I Tried to Turn Sand Into a Computer Chip

Intro version A · photo frames

ASand vs chip, the purity number

T1 Top rung + doubt

Stake: the purity number, about 99.9999999% (the meter that runs the whole video), with the radio as the win-or-lose test; finale (a real chip in a cleanroom) named and shown, its LED result held back. About 18 s, the short option. Sand-to-chip is a one-story video like Dirt Ball, so INTRO_RULES 1.8's story length (15-30 s) applies; P-lf-020's 8-15 s is the ladder rule.

20.9 s, 5 beats

Hafu kneeling on a bright sunny beach, his left hand cupped full of pale beach sand held out toward the lens, his right hand holding up a small green phone circuit board with one black square chip on it, both hands side by side at chest height, looking straight into the lens, deadpan, blue waves behind him. Nothing burned or built yet.

ON CAMERABeach sand. I'm trying to turn it into this.

#1 · LIVE · medium · 3.6 s

Shoot: Frame 0, readable by 2 s. Pre-shoot 7 (before shot paired with the finished thing): A-cam medium on the real beach, the real sand in his left hand, the main board of an old phone in his right (the same phone whose chip sits in the final lineup).

A tall, empty glass measuring tube standing upright on a soft light-blue background, only a thin layer of sand-coloured fill at the very bottom, the very top of the tube glowing bright gold, a small pile of sand drawn at the foot of the tube and a small black square chip drawn just above the top. The tube is still almost empty.

Chips need silicon about 99.9999999% pure.

#2 · VO · graphic · 6.3 s · sfx: number pop hit on 'pure'

Shoot: Edit graphic, nothing to film: the purity meter, the counter that runs the whole video ('how pure is it now?'). 99.9999999% pops at the top on 'pure'. Its start value is the raw beach sand [TODO: get the sand's silicon content measured by the lab partner]. Also film Hafu saying the number to lens as an alternate (pre-shoot 3). Check the AI voice reads the number cleanly.

Hafu standing in a bright white cleanroom in a full white suit, hood, face mask and blue gloves, only his eyes showing, holding a round mirror-shiny silicon disc in flat metal tweezers in his right hand at chest height and looking at it closely; a small LED on the steel bench beside him is dark, nothing switched on yet.

Fire, a radio, then a real chip in a cleanroom.

#3 · VO · medium · 4.6 s

Shoot: Finale shown, result held back. Pre-shoot 1 (the hardest build whole, wide + close, before it runs): Hafu suited in the university cleanroom with the commercial wafer, filmed BEFORE the chip is tested, never the LED lighting. In the edit this line is three quick shots: the burn flare, the radio, this. Cleanroom partner not locked yet (go/no-go Nov 15).

Hafu at a wooden workbench leaning over a small homemade crystal radio (a copper wire coil wound on a cardboard tube, mounted on a wooden board, a long antenna wire running off frame), holding a single wired earphone to his right ear with his right hand, his left fingertip next to a tiny grey pellet held in a small metal clip on the board, looking up into the lens, worried. No sound yet, the result is not shown.

ON CAMERAIf this radio stays silent, my sand failed.

#4 · LIVE · medium · 3.8 s · sfx: the one full music stop on 'failed'

Shoot: Pre-shoot 5 (his honest doubt before the big attempt) + 4 (second camera on his face): say it right before the first radio test and keep rolling through the result (6). Cut before the answer. Test the detector before the shoot: the powder may need pressing into a pellet.

Hafu on a bright sunny beach pushing a metal shovel into damp sand with his right foot on the blade and both hands on the handle, an empty red plastic bucket beside him, waves behind. No silicon and no lab gear yet.

ON CAMERAStep one: dig up the sand.

#5 · LIVE · wide · 2.6 s · sfx: hit on the cut into step one

Shoot: Pre-shoot 8 (the handoff on camera): say it on the beach, then the first shovel push is the first frame of segment 1 (dig the sand).