I Tried to Turn Sand Into a Computer Chip

Intro version B · photo frames

BFail first: a few grams of grey powder

T4 Fail first

Stake: the gap between the few grams of dirty powder his sand makes and the about 99.9999999% a chip needs, said by about 9 s; his own deadpan line is the low point and makes the honest 'Tried' the joke. The losses are middle results; the radio and the cleanroom LED stay held back. Finale (a real chip in a cleanroom) named. About 25 s, story length per INTRO_RULES 1.8.

25.0 s, 6 beats

Top-down close shot of a plain white table: a small pile of pale beach sand on the left, an opened phone's green circuit board with one black square chip on the right, a man's right index finger pointing at the sand. Nothing else on the table.

I tried to turn this beach sand into a computer chip.

#1 · VO · insert · 3.7 s

Shoot: Frame 0 insert, readable by 2 s. Pre-shoot 7 (before shot to pair with the finished thing): the real beach sand and the board of the phone whose chip closes the video, top-down on a white table.

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.

But chips need silicon about 99.9999999% pure.

#2 · VO · graphic · 6.6 s · sfx: number pop hit on 'pure'

Shoot: Edit graphic, nothing to film: the purity meter (the video's 'how pure is it now?' counter), 99.9999999% pops at the top on 'pure'.

Inside a lab fume hood behind a raised glass front: a lab worker's blue-gloved hands pour clear liquid from a small plastic bottle into a glass beaker of dark grey powder, small bubbles rising; Hafu in safety glasses and a white lab coat stands outside the glass, leaning in, eyebrows raised. No flame, no finished silicon.

The acid wash after the fire gives off a gas that can ignite.

#3 · VO · medium · 4.4 s

Shoot: Lab-supervised step (the gas can ignite in air): film through the hood glass, the lab worker's hands only, Hafu outside the hood. Pre-shoot 4 (second camera on his face). Lab partner not locked yet.

Close insert on a white lab bench: a small round glass dish holding a tiny heap of dull dark grey powder, a metal lab spatula resting beside it, a blue-gloved fingertip pointing at the heap for scale. Nothing shiny, no crystal.

And all I get is a few grams of dirty powder.

#4 · VO · insert · 3.6 s

Shoot: Insert of the real yield after the wash. Weigh it on set on a lab scale and put the grams in this line if the number lands [TODO: grams of silicon powder from one handful of sand].

Hafu in safety glasses and a white lab coat at a lab bench, holding the small glass dish of dull grey powder up beside his face in his left hand and a green phone circuit board with one black square chip in his right hand, deadpan straight face into the lens.

ON CAMERAThis is not a computer chip.

#5 · LIVE · medium · 2.5 s · sfx: the one full music stop

Shoot: Pre-shoot 5 (his honest low point on camera) + 4 (second camera on his face): A-cam medium to lens right after he sees the yield, powder in one hand, the phone board in the other.

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.

It ends with a real chip in a cleanroom. It starts here.

#6 · VO · wide · 4.3 s · sfx: hard cut, hit into segment 1

Shoot: Pre-shoot 8 (handoff): the beach wide is the first frame of segment 1. Numbers start: the purity counter appears small on this cut at the raw sand's value [TODO: get the sand's silicon content measured, or start the counter at the first real number].