Zine paste-up

How to use it

Paste up most of the clip as photocopied zine pages with ransom letters for the key words, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the hot take and the shout-out.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitWorksSideSuits itDrawn overAvoid

Full scene: the scene fills the frame. Stock speaker from Pexels.

Palette

THIS IS A MOODBOARD, NOT A TEMPLATE. The style below is inspiration for the look and feel. Keep its materials, colours, textures and the way it moves, but invent your own scenes, characters and objects for this clip. You are not limited to anything shown in the preview, and nothing in it has to appear. Use illustration and animation to help tell the clip's story.

STORY FIRST. Read the whole clip before you design anything.
1. Write the clip's arc in one line: setup, tension, turn, pay-off. Name the one line that is the reveal.
2. Tag every sentence with its job: setup, context, tension, turn, reveal, example, number, contrast, list, quote, feeling, metaphor, callback, pay-off, aside.
3. The visuals carry the whole clip. If the clip shows the speaker's face, open on them (the first scene keeps them on screen) unless the person says otherwise. After that, never cut back to the speaker full-frame unless the person asks for it; if they do, only on the ending, never in the middle of an explanation. The speaker can still sit inside a scene (a corner, a split or drawn in) when the person wants to be seen.
4. Build one flowing visual story, not a new picture per sentence. Each scene covers a whole thought (one to three sentences), holds 3 to 8 seconds and turns into the next.
5. Start each scene on the first word of its sentence, or up to half a second before. Never cut mid-sentence.
6. Inside a scene, bring small details in on the words they show (an item, a tag, a tick). Earlier details stay.
7. Choose one or two recurring objects or characters in the first scene and bring them back changed. Callbacks beat new pictures.
8. Build up the same picture where you can (add to it, move the camera across it) instead of replacing it.
9. Energy: about 80 percent still, drifting or gentle. Allow one big move in the whole clip, on the reveal, for 1 to 2 seconds, then settle and hold.
10. Numbers sit on a scale (gauge, bar, table, timeline) and hold long enough to read. Contrasts are a still split or the same layout twice.
11. Feelings get a quiet image, or one of the cuts back to the speaker; never effects.
12. On-screen text names, labels or quotes; it never repeats the caption. Five words or fewer per label.
13. End every scene by settling or thinning out, or by turning into the next scene. No exit effects.
14. The style sets the look. These rules set when, how long and how calmly. If the style's own motion rules ask for more energy than this, use less.

PICTURES: this style uses photo cut-outs. Before you start, ask the person one short question: use stills from their own clip, Slice's stock search, their own uploads, or (only if you can make images) images you generate. If they don't mind, use stills from the clip, then stock.

VISUAL STYLE: Zine paste-up
Slice style ref: sref-0W4HY9
LOOK: a cut-and-paste zine page on cream newsprint #EFE9DA, made from blue halftone cut-outs #1F4E9C, one flat fluoro orange #FF6A2B hand-cut shape, black #191919 type and translucent masking tape #E2D6B0. Photos and objects are printed only as coarse blue halftone on a 45 degree screen.
LINE AND FILL: no outlines and no white sticker borders. Edges are straight, slightly uneven scissor cuts, or the subject's own silhouette. Orange shapes are flat, cut by hand with small corners. Ransom-note letters are each cut from a different source: different face, weight and paper colour.
TEXTURE: newsprint grain, toner specks, a dark photocopy edge on one side, staples, faint fold and streak lines, slightly see-through tape with torn ends.
LIGHT: flat, as photocopied.
CAMERA: locked on the page, flat-on.
MOTION: pieces are pasted down on twos (12 fps) with a small settle and stay. Letters land one by one. The one big move: a copier light bar sweeps once across the page and leaves it as a photocopy, darker and speckled.
TYPE: ransom-note capitals for the main word, typewriter text on a small torn strip for details.
THE RULE: photos are always blue halftone, colour is only one flat fluoro orange, and every piece is cut, pasted and taped.
DON'T: no full-colour photos, no white sticker edges, no grey photocopy look with red and yellow, no gradients, no more than one bright colour, no purple.
Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.
Accent: as in the palette.
Frame shape: ask me before you start (9:16 vertical, 4:5 portrait, 1:1 square or 16:9 wide).
Energy: normal.

TECH: one HTML file, one GSAP 3 timeline created paused as window.__timelines.main, duration = the scene's length, transforms and opacity only.

Look rules

• LOOK: a cut-and-paste zine page on cream newsprint #EFE9DA, made from blue halftone cut-outs #1F4E9C, one flat fluoro orange #FF6A2B hand-cut shape, black #191919 type and translucent masking tape #E2D6B0. Photos and objects are printed only as coarse blue halftone on a 45 degree screen.
• LINE AND FILL: no outlines and no white sticker borders. Edges are straight, slightly uneven scissor cuts, or the subject's own silhouette. Orange shapes are flat, cut by hand with small corners. Ransom-note letters are each cut from a different source: different face, weight and paper colour.
• TEXTURE: newsprint grain, toner specks, a dark photocopy edge on one side, staples, faint fold and streak lines, slightly see-through tape with torn ends.
• LIGHT: flat, as photocopied.
• CAMERA: locked on the page, flat-on.
• MOTION: pieces are pasted down on twos (12 fps) with a small settle and stay. Letters land one by one. The one big move: a copier light bar sweeps once across the page and leaves it as a photocopy, darker and speckled.
• TYPE: ransom-note capitals for the main word, typewriter text on a small torn strip for details.
• THE RULE: photos are always blue halftone, colour is only one flat fluoro orange, and every piece is cut, pasted and taped.
• DON'T: no full-colour photos, no white sticker edges, no grey photocopy look with red and yellow, no gradients, no more than one bright colour, no purple.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

independent voices and scenes: a hot take, a community shout-out, an event, a guest intro with attitude

Avoid for

grief, calm wellbeing, or polished corporate messages

Content

Opinion, Comedy, Announcement, Interview, Hype, Nostalgia

Tone

Cheeky, Scrappy, Independent, Playful

Pace

Medium

Topics

zine, paste-up, halftone, photocopy, ransom letters, masking tape, DIY, fluoro

Colours

#EFE9DA #1F4E9C #FF6A2B #191919 #E2D6B0

For AIs: this style as plain text.