product_demo_video v1.0.0

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.