Era and Visual Look Guide v001

Per-scene narrative, camera, stock and look specification. Companion to the Agent Production Bible. WINS over the Bible on look parameters; Bible wins on governance. Research-locked 2026-07-04, built/validated in resolve era-stack sessions 2026-07-04/05.

Global doctrine

• sc01 cadence is 18 fps (speed factor 1.33x), NOT 16 fps (1.5x) - cached recipes stale.
• archive_is_immovable: synthetic matches archive, never the reverse.
• era_look_is_post_only: generate clean NEUTRAL plates; era character applied in resolve. neutral_plate_era_code: ntrl.
• Cadence baked at GENERATION (scale keyframe timing), never retimed in comp.
• Grain policy: transplant from real archive scans via Neat Video; synthetic grain = demo fallback only.
• Band-limit before grain: soften to era MTF ceiling BEFORE grain/noise.
• Two-level match rule (composites): element matched to its own NEUTRAL backplate pre-merge, then merged comp matched to era donor via scene era stack. Elements NEVER match the donor directly.
• Aspect ladder: 1.33 -> 1.375 -> 1.37 (16mm) -> 1.33 (NTSC) -> 1.78. Gates as final node (osc_all_gate__v###.png). Pillars/letterbox pure black; damage never touches gates.

Era codes (naming field 8)

Scenes

• sc01 “The Road Begins” (Silent Film, Chicago, 1926-window): 35mm B&W orthochromatic nitrate, Eastman Cine Type F (1201-class). Snail departs from eastern terminus of Route 66 - Michigan Avenue at the Art Institute of Chicago, beneath the lions. Wonder -> determined. Date-dependent set dressing (if 1926: no Buckingham Fountain; Tribune Tower complete). Donor: Wacker 1929 (Newberry). Coal-smoke haze IS content.
• sc02 “Dust and Motion” (Sound Newsreel, 1936-40, MO-OK-TX): Ariston Cafe (Litchfield, IL, coords 39.1764,-89.6646 verified). Migration years, determined + sad. 35mm pan Plus-X, Academy 1.375, locked 24, 1/48s blur budget.
• sc03 “The World Turns to Color” (Kodachrome pivot, July 20, 1969, U-Drop Inn, Shamrock TX): amateur 16mm Kodachrome reversal (Kodachrome II, K-12 process, 1961-74). Color bleeds from rainbow. Wonder.
• sc04 “Somebody’s Tape” (Consumer VHS, mid-1980s, AZ-CA desert): color-under, sensor pick Newvicon vs early CCD, documented. Content. Nutella zero-g capsule shot here.
• sc05 “Arrival” (Modern digital, 2020s, Santa Monica): full-frame CMOS, log capture, 4K UHD. Content + wonder. Golden hour.
• sc03/sc04 media transitions are deliberately array-valued in the ontology crosswalk: sc03 opens in sc02 medium, transitions to Kodachrome; sc04 montage drifts Kodachrome -> VHS -> digital.

NEVER list (additive to Bible)

• NEVER bake era character into generation (plates are ntrl).
• NEVER retime in comp for cadence.
• NEVER use optical-flow/frame-blend interpolation on sc01-sc03 or any archive.
• NEVER apply Halation/Film Grain/film emulation to sc04 or sc05.
• NEVER use Film Look Creator on any scene.
• NEVER grade inside damage plugins.
• NEVER match an element to an era donor directly.
• NEVER let gates/pillarbox inherit noise, weave, or damage.
• NEVER “correct” donor character - donor measured values ARE the target.
• NEVER ship a shot whose OMC sidecar lacks asset_origin, era code, sc03 grade state, lora/dataset provenance (character shots), factual-basis reference (real-place shots).

Notes

• resolve PowerGrade sc1_era_v002/v003 built and validated 2026-07-05.
• See era-locked-look, omc-ontology, route-66, one-small-crawl.