{
  "schema": "criccuts.scene-brief/1",
  "title": "Tea Estate Dawn",
  "pitch": "A hill tea estate at first light: mist pours through the green terraces, the pickers start the first row, and a little train climbs the hill on a timber trestle high above. The batter stands in the doorway of the estate's old weighing shed.",
  "opening": {
    "object": "The open doorway of the estate's old wooden weighing shed, at the end of a terrace row. The batter stands on its threshold, on the earth path; both door posts reach the ground.",
    "shape": "doorway"
  },
  "signature": "A little narrow-gauge train crossing a tall timber trestle high in the band, a white plume of steam trailing behind it through the mist.",
  "setting": {
    "place": "A hill tea estate in a misty mountain range: an archetype, not any real estate, valley or railway",
    "timeOfDay": "dawn",
    "weather": "Low mist in the valleys, a clear pale sky above, still air"
  },
  "mood": ["calm", "fresh", "hopeful", "misty", "early start"],
  "layout": {
    "top": "Pale dawn sky, peach at the horizon fading to soft blue. The train on its timber trestle crosses the whole band, steam trailing. Behind it, two ridges of blue-grey hills fading into mist. On a wide shot this strip alone must still say 'tea hills at dawn': keep the trestle and the plume.",
    "left": "Terraces stepping up the hill in curved bands of deep and light green, each row told apart by light and dark rather than leaf detail. Three pickers with baskets on their backs work the nearest row. Tall, thin shade trees stand among the bushes.",
    "right": "The weighing shed's veranda: a hanging balance scale, a stack of woven baskets, a bench with a kettle steaming on a small stove, and a painted name board on the gable. Further back the terraces fall into a mist-filled valley with one more ridge beyond.",
    "ground": "The packed red-earth path into the shed, edged on both sides by the clipped ends of the nearest tea rows, with a few fallen leaves. Below the batter's feet only the real video shows."
  },
  "motion": {
    "loop": [
      { "thing": "Mist banks drifting slowly across the valley and between the terraces", "pace": "slow" },
      { "thing": "The pickers' baskets swaying as they reach into the row", "pace": "medium" },
      { "thing": "Steam curling up from the kettle on the veranda stove", "pace": "slow" }
    ],
    "onHit": "The train whistles: a sharp puff of white steam jumps from the engine. A flock of small birds lifts off the terraces, wheels once over the shed and settles on the far slope, and the pickers look up. All over in about three seconds, with no flash."
  },
  "stillFrame": "Soft dawn light, the mist caught mid-drift, the train halfway across the trestle with its plume trailing, the birds still resting on the terraces. Nothing lit or flashing: the same quiet picture the clip opens on.",
  "palette": {
    "colours": ["#F6C9A0", "#CFE3EE", "#E8ECEA", "#7F93A3", "#2F5D3A", "#6E9B4E", "#6B4A32", "#A0522D"],
    "notes": "Dawn pastels in the sky and the mist; the greens stay deep so the band reads over bright daytime video. Red earth and old timber warm the shed side."
  },
  "words": {
    "text": ["WEIGHING SHED"],
    "userText": "club"
  },
  "avoid": [
    "No real estate, valley, tea or railway names: some tea names are protected place names. It is just 'a hill tea estate'.",
    "No real heritage railway's engine, colours, number or nameplate: a generic little engine.",
    "No brand or logo on the baskets, the kettle, the tea sacks or the shed.",
    "No flags, emblems, uniforms, shrines or religious symbols.",
    "No fine leaf texture: at phone size it turns to green mud. The rows are bands of light and dark.",
    "Nothing bright or flashing at the hit: the whistle is a puff of steam, not a light.",
    "The pickers are drawn warmly and with dignity, as working people, never as a joke or a stereotype."
  ],
  "references": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/tea-estate-dawn-reference.png",
      "kind": "ai",
      "tool": "ChatGPT image generation",
      "prompt": "Wide painterly illustration of a misty hill tea estate at dawn, seen from a red-earth path. In the foreground, the open doorway of an old wooden weighing shed with a veranda, a hanging balance scale and woven baskets. Curved terraces of tea bushes step up the hills on both sides, with a few pickers carrying baskets on their backs. High above, a tiny narrow-gauge steam train crosses a tall timber trestle bridge trailing a white plume of steam. Soft peach and pale blue sky, blue-grey ridges fading into mist. No text, no logos, no flags, no real place.",
      "credit": "A reference image I generated myself for this proposal"
    }
  ],
  "notes": "Why it suits CricCuts: a lot of club cricket starts at dawn, and the hills give a calm, hopeful mood that none of the current scenes has. The weighing shed is where the day's pick is counted, so the batter stands where the runs get weighed. When the camera is far away, keep the trestle, the train and its steam: they are the strip that says 'tea hills' when there is room for nothing else. If the scene must be smaller, drop the pickers before the train. The name board on the shed could show the reel's club name.",
  "contributor": {
    "name": "Example Contributor",
    "credit": "name"
  }
}