Glenn Williams
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Field note

School Shopping

Even wizards have a tough time during back to school.

Prompts

Image prompt
{
  "prompt": "A young absurd wizard walking down a busy fantasy market alley, wide-eyed at everything around him. This is a fresh wizard design, whimsical and ridiculous rather than grand, and clearly young - a skinny teenager with a scrawny frame, knobbly knees, and slightly too-big hands and feet he has not grown into. He has a round open face with a scatter of freckles, a snub nose, big curious eyes darting everywhere, a wide eager grin, no beard at all beyond a few hopeful wisps on his chin, and a messy mop of ginger hair sticking out from under a floppy pointed hat that is several sizes too large and keeps slipping over his eyes. He wears a hand-me-down robe far too long for him, hem dragging and sleeves rolled up thick at the wrists, cinched with a rope belt hung with a pouch and a chipped flask, and scuffed boots. He clutches a crooked wooden staff taller than he is with both hands, holding it upright like a walking stick, stepping carefully through the crowd. The market alley is narrow, packed, and lively - stalls crammed shoulder to shoulder under patched awnings, hanging bundles of herbs, baskets of strange fruit, bolts of cloth, bubbling potion bottles, clattering trinkets, lanterns and pennants strung overhead, crates stacked along the walls, steam and smoke drifting. The alley is crowded with fantasy folk browsing and haggling, no ordinary modern people. Warm dappled daylight cutting between the awnings. Whimsical, bustling, and charming, a young wizard out among the stalls. Hyperrealistic fantasy photography, crowded market alley, whimsical character detail, warm daylight, 8K cinematic render."
}
Video prompt
Mode: Image-to-video using the attached reference for identity and ART STYLE. Match the reference's painterly look in EVERY shot.
MULTI-SHOT edit of SEPARATE CLIPS joined by HARD CUTS, NOT one continuous take. Each shot has its own camera angle and size, changing at every cut.
DIALOGUE RULE: NO DIALOGUE. No talking, speech, or captions. Music and sound effects only.
CONSISTENCY RULE: the same young wizard and the same fantasy market stay identical in EVERY shot. Only framing and action change.
CONCEPT: Warm whimsical comedy. A wide-eyed young wizard shops a busy fantasy market for magical school supplies, delighted and overwhelmed, gathering an increasingly absurd armload of gear.
CHARACTER (identical every shot): a scrawny freckled young wizard with a big red nose, wild reddish hair, a huge floppy blue feathered pointed hat, a mustard-yellow robe with a rope belt, a potion flask on the belt, bare feet, holding a crooked wooden staff. Wide-eyed, eager, gap-toothed grin.
SETTING: a bustling colorful fantasy market alley, potion stalls, hanging herbs and glowing lanterns, cloth banners, assorted creature and goblin shopkeepers, warm saturated painterly light.
SHOTS:
1 (0:00-0:03) WIDE: The young wizard strolls into the crowded market alley, head swiveling, eyes huge with wonder at all the glowing potions and magical wares around him, clutching a little shopping list. HARD CUT.
2 (0:03-0:06) MEDIUM: At a stall he excitedly picks up a giant floppy spellbook, which flaps open like a bird and whacks him in the face with its pages. He grins anyway and tucks it under his arm. HARD CUT.
3 (0:06-0:09) MEDIUM: A goblin shopkeeper hands him a wriggling potted mandrake that shrieks; the wizard fumbles it, juggles it, and stuffs it happily into his growing armload of supplies. HARD CUT.
4 (0:09-0:11) CLOSE: He tests a magic quill that squirts ink all over his face, blinking through the splatter with a delighted gap-toothed grin, then adds it to the pile. HARD CUT.
5 (0:11-0:13) MEDIUM: Now buried under a teetering stack of a cauldron, wands, scrolls, a glowing orb, and the shrieking mandrake, he wobbles down the alley, staff barely balancing it all. HARD CUT.
6 (0:13-0:15) WIDE: The entire wobbling stack of supplies TOPPLES off him into a clattering heap on the ground. The wizard pops his head up from the pile, hat askew, and just beams with pure delight, thrilled. Hold.
AUDIO: lively whimsical fantasy market music, bustling crowd chatter, clinking potion bottles, a magical shimmer on each item. A flapping spellbook, a shrieking mandrake, an ink squirt, then a big comedic clatter as the pile topples, ending on a happy little laugh. Music and sound effects only. NO DIALOGUE. No subtitles.
STYLE: bold painterly illustration matching the reference in EVERY shot, thick brushwork, hand-painted storybook look, rich saturated fantasy market palette, expressive cartoon face, warm whimsical comedic tone.
NEGATIVE: style change between shots, one continuous shot, single take, smooth motion across cuts, crossfades, dissolves, changing wizard, changing colors, missing hat, missing staff, missing potion flask, deformed face, deformed hands, blurry face, second wizard, duplicate wizard, anime, 3D render, CGI, photorealism, scary mood, gore, dialogue, talking, captions, subtitles, on-screen text

The process

The magical pen splurting ink onto his face was the most difficult thing to get out of this prompt.

prop details staging
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