. Two shapes inside it turn to track her.

VO "I am surprised she has not been robbed yet."

Red: Contained

His hand on the cord. The blinds drop. The red goes out of the world with them.

VO "Fortunately for her, my curiosity is not winning today."

Red: None

He sweeps the whole desk in and forces the latches. Shot from inside the briefcase looking up as it shuts.

VO "I close the blinds and resume my packing. After a very decisive choice of what work to bring home with me, if you can call just grabbing everything decisive, I lock my briefcase."

Red: None

Coat off the hook, hat on, hand closing on the doorknob. Vertical, his back to us.

VO "Grab my coat and hat, and open the door to freedom."

Red: None

Act III. The client, red starts to leak25 shots · 149s

The door swings in. She fills the lit doorway, head to foot. Red bleeds onto the frame and the floor around her.

VO "Unfortunately for me, freedom is not behind the door. She is."

Red: Bleeding

Her in the doorway, a flick of the wrist to the watch. Red still bleeding at the edges.

HER "Oh? Am I too late? Your ad said you close at five, and it is still five till."

Red: Bleeding

Insert, vertical. The watch, loaded with stones. Red contained again, just a glint.

VO "She said, after a quick look at her probably diamond encrusted watch. The movement was so quick there was no way she actually read the time."

Red: Contained

Him. Medium. Bone dry.

VO "So. She is a woman who knows the day and the time. What is next, the date?"

Red: None

He smiles. It stops well short of his eyes.

HIM "Come on in."

Red: None

The hat and coat going back onto the hook. Shot looking up the wall.

VO "With an internal smile I re-hang my hat and coat."

Red: None

He sits. The briefcase goes down on the desk between them like a wall. She is a red shape behind it.

VO "Then move to sit in my seat, setting my briefcase down on the desk between us."

Red: Contained

Across the desk at her.

HIM "What can I do for you?"

Red: Contained

Her hands working at each other in her lap. Vertical, tight on the hands and the red skirt.

HER "I, um... I..."

Red: Contained

She stares down at her shoes. The camera stays on the shoes a beat too long.

VO "She stammers, and trails off."

Red: Contained

Paper pushed across the desk into the light. Sound only.

VO "Then proceeds to just hand me some paper."

Red: Contained

The papers in his hands. A photograph, a name, a date. Greyscale, no red at all here.

VO "I glance through what she handed me, and put two and two together."

Red: None

Him over the top of the page.

HIM "So you want me to tail your husband on Thursday the fifth?"

Red: None

PEAK. Her composure goes. Red floods the entire frame for the length of the line, then snaps back.

HER "Tomorrow. Yes, please. I will pay whatever, I just need to know if it is true!"

Red: Flood

Flash back to shot 13, same frame, but now the glasses and scarf read as a disguise.

VO "I should have known from the moment I saw her down below, in those too big sunglasses and that scarf wrapped around her head."

Red: Contained

The alley from shot 15, empty now, the light gone out of it.

VO "That is what she is doing on this side of town. On my side of town."

Red: None

Him. Just tired.

VO "It has been a long couple of days."

Red: None

Her hands flat on the desk. The wedding ring catches the lamp.

VO "These women never think they can be cheated on. They think they are too pretty. Their lives too perfect to be betrayed."

Red: Contained

Not a real place. A corridor of doorways receding up the vertical frame, a red shape standing in each one.

VO "Some deny the fact because they started out as the mistress themselves, and it could not possibly happen to them as well. Though something tells me the woman before me does not fall under that last category."

Red: Bleeding

10s

The desk lamp, the unpaid bill beneath it, the stack of other cases climbing out of frame.

VO "Whatever the reason, it does not matter. These cheating scumbags are what keep my lights on, and give me the resources to do some real investigative work."

Red: None

10s

He forces the new paperwork into the already overflowing briefcase.

HIM "I will get right on it. First thing Thursday morning!"

Red: Contained

She stops in the doorway and turns back. Red bleeds onto the frame again, the mirror of shot 21.

HER "You mean tomorrow, right?"

Red: Bleeding

Him. One beat too long before he answers.

HIM "Right."

Red: None

The calendar from shot 4. We can read it now.

VO "Is tomorrow Thursday already?"

Red: None

Him in the slatted shadow. Cut to black on the word.

VO "Crap."

Red: None

End1 shots · 5s

END CARD. Black. Written by, then the title again, small.

Red: None

Decisions

Which title card? (A, B or C above)

Fixed: the slats are horizontal now, they were vertical louvers before. A is all white, B puts the last word in red, C sets the type off to the side.

Bill is chosen. What still needs fixing in his read?

Settled: Bill. This asks which fixes you want on his read.

Her two spoken lines?

Right now he reads everything, including her. Classic noir, and it keeps one voice.

Is the leak rule right?

Levels 0 to 3 below, escalating with her panic. Flood fires once, on her line about needing to know if it is true.

Score?

What do I build first?

How should she be credited, and does she want the title changed?

Free text.

Cost at this length

Item	Detail	Cost
Still frames	45 shots plus re-rolls, ~140 images	~$6
Motion clips	45 clips, 1080x1920, Kling turbo	~$25
Re-rolls	Budget 40% needing a second pass	~$10
Voice and music	Final narration plus score	~$4
Total	Full 4:35 vertical short	~$45

Current kie.ai balance is about $4.78, enough for the proof of concept only. A $50 top up covers the film.

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