/embedded-captions

Typographic moves — a palette, not a cage

cinematic-cream template locks DNA only (font-family, motion, color palette defaults). It does NOT enforce slot structure. The agent writes each caption group's typography from scratch via the plan.json css field.

This doc is a palette of tried combinations — pick what fits the scene, invent new ones, skip these if the content demands. These are recommendations, not rules.

Size vs text length — DO THIS BEFORE PICKING SIZE

Bigger is NOT better if the word doesn't fit the frame width. Every time you pick a font-size, sanity-check against word length:

Rough rule for Inter 900 uppercase at -0.03em tracking: max_font_px ≈ frame_width / (longest_word_chars × 0.72)

The 0.72 multiplier is intentionally conservative — it targets the text filling ~90% of the frame width so there's a small side margin. If you want edge-to-edge, drop to 0.65, but you lose a bit of safety margin.

720px portrait:

• 3-char word (15%): max ~330px (a single big number like "15%")
• 5-char word (TAKE): max ~200px
• 7-char word (AUGMENT / QUANTUM / MATTERS): max ~143px
• 10-char word (CREATIVITY): max ~100px
• 13-char word (UNPRECEDENTED): max ~77px

1920px landscape:

• 7-char word: max ~380px
• 10-char word: max ~267px

For italic/upright 500-700 it's slightly narrower — increase max by ~10%.

If you want the word bigger than it fits:

• Split into multiple words per group (natural wrap), OR
• Add explicit <br> between syllables, OR
• Drop letter-spacing to -0.05em, OR
• Accept that the matte will cut part of it (Vogue-cover embed effect — only works when the cut area is exactly where the subject is)

Never let the text OVERFLOW the frame edge — that's not cinematic, that's just broken. Use the heuristic.

Sizing discipline (frame-height-relative)

Portrait 9:16 (720×1290) and landscape 16:9 (1920×1080) have very different comfort ranges. Use calc(<pct> * var(--h)) for responsive:

Use absolute px only when a specific scale needs to look identical across frame sizes (rare). Prefer calc + var(--h).

Named moves — pick per group

Italic contemplative opener (memory-wall cap-1 lineage):

font-weight: 600;
font-style: italic;
letter-spacing: -0.01em;
font-size: calc(0.075 * var(--h));

Italic continuation / dreamier continuation (cap-2 lineage):

font-weight: 500;
font-style: italic;
letter-spacing: -0.005em;
font-size: calc(0.065 * var(--h));

Upright pivot / statement (cap-3 lineage — "but suddenly"):

font-weight: 700;
letter-spacing: -0.015em;
font-size: calc(0.07 * var(--h));

Uppercase climax / monumental (cap-4 lineage — "EVERYTHING IS SHARP AGAIN"):

font-weight: 900;
text-transform: uppercase;
letter-spacing: -0.03em;
line-height: 0.95;
font-size: calc(0.18 * var(--h));

Chapter card / full-frame Adam Curtis manifesto:

font-weight: 700;
text-transform: uppercase;
letter-spacing: -0.015em;
line-height: 0.9;
font-size: calc(0.14 * var(--h));

News chyron / broadcast label (small, locked):

font-weight: 500;
letter-spacing: 0.02em;
font-size: calc(0.038 * var(--h));

Tiny side note / caption-on-surface:

font-weight: 400;
font-style: italic;
font-size: calc(0.045 * var(--h));

Vogue-masthead monumental:

font-weight: 900;
text-transform: uppercase;
letter-spacing: -0.04em;
line-height: 0.85;
font-size: calc(0.32 * var(--h));

Narrative arcs (suggestions, not required)

Poem arc — memory-wall canonical: italic opener → italic continuation → upright pivot → uppercase climax. Four steps.

Question-answer arc: italic question small → uppercase answer big. Two steps.

List-of-three arc: three equal-weight narration segments, one climactic uppercase. Four steps.

Single-statement arc: one monumental uppercase held long. One step.

Whisper-hook arc (short-form): tiny italic hook → massive uppercase reveal. Two steps.

The number of groups comes from the content. A 25s Pausch talk has ~8 beats. A 7s TikTok hook has 2-3 beats. Don't force 4 or 5 or 7 — read the transcript and mark breath-groups.

Position + layer vocabulary

Position is where the caption lives in frame. Use:

• top / left / right / bottom (percentages or px) for anchor
• transform: translateX/Y for fine offsets
• text-align: center / left / right for alignment

Layer per group:

• bg (default) — behind subject. Matte occludes. Cinematic embed. Works on clean zones (sky, walls) OR intentionally crosses subject for the Vogue-masthead effect.
• fg — on top of subject. Announcement. Use for climax breakthroughs or when bg would be 100% occluded by body.

Tone per group:

• soft — gentle per-word opacity+y drift (0.45s power2.out). Use for introspective, dreamy, or narrative content.
• present — snappy per-word opacity+y+scale pop (0.22s power3.out). Use for emphatic or declarative beats.

Anti-patterns the DNA protects against

The DNA defaults prevent most ugly outcomes. But avoid in per-group CSS:

• Multiple different font-family within one video (DNA is one family)
• Multiple saturated colors (one accent at most; DNA defaults cream or deep warm)
• letter-spacing above ±0.05em unless there's a specific reason
• font-weight 300 or below — too light for screen
• font-style: italic on emphasis — italic is for lyricism, not stress

When cinematic-cream is wrong

This DNA assumes mid-to-dark backgrounds (luminance 60-180). For:

• Bright white studios → cinematic-cream's cream + screen washes out, and the DNA is locked (you cannot recolour it) → use Standard mode (opaque rail) instead
• Documentary formal → Standard mode (documentary-dignified direction; see references/direction-catalog.md §1)
• Energetic vlog hooks → future kinetic-vlog DNA (not yet shipped)

Example: memory-wall original, expressed in freeform

Same output as the canonical memory-wall.html, but using slot-free plan:

{
  "template": "cinematic-cream",
  "caption_layer": "bg",
  "groups": [
    {
      "id": "cg-0",
      "tone": "soft",
      "in": 0.2,
      "out": 4.85,
      "css": "top: 14%; right: 6%; left: auto; text-align: right; font-size: calc(0.09 * var(--h)); font-weight: 600; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.01em;",
      "words": [
        { "text": "Some", "start": 0.24, "end": 0.44 },
        { "text": "memories", "start": 0.48, "end": 0.82 },
        { "text": "feel", "start": 0.92, "end": 1.14 },
        { "text": "soft", "start": 1.2, "end": 1.64 }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "cg-1",
      "tone": "soft",
      "in": 2.55,
      "out": 4.85,
      "css": "top: 26%; right: 10%; left: auto; text-align: right; font-size: calc(0.075 * var(--h)); font-weight: 500; font-style: italic;",
      "words": [
        { "text": "like", "start": 2.66, "end": 2.78 },
        { "text": "old", "start": 2.88, "end": 3.02 },
        { "text": "film", "start": 3.16, "end": 3.46 }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "cg-2",
      "tone": "present",
      "in": 4.9,
      "out": 8.04,
      "css": "top: 18%; right: 6%; left: auto; text-align: right; font-size: calc(0.085 * var(--h)); font-weight: 700;",
      "words": [
        { "text": "but", "start": 5.04, "end": 5.18 },
        { "text": "suddenly", "start": 5.24, "end": 5.76 }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "cg-3",
      "tone": "present",
      "in": 6.7,
      "out": 8.04,
      "css": "top: 32%; right: 6%; left: auto; text-align: right; font-size: calc(0.11 * var(--h)); font-weight: 900; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: -0.03em; line-height: 0.95;",
      "words": [
        { "text": "everything", "start": 6.82, "end": 7.14 },
        { "text": "is", "start": 7.18, "end": 7.28 },
        { "text": "sharp", "start": 7.32, "end": 7.52 },
        { "text": "again", "start": 7.58, "end": 7.92 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Same visual, no slot constraint. Each group owns its typography.