Scratchboard Long Take — our demo

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Demo: Thirty-Three Cranes 《三十三隻》 (60.0 s) · printed-long-take.mp4 (English narration) · source in demo/

Story & structure

A January dawn at minus twenty on the Setsuri river at Tsurui, in the wetlands of eastern Hokkaido. The river is spring-fed and does not freeze; red-crowned cranes sleep standing in it. The crowns wake one by one, the flock lifts off over the cleared marsh to a feeding field, where a board says that in the winter of 1952 only 33 cranes were found in all of Hokkaido. Feeding began that year; the same field is printed again as the numbers grow; the board is cut with the January 2025 count, 1,927, and "Vulnerable" is struck and sealed "Near Threatened" (Ministry of the Environment, March 2026). A narrator tells it in eleven short lines; every line has a subtitle bar, Chinese above English. Every fact is in demo/FACTS.md. The bridge name 音羽橋 on the plate is the real bridge's name; the plate, thermometer, board, notice and seal are our own drawing.

Why it fits: the crane is already ink, paper and one red, so the single red needs no excuse; the steaming river, rimed trees and volcano row are what knife cuts draw well. Native moves spent: the sky carved open and one red waking (dawn), through the steam (takeoff into the air), the same place printed again (the four prints, the red as a second plate), words cut into the world (plate, board, seal), a plate of type in the sky (title and end card).

Shots

# Time Narration Shot Camera
1 0–5.2 line 1 night valley, volcano row, windbreak grid, steaming river; title cut into the sky (0.15–5.0) high wide, sinking
2 5.2–7.5 line 2 low over the water toward the bridge glide, decelerating
3 7.5–11.3 — stone pier with the cast-iron plate 音羽橋 / Otowa Bridge and a dial at −20, snow and icicles; then past the pier and under the bridge long-lens hold, then the pass slowed to half speed with an ease in and out (10.0–11.3)
4 11.3–14.1 line 3 sleeping cranes close in the water, the sky starting to be cut water level, low aim
5 14.1–16.6 — crowns wake left to right; the nearest pair calls tilting up with the dawn
6 16.6–19.35 — run, splash, lift off; into the steam (19.1–19.55, under half a second of paper) rising with the leaders
7 19.35–24.4 line 4 aerial over the marsh; tilts down to the cleared field grid (20.9–22.6) tracking behind
8 24.4–29.0 line 5 following one crane down into the corn field follow, then along the fence
9 29.0–34.0 line 6 the board: 丹頂鶴 · 冬季清點, 1952 年冬, 33 隻; notice 保護等級 易危 near-still
10 34.0–38.3 line 7 the 1952 print: 33 cranes, deep snow, tracks; corn spreads at 37.0 locked
11 38.3–41.7 line 8 peels at 39.3, 40.1, 40.8; each print gets its red a beat later, a hair off register locked
12 41.7–46.1 line 9 2025 年 1 月 and 1,927 隻 cut into the right column (42.0–44.1) near-still
13 46.1–51.8 line 10 易危 struck at 48.0; the seal 近危 2026.3 and 已移出瀕危 at 48.95, one frame of shake near-still
14 51.8–56.8 line 11 a quick turn off the board to a pair dancing; crane up to the opening direction rise and pull back
15 56.8–60.0 — end card cut into the day sky still

Narration

The voice reads one line per cue; Chinese and English start at the same moments, and the subtitle bar (and printed-long-take.srt) shows both lines.

# Chinese English
1 這麼冷的清晨，河水卻沒有結冰，還升騰著陣陣白汽。 On a morning this cold, the river still hasn’t frozen; it breathes white steam.
2 這裡是北海道東部的溼地。 This is a wetland in eastern Hokkaido.
3 站在河水裡安靜睡覺的，是丹頂鶴。 Asleep, standing in the water: red-crowned cranes.
4 早年間，隨著溼地被一片片開墾，它們差點就徹底失去了家園。 Long ago, as the wetlands were cleared field by field, they nearly lost their home for good.
5 天亮後，它們成群飛去的地方，是一塊專門撒滿玉米的田地。 At daybreak they fly in flocks to a field scattered with corn, just for them.
6 回想一九五二年冬天，整個北海道，一共只找到了三十三隻丹頂鶴。 Think back to the winter of 1952: in all of Hokkaido, only 33 cranes were found.
7 也是從那一年起，當地人決定在冬天給它們投餵食物。 That was the year local people decided to feed them through the winter.
8 就這樣，丹頂鶴的數量，一年比一年多。 And so, year after year, there were more of them.
9 到了二零二五年，已經數到了一千九百二十七隻。 By 2025 the count had reached 1,927.
10 它們的保護級別，也終於從易危，降到了近危。 Their status finally eased, from Vulnerable to Near Threatened.
11 雖然不再算作瀕危物種了，但這群雪地裡的精靈，依然需要人們的守護。 No longer counted as endangered, these spirits of the snow still need people to look after them.

Score structure

72 bpm in three, D dorian to D major, ducked about 17 dB under the voice (foley about 7 dB) and up again in the silent shots 3, 5, 6 and 15. Night: bowed vibraphone, a double bass pedal, glockenspiel under the title; harp on every beat from 5.5 s, slowing with the picture under the bridge. Dawn: the horn theme, hand chimes. Takeoff: timpani and string tremolo, cut by the steam. Air: pizzicato bass and xylophone in three. Prints: timpani and pizzicato strokes on the block thumps and the corn. Verdict: a held bass A1, the seal with a gran cassa, the theme in D major on horn, harp from 51.8 s, a long D major chord and three glockenspiel notes on the end card. Foley: the river under its ice edge, frost cracks, synthesised crane calls, splashes and wing beats, wind, snow crunches, pecking, knife cuts, block thumps, a torn sheet, the seal. Mix before the master: −16.0 LUFS, true peak −2.1 dBFS, 60.00 s.

Palette & props

Ink #16171b, paper #ede5cd, red #c4332b only on crowns (each with a thin paper ring, never under 5 px by day), yellow #dfa443 for the sun, its light and the corn. Props: the volcano row (an even cone, a broad massif with a crater rim, a small cone), the windbreak grid, rimed alders and willows, a stone pier with a cast-iron plate, a dial thermometer, snow and icicles; a fenced feeding field with huts, corn, crane tracks and fence shadows; a plank board in two columns (1952 | 2025) over a pasted status notice, Chinese and numbers only, with a square seal. Cranes: 16 silhouette poses; distant ones drawn up to 3× larger.

End card

Cut into the day sky as an ink plate over the still wide shot, upper right and at least 5% inside the frame: 三十三隻 / Thirty-Three Cranes / LemoLab × Claude Opus 5.5, from 56.8 to 60.0 s. The "LemoLab × Claude Opus 5.5" sign-off belongs to this library's demo only; a user's film carries no LemoLab credit and no copy of this card.

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