16:9 15 seconds. Seedance 2.5. Early-2000s consumer MiniDV, faded, soft contrast, digital noise, handheld shake. Suburban US garage 2002. THREE people only. Camcorder is POV — no fourth face. CHARACTER LOCK — HIGHEST PRIORITY: each person is exactly the person in their photo. Preserve facial identity, facial structure, eye shape and spacing, nose, mouth, exact skin tone, hairline, hairstyle, hair length, texture and colour, freckles and distinctive marks, apparent age, build and body proportions. Preserve their gender presentation exactly as shown. Do not beautify, slim, de-age or restyle them. No other people. Use they / their / them only. @image1 = FACE 1. Photocopy this person. Keyboard player. @image2 = FACE 2. Photocopy this person. Guitarist. @image3 = FACE 3. Photocopy this person. Drummer. Do not copy studio wardrobe from the lock photos. WARDROBE: authentic early-2000s casual — oversized band T-shirts, baggy jeans, hoodies, skate shoes, wristbands, baseball caps. Fit the clothes to each person’s body. Same era on all three. SET: cluttered garage, cheap electric guitar, secondhand keyboard on a stand, basic drum kit, small combo amp, tangled cables, folding chairs, old posters, cardboard boxes, dusty workbench. Fluorescent overhead. CAMERA: bulky MiniDV, heavy handheld, accidental zooms, sudden pans, autofocus breathing, imperfect framing. Operator laughs off-camera. BEATS: 0.0–3.0s THREE of them stand in the garage. @image2 holds the guitar and says “This is our first official rehearsal.” @image1 immediately asks “Do we actually know a song?” 3.0–6.0s They try to play. @image3 on drums starts too early. @image2 plays a different rhythm. @image1 looks around lost at the keys. They stop after two seconds. 6.0–9.0s They try again. @image2 hits the amp with a huge burst of feedback. Everyone jumps. Camera jerks. 9.0–12.0s @image3 does an overly dramatic drum fill. One stick slips and rolls across the floor. Everyone laughs. 12.0–15.0s They sit exhausted on folding chairs. @image2 to camera: “We'll be famous eventually.” @image3 quietly: “Hopefully not for this.” They burst out laughing. Camcorder zooms toward the amp and cuts to black. Audio: guitar, amp feedback, uneven drums, keyboard notes, garage echo, laughter, talk. No added music. No narration. No on-screen text. Same three faces every cut. Never a studio headshot as frame 0.