# 60s Spy Title Sequence — Style Prompt

> A cut-paper, four-ink opening title sequence for a film that never existed: silhouettes move through sets built out of the credits themselves, every brass stab is a cut, and a title is assembled from the pieces.
> References (grammar only): Saul Bass's titles for *North by Northwest*, *Anatomy of a Murder* and *Vertigo* (flat opaque inks, abstraction down to silhouettes, type as structure); the 2002 homage by Kuntzel + Deygas for *Catch Me If You Can* (a cut-paper chase through graphic sets, lateral tracking). Not a gun-barrel opening, not a tiptoeing cartoon panther, not a copy of any real title's logo, lettering, characters or shots.

## 1. Essence, and what it is not

- **Flat, opaque inks on paper**: four colours, no gradients.
- **Hand-cut edges** on every shape; pieces layered with cut gaps and small paper shadows.
- **Abstraction down to silhouettes**: figures in profile, all acting in outline and timing.
- **Typography is the picture's structure**: credits are architecture, props, vehicles.
- **Music cuts the picture**: brass stabs are edit points.
- A title sequence is a story in itself: one goal, a few locations, one reveal.

Not flat vector motion graphics (the edges are cut, the paper is physical), not a halftone print style (no dots), not a Swiss grid (diagonals, jaunty type, playful), not a spy parody with gadgets and gun barrels.

## 2. Materials & rendering

- **Scissor-cut edges**: every polygon resampled every ~9–10 px and displaced along its normal by low-frequency noise (amp ~1.2–2.2 px, larger for bigger shapes) plus a rare 1–2 px notch. **Cut the edge once in the piece's local space and cache it**, so a moving cutout keeps the same edge, exactly like real cutout animation (screen-space edges crawl).
- **Paper layering**: separate pieces are separated by a ~2.4 px cut gap in the ground colour and cast a small paper shadow (offset a few px, blur ~5, alpha ~0.3). Whole figures get the gap as an outline, so a black figure reads in front of a black letter.
- **Paper texture**: one full-frame texture multiplied on top (mottling + faint fibres), a sparse "ink void" speckle on dark ink, faint squeegee streaks; film grain in the mux (~6).
- **Silhouette figures**: tall stylised adults (~7 heads), identity by hat, coat cut, shoes and **one colour accent** that doubles as a motion indicator (a tie or scarf streaming back when running). Pieces **merge into one outline** inside the figure, with only thin slits at shoulder, elbow, hip and knee. Hands are sharp wedges; no faces except an eye slit in close-ups.
- **The object of the chase** sits on a black backing (an ink keyline) so it reads on any ground; it is the brightest thing in frame.
- **Type**: a condensed OFL display face (e.g. League Gothic) for credits, glyph outlines extracted (opentype.js) and **re-cut** per letter (edge noise, ±0.8° rotation, ±1.5 px baseline jitter). A title in custom geometric cut glyphs (straight cuts + arcs, uneven weights, staggered baselines), never a real title's lettering.

## 3. Colour logic

- **Four inks**: ink black, paper cream, one hot colour, one warm secondary. Darker "shadow paper" variants of those inks only for depth.
- **One dominant ground colour per scene**, changing with the location; figures and type in the other inks.
- The hot colour is reserved for one accent on the hero and for danger; the secondary marks the object of the chase.
- Background props go in a darker version of the ground, never in black, or they read as letters.
- Examples: black `#1b1714` / cream `#efe4c9` / red `#d23a22` / mustard `#e2a52a`; ink `#161a22` / bone `#ece6d6` / teal `#1f8a8a` / orange `#f07a28`; black / pale pink `#f3d6cc` / cobalt `#2a46b8` / lemon `#f0d23a`.

## 4. Type & subtitles

- **Credits live in the set**, never in the subtitle band: one line per location, fully readable at some moment. Credits are fictional roles only, never real people's names.
- **Subtitles** on a narrow paper strip (scissor-cut ends, slightly tilted) bottom-left, a small glyph from the film as bullet, a geometric OFL sans (e.g. League Spartan 600, ~44 px). Light strip on dark scenes, dark strip on light scenes; slides in from the left in ~0.18 s. Hold ≥ max(1.8 s, speech + 0.6 s).
- Hold each credit long enough to read alongside a subtitle.

## 5. Motion quality

- **Puppets on twos** (12 fps): poses and positions of figures, hands, letters landing, vehicles. **Camera, credit slides and grid growth on ones** (24 fps): a stepped camera judders.
- Run cycles of ~8 drawings, one step per beat, a strong lean, the accent flying back. Walks one step per beat, coats swinging.
- Credits slide in along grid lines and **stop dead on the beat** (short ease-out); letters land with a paper slap.
- **Stop-time**: at a stab the whole picture freezes (background scroll included) for a couple of beats in total silence, then resumes.
- Shattering: a scene sliced into strips parallel to a cut line that slide off alternately along the diagonal.

## 6. Camera grammar

A vocabulary, not a route. Graphic, flat, decisive. Opening and ending come from the topic.

| Move | What it expresses | Can serve |
|---|---|---|
| Wide on a full credit line, then truck in | reading, then action | any location built from type |
| Lateral tracking, one screen direction | pursuit; momentum | a chase; a race; a delivery |
| Hard cut on a brass stab | punch; a new location | montage; a reveal; a gag |
| Graphic match cut (same shape, same position) | rhyme; acceleration | wheel → coin → pupil → moon |
| Locked single shape on a flat ground | mystery; an icon | a cold open; a clue; a logo |
| Silhouette against a giant circle | the hero moment | a catch; a triumph; a stand-off |
| Diagonal split into a grid | fragmentation; many at once | a split screen; a conspiracy; a team |
| Vertical pan down a column of type | descent; a list | a building; a roster; a countdown |
| Push into a letter until it fills frame | a letter becomes a place | a door; a tunnel; a window |

Framing: strong diagonals (~30°), big flat grounds, figures small against type. Match cuts keep circle centres and sizes identical across the cut. No dissolves.

## 7. Sound palette

- **1960s spy big band**: stacked staccato trumpets and trombones in octaves with crash (the stab), surf guitar low-string twang through a spring reverb, walking upright bass, brushes or sticks, bongos and shakers, vibraphone, flute, organ stabs, harpsichord. Minor keys, chromatic lines, dotted rhythms. Original motifs only: avoid the famous chromatic crawl of the most famous spy theme and its minor-major-ninth ending chord.
- **Stabs = edit points**: place staccato brass ~8 ms early so the sample's peak hits the frame.
- **Techniques (options)**: a cut interval that shrinks as a chase accelerates; stop-time silence; a big chord for the title followed by a short button; a solo instrument alone for a quiet scene.
- **Foley follows the material**: paper (cut "shh", slides, card slaps for letters landing, blind flips, a tear), metal (keys, chains, locks, clicks), tape (click, hiss). Environments only hinted: a jet pass panned, train wheels in tempo, roulette ticks slowing, wind, a phone ring, footsteps on stairs.
- **Silence**: true zero, reverb tails included; a single tape click or hiss may remain.
- **Mix**: music ducks ~7 dB under voice; a peaky mix needs a few dB into a limiter before loudnorm to reach −14 LUFS.
- **Voice**: a briefing through a tape chain (band-pass ~220–5200 Hz, soft saturation, slow wow, hiss rising under the voice); a few very short lines.

## 8. Native moves

A menu: use the ones your story needs.

- **Type is the set.** Each location is one line of credits and that line is its architecture (letters as pillars, words as carriages, a letter as a lock). *Fits content like:* a conference programme as a city; a menu as a restaurant; team names as a stadium.
- **Credits are rhythm.** Credits land on beats; stabs are cuts. *Fits content like:* a product's features; a festival line-up; an award's nominees.
- **Graphic match cuts.** Shape rhymes, the interval shrinking as tension rises. *Fits content like:* a coin → a planet → a clock; a gear → a wheel → a sun.
- **The diagonal grid.** A diagonal cut multiplies into a grid, and the pieces later fly back along it to assemble something. *Fits content like:* a puzzle solved; a team forming; a logo assembled.
- **Silhouette puppets.** Profile cut-outs whose acting is outline and timing. *Fits content like:* a heist; a courier on a deadline; a detective.
- **Stop-time gag.** Freeze on a stab, silence, resume. *Fits content like:* a near miss; a double take; a price reveal.
- **The object of the chase is the title.** What everyone pursues becomes the last thing assembled. *Fits content like:* a product launch; a book's name; a birthday name.

## 9. Pitfalls of the medium

- Every internal piece outlined with a gap looks like a mannequin diagram → merge pieces in an offscreen layer, cut only joint slits (`destination-out`), outline the whole figure.
- A `clear()` that resets the transform silently kills the camera.
- A figure fully hidden behind a letter reads as "nobody there" → let hat, nose and accent stick out. A stiff streamer reads as a tongue → multi-segment ribbon with a travelling sine.
- A credit only ever seen partially is uncomfortable → always open wide on the full line.
- Black background props read as letters → darker ground colour.
- An object in the same ink as its ground vanishes → black backing.
- Circular props dropped into a word cover neighbouring letters → lay the word out around a gap.
- Match cuts fail if circle centres move across the cut.
- Flat inks + grain make huge files at low CRF → a higher CRF looks the same.

## 10. Engine

In `demo/`: `paper.js` (four inks, cached scissor edges, cut gaps, paper shadow, texture, silhouette layer with joint slits), `glyph.js` (League Gothic → opentype.js outlines → re-cut letters), `chars.js` (silhouette rigs, poses, run/walk cycles), `title.js` (custom cut title glyphs, diagonal split), `story.js` (tempo grid, single source of timing), `film.js` (timeline, acting, cameras, subtitles, sound events). `?sheet=1` renders a model sheet, `?frame=<scene>` a style frame. File list and build steps: [DEMO.md](DEMO.md) "Build notes".

## 11. Variation space

You decide what is pursued, by whom, the locations (as credits), the inks, the opening and the ending. All far from our demo:

- Structures: **no chase: a countdown** (ten credits, ten locations, a bomb-clock number built from type in each); **a heist in reverse** (the object is returned, location by location, to where it belongs); **two agents, one frame** (split diagonally, each side a different ground colour, until they meet).
- Openings: **a full-frame title** that shatters into the sequence (the reveal moved to the start); **a telephone rings** in a single cut-out room; **the hero already falling** through a column of type.
- Endings: **the title never assembles**, one piece missing, the hero walking off with it; **a slow pull-out** showing every location was one giant credit page; **a stop-time freeze** on the final stab, held.

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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.