10 seconds, 16:9. Deadpan suburban comedy, four shots with hard cuts, played completely straight. A quiet feud between two neighbours over one pile of leaves.
Characters (keep identical in every shot):
The tall man: about 75, thin, grey moustache, flat tweed cap, beige quilted jacket over a brown knitted jumper, brown corduroy trousers, holding a red petrol leaf blower.
The stocky man: about 75, bald with a white fringe of hair, wire-rimmed glasses, a worn brown suede jacket, grey slacks, holding an orange petrol leaf blower.
Location: two neighbouring front gardens of red-brick semi-detached houses in a quiet English cul-de-sac in late autumn, divided by a knee-high red-brick garden wall; neat lawns, a clipped hedge, bare maple branches. One knee-high pile of orange and rust-red maple leaves sits on the lawn right against the wall.
Shot 1, 0-3 s: medium-wide, static, eye-level, symmetrical frame about five metres from the wall, the wall running straight down the centre of the frame; the two men stand close on either side of it, full-body and large in frame, the tall man on the left, the stocky man on the right. The tall man aims his running blower at the pile and blows the whole heap over the wall into the stocky man's garden.
Shot 2, 3-5 s: hard cut. Medium shot of the stocky man from the waist up: the leaves land around him and on his shoulders; he looks down at them, then calmly raises his blower and blows them all back over the wall.
Shot 3, 5-6.5 s: hard cut. Medium shot of the tall man from the waist up: the leaves sail back past him and one leaf sticks to his cap; he does not blink.
Shot 4, 6.5-10 s: hard cut back to the medium-wide frame of shot 1. Both men blast the pile from both sides at the same instant; the leaves erupt into a towering, spiralling column of orange and red between them that fills the middle of the frame, then rain down over both men. Neither of them moves; their faces stay blank, jackets flapping, leaves settling on their shoulders.
Audio: no dialogue. The whine of one small two-stroke engine, the rustle of leaves, a crow, a distant church bell; then the second engine; then both engines roaring together with a rushing whoosh of air and thousands of leaves, finally idling down while leaves patter onto the lawn.
Look: 35mm film, fine grain, muted autumn palette of ochre, rust, brick red and lawn green, soft low late-afternoon light, crisp detail on faces, knitwear and leaves, background houses slightly soft, real unglamorous people, serious focused expressions, no posing.
AVOID: tiny distant figures, extreme wide shots, smiling, comedic mugging, slow motion, cartoon or CGI-looking leaves, teal-and-orange grading, lens flares, extra people, text, logos.
kling/v4/flash/text-to-video
