Copy Guide — writing the five scenes

The animation is half the work. The copy is the other half. Generic copy will sink an otherwise beautiful landing. Read this before you write a single word of headline.

The structural rule

Each of the 5 scenes is exactly three lines:

[KICKER]            ← 1–3 words, all caps, Anton, letter-spaced
[HEADLINE]          ← 2–4 words, broken across 2 lines with <br>
[HANDWRITTEN LINE]  ← 4–8 words, one full sentence, ends with a soft punctuation

The kicker frames the moment ("Chapter 02", "— A True Story —", "01 — Workflow"). The headline is the punch. The handwritten line is the emotional follow-through — the line that earns the trust the headline asked for.

Length matters because the typography is huge. A 6-word headline at 200px breaks the layout. Keep it tight.

The five-beat arc

This structure is borrowed from short documentary editing — you have ~25 seconds of attention; spend each beat well.

Scene	Beat	Job
1	Hook	Introduce the subject. Name it. State its essence in one phrase.
2	Origin	Where does it come from? What is its world?
3	Stakes	Why does it matter? Where does the story take place?
4	Moment	The personal turn — the speaker's act, the decision, the proximity.
5	Resolution + CTA	What happened. Then the call to action.

You're not writing about a product. You're writing about a moment that includes a product.

Voice rules

Anton headlines are commands or noun-phrases, never sentences. "Born to Run." "Built for Flow." "Meet Marcus." Not "He was born to run." The handwritten line is where sentences live.
Handwritten lines are colloquial, almost spoken. "the white lion of the Negev." "an AI that finally ships with you." "and knelt with food in my hands." Lowercase first word; trail off with a period (or … only for the loader script).
Avoid adjectives in the headline. The image already shows the adjective. "Beautiful Cheetah" is wasted ink. "Born to Run" lets the image do the work.
Specifics beat abstractions. "Be'er Sheva" beats "the desert". "macOS · Windows · Linux" beats "every platform". "70 mph" beats "fast".

Three real examples — read these carefully

GitHub Desktop (product)

SCENE 1
— A NEW CHAPTER —
GitHub
Desktop
the new build. native. fast. yours.

SCENE 2
01 — WORKFLOW
Where
Code Lives.
branches, PRs, reviews — at your fingertips.

SCENE 3
02 — PERFORMANCE
Built
For Flow.
native speed. zero friction. all platforms.

SCENE 4
03 — INTELLIGENCE
Copilot
Inside.
an AI that finally ships with you.

SCENE 5 (CTA)
— NOW AVAILABLE —
Ready?
macOS · Windows · Linux.
[ Download for macOS ] [ Windows ] [ Linux ] [ Next: Marcus → ]

Marcus the white lion (personal moment, wildlife)

SCENE 1
— A TRUE STORY —
Meet
Marcus.
the white lion of the Negev.

SCENE 2
CHAPTER 01
Born
of the Desert.
a coat like snow over a land that burns.

SCENE 3
CHAPTER 02
Midbarium.
Be'er Sheva.
where wilderness meets wonder.

SCENE 4
CHAPTER 03
I Crossed
the Fence.
and knelt with food in my hands.

SCENE 5
— THE LAST FRAME —
And the
King Ate.
a moment frozen in time.
[ Visit Midbarium ] [ Open in Maps ] [ Next: Hope → ] [ ← Back ]

Hope the cheetah (speed, motion, intimacy)

SCENE 1
— A TRUE STORY —
Meet
Hope.
the fastest heart in the Negev.

SCENE 2
CHAPTER 01
Born
to Run.
seventy miles an hour of wild grace.

SCENE 3
CHAPTER 02
Midbarium.
Be'er Sheva.
where the desert opens — she answers.

SCENE 4
CHAPTER 03
I Came
Close.
she looked at me — and let me stay.

SCENE 5
— THE LAST FRAME —
A Second
of Stillness.
with the fastest cat alive.
[ Visit Midbarium ] [ Open in Maps ] [ ← Back to showcase ]

The accent color picks a tone

gold (#f5b042) — warmth, reverence, mythic ("Marcus")
amber (#ff8a3d) — heat, motion, vitality ("Hope")
accent (pink #ff4d6d) — product/tech, modern, slightly playful ("GitHub")
cream (#f5e9d4) — neutral, used inside scenes 2 and 4 for variety so every line isn't the same color

The convention in the references: scenes 1, 3, 5 use the page's signature accent; scenes 2 and 4 use cream for visual rhythm. Follow that unless you have a reason not to.

Loader script tone

The loader sits on screen for about 1–3 seconds while frames preload. The handwritten line beneath the giant title should be a tiny hook — present-tense, ending in ….

Good examples (from the reference):

loading the new build…
summoning the king of the Negev…
summoning the runner…

Bad: Please wait while frames load. (boring, breaks tone)

Scroll hint tone

Short. Uppercase. 2–4 words. Often a verb tied to the subject:

SCROLL TO PLAY (GitHub — software metaphor)
SCROLL TO ENTER (Marcus — entering a kingdom)
SCROLL TO RUN (Hope — running with the cheetah)

If you can't find a verb that suits the subject, fall back to SCROLL TO BEGIN.

CTAs in the final scene

2–4 CTAs, the first one solid or accent-colored, the rest outlined. Keep them short — 2–4 words each. End with a chain link (Next: X →) if this is part of a showcase, and a back-to-hub link (← Back to showcase).

Available CTA classes:

cta — outlined off-white (default)
cta solid — filled off-white on bg
cta gold — outlined gold (good for Midbarium / nature subjects)
cta amber — outlined amber (Hope-style)

If introducing a new accent, add .cta.<name> rules to style.css in the same pattern as .cta.gold.

/parallax-landing-page

referencescopy-guide.md