The Master Guide / 07 Video with Seedance · Picture-led recipes
10. Exact composition
A designed tableau that must open exactly as the treatment draws it. Here, a grandmother waits, alone, at the far end of a long laid table under rows of lanterns on the first night of Ramadan, in perfect symmetry.
When to use it: a designed tableau that must open exactly as the treatment draws it. Here, a grandmother waits, alone, at the far end of a long laid table under rows of lanterns on the first night of Ramadan, in perfect symmetry.
Methods:
a start frame, for the exact-composition case [proven] (see Video with Seedance → The six start-frame cases). Used here because the treatment fixes the opening composition, down to the symmetry;
the start frame is made fresh from the approved sheets, in Nano Banana Pro, with the symmetry written in words from the treatment; no storyboard image is attached to either generation (decided);
with a frame attached, every @ number goes and each reference is named by its content.
Shared rules: the rules every recipe keeps, and the notes on picture-led recipes: Video with Seedance → How to read a recipe.
References: the start frame; then, in upload order, the grandmother's sheet, her identity close-up, the dining hall's master plate and the lantern's prop sheet. The prompt names each by what it shows, not by number.
Settings: omni-reference · the start image plus four image references · 6 s for a 4.5 s window (a 0.5–1 s head handle) · 16:9 · audio on.
Cost: 480p draft 18 cr (6 s × 3 cr) · 1080p finish 96 cr (6 s × 16 cr).
Budget: high risk (a readable face, a start frame): 372 cr expected (6 s × 62), 738 cr ceiling (6 s × 123).
What to change, what to keep: Template A with an internal frame (Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D).
Yours to rewrite:
the tableau and its counts;
the name of each reference, by what it shows;
the dolly push.
Keep word for word: the shared wording (Video with Seedance → How to read a recipe), plus:
the FRAMES block ("The clip begins exactly on the opening frame. From the first instant she is the same woman as in the opening frame: …", ending with your character's face, wardrobe and hands);
where the only light is in frame, "Only the lanterns themselves glow" (with your source), in place of "No surface lights itself."
SCENE CONTEXT: The first night of Ramadan in a long dining hall. A grandmother sits alone at the far end of a long, laid table beneath rows of lanterns, pouring tea before the family arrives.
ACTIVE REFERENCES: The character sheet of the woman in the deep green dress is THE GRANDMOTHER: a woman in her late seventies, small, silver hair under a loose white scarf, a deep green dress, a brass teapot in her right hand and a glass in her left. This sheet gives identity and wardrobe and nothing else: the face and hair come from the close-up panel alone, the wardrobe and body from the full-body panels alone; the front panel's cropped head is never repeated; leave out its grey ground, layout and flat light. Match it exactly. The close-up of the same woman is THE GRANDMOTHER'S FACE, used for the face alone. The picture of the empty hall is THE HALL: architecture, materials and light only; the set holds exactly as pictured. The picture of a single pierced brass lantern is THE LANTERN: its design only.
FRAMES: The clip begins exactly on the opening frame. From the first instant she is the same woman as in the opening frame: her face, her scarf, her dress and her hands.
LOCATION MAP: Foreground, the near end of the long table, plates laid on both sides; midground, the table running straight away from the camera; background, THE GRANDMOTHER at the far end, frame centre, under the last lantern. Two matching rows of eight lanterns hang left and right. Left and right as the camera sees them. Live motion (a quiet room: one): the lanterns sway a few centimetres in a draught from an open door on frame left, their pierced patterns sliding across the walls.
FIRST FRAME AND BLOCKING (in motion from frame one): A wide, symmetrical tableau, exactly as in the opening frame. THE GRANDMOTHER is already pouring a thin stream of tea from the raised teapot into the glass.
FORMAT MODE: A single unbroken shot with no cuts of its own. Real time.
OPTICS: Wide, on a 47° diagonal field of view throughout; the lines of the table and the lanterns meet at her; the lens holds steady.
CAMERA: A dolly at seated eye height, centred on the table's axis. One slow push of 2 m across the 6 s, straight down the axis toward her, travelling, never panning, the symmetry held. It opens on the opening frame and arrives on a slightly tighter wide, with the last four pairs of lanterns framing her. The cut comes after the beat, so the push eases to rest in the last second.
ACTION / TIMELINE: From the first frame she pours, raising the teapot higher so the stream grows longer; by about 2 s she lowers the pot and sets the glass at the empty place beside her; by about 4 s she smooths the tablecloth with her palm and looks up at the door on frame left; at 6 s she waits, her hands folded.
PERFORMANCE — THE GRANDMOTHER: She wants everything perfect before they come; her eyes check each place at the table, then go to the door, hoping. A small breath in as she looks up. Calm and expectant, never sad.
PHYSICS: The stream of tea is thin and amber and breaks into drops only at its end; the brass pot is heavy, and her wrist dips as she lowers it. The lanterns swing slowly on short chains, a little out of step with one another.
TEXTURE: Fine creases in the white tablecloth; worn brass patina on the lanterns; a little tarnish on the teapot's spout.
LIGHTING: Warm 2700 K light from the sixteen lanterns alone, soft and pooled on the table; the walls carry a slowly moving pattern of pierced light; exposed for her face. Only the lanterns themselves glow.
AUDIO: Sound effects only. A quiet hall tone; 0.3 s tea pouring into the glass; 2.1 s the glass set down on the cloth; 4.0 s fabric brushed; distant street sounds through the open door. No music and no voices; nobody speaks and all mouths stay shut. Nothing rises, swooshes, stings or fades at the opening, at a cut, or as the clip closes. No subtitles and no on-screen text.
STYLE: A warm, classical cinema look: dense, clean blacks, golden highlights, soft contrast, real skin texture; light seen only where it lands, as highlights and reflections on real surfaces.
POSITIVE LOCKS: Exactly one woman, with one teapot and one glass in her hands. The hall keeps its two rows of eight lanterns, and none appears or disappears. The symmetry holds while the camera moves. The take fails if the hall changes shape or a second person appears.
Check the take
Before you generate, check the start frame at full size beside the identity close-up. On the take, compare frame one with the start frame, count the lanterns, and check that the symmetry holds as the dolly moves. Trim the head handle in the edit.
Common failure and fix: the hall changes shape, or lanterns appear and vanish. Keep the counts in LOCATION MAP and POSITIVE LOCKS, and keep the plate as the owner of the set; a set that still morphs is a reference fix, so check the plate first.