---
name: "product_demo_video"
description: "Plan and shoot physical product demo videos: demo scripting with a timed beat structure, macro close-ups of mechanisms and textures, and feature callouts that stay legible. Use when making a commercial-style demo video for a physical product, planning macro shots, or writing the on-screen callouts for one. For software or screen-capture demos, use demo_video_production instead."
---

# Product Demo Video

## Purpose
Turn a physical product into a demo video that sells it: a script built on timed beats, macro close-ups that prove the quality claims, and feature callouts a viewer can read on a phone. The whole method fits three inputs the agent must have before shooting: the one message the video carries, a list of claims that are actually verified, and the mechanisms worth showing up close.

## Workflow

### 1. Brief and claim inventory
Write one sentence: what the viewer should believe after watching. Then list every factual claim the video will make (specs, materials, battery life, waterproof ratings, "fits X"). Every claim must be verified from a primary source: the product's own docs, packaging, a standards certification, or a measurement you ran yourself. Unverifiable = cut it or frame as opinion. No confident unverified claims, ever. This is the non-negotiable accuracy rule for the whole skill.

### 2. Script the demo, beat by beat
Build the script as timed beats, not prose. Each beat: time range, what is on screen, the spoken line (VO), and any on-screen text. Use the 45-second structure as the default skeleton; longer videos scale the demonstration beat, not the hook:

| Beat | Time | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | 0-2s | The payoff, not the product. Show the result the viewer wants. Never open with a logo or brand name. |
| Hook reinforcement | 2-5s | The problem in action. The viewer should think: that is exactly my frustration. |
| Product intro | 5-10s | The product appears as the answer. One line of context. |
| Demonstration | 10-30s | One feature per beat. Show it working, in the order a buyer cares. |
| Proof | 30-40s | The claim made visible: a test, a measurement, a real use. Half a second of silence before or after it. |
| CTA | 40-45s | One action, one link, said out loud and shown on screen. |

Write VO to be spoken: full sentences, roughly 150 spoken words per minute. Keep the whole thing under one message. If the brief needs two messages, it needs two videos.

### 3. Plan the shot list
Three shot types cover every product video:

- **Hero shot.** The product in context, well lit, slightly off-center. Establishes what it is and where it lives.
- **Detail shots.** Macro close-ups of the mechanisms and textures that carry the claims: the hinge, the seal, the switch, the stitching, the surface finish. One macro beat stays under two seconds unless it is the star of the video; pick one star macro (the detail that sells the product) and give it the longest hold.
- **Lifestyle shots.** Hands using the product in a real moment. Keep props minimal.

For each demonstration beat, name the shot and mark any macro with what the viewer should feel (texture, precision, the click). Layer a soft contact sound under mechanism macros: a real click or snap recorded close, so the fingers on screen match the viewer's own sense memory.

### 4. Set up the shoot
- Clean the product. Fingerprints, dust, and lint ruin close-ups; wipe everything before the first take.
- Lock the tripod down and shoot manual exposure and manual focus. Auto settings hunt mid-shot and read as amateur.
- Light for texture: a diffused key light plus side light to rake across surfaces. For macro work add a ring light or small diffused LED close to the lens; avoid hard direct light that blows highlights.
- Rehearse camera moves (push-ins, slider glides) before recording. Record screen segments with a single flow cropped tight and notifications off.

### 5. Shoot the macro
At macro distance depth of field is only a few millimeters. Manual focus with live view magnification is the reliable path; autofocus hunts on fine detail. Use f/11 to f/16 for deeper focus, but know that going much past f/16 softens the image through diffraction. For subjects with real depth (a latch, a layered material), focus stack: shoot a series at different focus points and combine them in post. Stabilize everything: tripod plus a remote release or the camera's timer. Move hands on screen slightly slower than real life; it reads as deliberate and gives the viewer time to register the action.

### 6. Cut the feature callouts
On-screen text rules, tested on a 5.8-inch phone at arm's length:
- Nine words or fewer per line, two lines maximum.
- Place text where the action is not; the callout must never cover the thing it describes.
- Time each callout to the action it names, not to the narration. The viewer reads while watching.
- Never dress up a weak claim with a strong callout. If the proof beat could not be filmed, the claim does not get a callout.

Then the proof beat: give it a half-second of silence before or after. Quiet around a claim reads as confidence.

### 7. Validate the script before the shoot
Run `bin/demo-script-check.py` on the beat file (format documented in `references/script-template.md`). It estimates VO runtime from word counts, flags beats where the narration overruns its time, flags on-screen text over the nine-word limit, and flags macro beats running past two seconds. Fix every flag before the shoot day.

## Output Contract
A finished job delivers: the verified claim list with sources, the timed beat script (with a clean `demo-script-check.py` report), the shot list with the star macro named, the callout list, and the edited video plus one short-form cut. The video is not done until the proof beat shows the actual product doing the actual thing: real footage for mechanisms, hand contact, and performance claims; anything illustrative or generated must be labeled as such in review, never presented as product evidence.

## Operating Rules
1. **Every factual claim verified or cut.** Specs, numbers, dates, quotes, certifications: verified from a primary source or gone. This rule overrides the schedule, the brief, and the client.
2. **Open with payoff, never branding.** The brand appears when the viewer already wants the answer.
3. **One message per video.** Two messages means two videos.
4. **Macro is evidence, not decoration.** Every close-up must carry a claim or a texture the buyer cares about. Under two seconds unless it is the star.
5. **Text serves the picture.** Nine words a line, two lines max, phone-legible, never covering the action.
6. **Real footage for product truth.** Mechanisms, hand contact, locked positions, performance claims: filmed, not generated or mocked.
7. **Scripts sound human.** No em dashes in any spoken or on-screen line. No marketing filler ("unlock", "elevate", "game-changer", "in today's fast-paced world", rhetorical questions). Write like a person talks.
8. **No fake data anywhere.** No real customer data on screen; no invented test results. If the proof could not be filmed, the claim is cut.