Cork and red string

How to use it

Pin each clue to a cork board through most of the clip and tie them together with red string as the story connects, cutting back to the speaker once or twice for the reveal.

Where the speaker sits

Full sceneSuits itSmallSuits itSplitSuits itSideWorksDrawn 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: Cork and red string
Slice style ref: sref-759FD8
LOOK: a speckled cork board #B48856 in a dark wooden frame, lit by one warm desk lamp from above so the middle glows and the corners fall into shadow. Pinned to it: black and white or sepia photo prints with white borders, typed index cards #FBF8EF with blue rules and a red top line, yellow sticky notes #F2DC6A with handwriting, newspaper clippings with toned pictures. Round red push pins and one red string #B3282B. Ink #24211D.
LINE AND FILL: real objects, no outlines. Every piece of paper has a small tilt and a soft contact shadow; the string has its own faint shadow and a thin highlight.
TEXTURE: cork crumbs, paper grain, slightly faded prints, typewriter ink that is a little uneven.
LIGHT: one warm pool of lamp light, everything else dimmer.
CAMERA: a very slow push in across the whole clip.
MOTION: each piece is pinned on gently (a small drop and its shadow tightening) and stays. String winds from pin to pin when things are linked. The one big move: the string pulls taut and the lamp warms as everything connects.
TYPE: typewriter text on cards, handwritten pen on notes and photo borders, at most three words on each.
THE RULE: one string colour, and every piece of paper is a real, pinned object with a shadow.
DON'T: no messy mood-board pile (four or five pieces at most), no flat graphic icons, no glowing lines, no purple pins or string.
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 speckled cork board #B48856 in a dark wooden frame, lit by one warm desk lamp from above so the middle glows and the corners fall into shadow. Pinned to it: black and white or sepia photo prints with white borders, typed index cards #FBF8EF with blue rules and a red top line, yellow sticky notes #F2DC6A with handwriting, newspaper clippings with toned pictures. Round red push pins and one red string #B3282B. Ink #24211D.
• LINE AND FILL: real objects, no outlines. Every piece of paper has a small tilt and a soft contact shadow; the string has its own faint shadow and a thin highlight.
• TEXTURE: cork crumbs, paper grain, slightly faded prints, typewriter ink that is a little uneven.
• LIGHT: one warm pool of lamp light, everything else dimmer.
• CAMERA: a very slow push in across the whole clip.
• MOTION: each piece is pinned on gently (a small drop and its shadow tightening) and stays. String winds from pin to pin when things are linked. The one big move: the string pulls taut and the lamp warms as everything connects.
• TYPE: typewriter text on cards, handwritten pen on notes and photo borders, at most three words on each.
• THE RULE: one string colour, and every piece of paper is a real, pinned object with a shadow.
• DON'T: no messy mood-board pile (four or five pieces at most), no flat graphic icons, no glowing lines, no purple pins or string.
• Treat these as the look, never a template: invent fresh pictures, words and compositions from what this clip says.

What it suits

Best for

stories that connect clues: how events led to each other, true stories, a mystery solved, how the pieces fit

Avoid for

upbeat tips, wellbeing, or one-idea clips with nothing to connect

Content

Personal story, Explainer, Interview, Money or business, Nostalgia

Tone

Curious, Intriguing, Quiet, Investigative

Pace

Slow

Topics

cork board, red string, pins, polaroid, index card, sticky note, evidence, desk lamp

Colours

#B48856 #F6F2E8 #F2DC6A #B3282B #24211D

For AIs: this style as plain text.