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Modern Monochrome F05

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Previews are illustrative demonstrations of the technique — not your footage. Your real edit is produced later by Claude Code.

F05 · Colour & Finish · intermediate · 3–600s

Converts footage to black and white through a chosen channel-mix filter, then sets a firm but readable contrast curve with clean blacks and separated mid-greys.

Instead of simply desaturating, Modern Monochrome uses a channel mix — like a red, yellow or green filter on black-and-white film — to decide which colours become light or dark, so skin, sky and clothing separate into distinct grey values. A restrained S-curve keeps true blacks and bright whites while protecting mid-grey detail, and an optional subtle tone (warm or cool) gives the black and white a modern, intentional finish.

Try the parameters

Raises pure black for a softer, printed feel.

Local path Claude Code can read. Never uploaded.

Best used for

  • — Emotional or serious messages
  • — Portrait and fashion
  • — Throwback sections
  • — Minimal brand films

Assets

  • ● Source video required
  • ○ LUT file optional

Pairs well with

If assets are missing

If skin and background sit at the same grey after conversion, switch the channel-mix filter (red ↔ blue) before adding contrast; for very flat footage raise contrast in two stages rather than crushing blacks.

Accessibility

Monochrome removes colour coding — never rely on colour alone in overlays; keep caption contrast ≥ 4.5:1 and avoid grey-on-grey text.

Individual prompt

updates with the parameters above
# CES style instruction — F05 Modern Monochrome

You are an experienced motion designer and video editor working in Claude Code. Apply the **F05 Modern Monochrome** technique to the supplied footage as specified below.

**B. Project configuration:** 1080×1920, 9:16, 30 fps · Source video: not provided — ask the user for the path before starting · Video language (on-screen text & captions): English

**Colour & Finish** — Instead of simply desaturating, Modern Monochrome uses a channel mix — like a red, yellow or green filter on black-and-white film — to decide which colours become light or dark, so skin, sky and clothing separate into distinct grey values. A restrained S-curve keeps true blacks and bright whites while protecting mid-grey detail, and an optional subtle tone (warm or cool) gives the black and white a modern, intentional finish.

### F05 Modern Monochrome

- **When:** Applies to the whole video
- **Layer / track:** Whole composition
- **What it does:** Converts footage to black and white through a chosen channel-mix filter, then sets a firm but readable contrast curve with clean blacks and separated mid-greys.
- **Parameters:** B&W filter (channel mix): Red filter (bright skin, dark skies); Contrast: 25%; Black point lift: 2%; Tone: Neutral; Vignette: 20%; Look LUT (.cube, optional): (not set)
- **Steps:**
  1. Apply the Modern Monochrome grade as one global adjustment across the entire 1080×1920 @ 30fps timeline — every camera shot and b-roll clip gets identical settings; no shot is graded in isolation.
  2. Balance exposure per shot first (face 55–68 IRE) — monochrome exposes mismatches more than colour does. Convert with a red channel mix: R 0.6 / G 0.35 / B 0.05 (sums to 1.0, so exposure is preserved): colorchannelmixer=rr=0.6:rg=0.35:rb=0.05:gr=0.6:gg=0.35:gb=0.05:br=0.6:bg=0.35:bb=0.05.
  3. Contrast +25% as an S-curve that keeps mid-grey separation: curves=master='0/0.02 0.2/0.14 0.5/0.5 0.8/0.86 1/0.97'. Black point at 2.0% (never below 0), whites ≤ 97 IRE; check that hair against background and shirt against wall land at least 10 IRE apart.
  4. Tone: keep perfectly neutral — verify the vectorscope is a dot in the centre. Vignette 20%: vignette=angle=0.5:mode=forward, centred on the subject. FFmpeg chain: -vf "colorchannelmixer=rr=0.6:rg=0.35:rb=0.05:gr=0.6:gg=0.35:gb=0.05:br=0.6:bg=0.35:bb=0.05,curves=master='0/0.02 0.2/0.14 0.5/0.5 0.8/0.86 1/0.97',vignette=angle=0.5". No LUT required for this look.
  5. Remotion approximation (motion-graphics plates, previews, or when FFmpeg is not in the pipeline): wrap each footage <OffthreadVideo> in an <AbsoluteFill style={{ filter: "saturate(1.4) hue-rotate(120deg) grayscale(1) contrast(1.25)" }}>, then note that hue-rotate before grayscale only approximates the channel mix — use the FFmpeg colorchannelmixer for the master. CSS filters run in 8-bit display space, so for the final master prefer rendering the FFmpeg-graded footage and using that file in Remotion.
  6. Keep captions, logos and brand graphics in colour on top only if the user wants a single accent; otherwise render them in white/black so the frame stays monochrome. Pipeline order: source footage → primary balance → this grade → captions, titles, logos and UI graphics composited on top. Do not run brand graphics through the grade; #D7FF5F and the caption whites must render exactly as specified. Screen recordings and supplied screenshots get at most 30% of the grade strength so text and interface colours stay faithful.
  7. Verify before export: grab one frame per shot (ffmpeg -ss <t> -i graded.mp4 -frames:v 1 shotN.png) and inspect ffmpeg -i shotN.png -vf "split[a][b];[a]waveform=mode=column:graticule=green:flags=numbers[w];[b]vectorscope=mode=color3:graticule=green[v];[w][v]hstack" scope.png. The vectorscope must be a centred dot (or a tiny offset for toned looks); the waveform should span 2.0–97 IRE with visible separation bands in the midtones. Shots must match each other within ±2 IRE in skin exposure and ±3° in skin hue; fix outliers with a per-shot exposure/white-balance trim before the look, never by changing the look itself. Export at 1080×1920, 30fps, 10-bit or high-bitrate 8-bit with -pix_fmt yuv420p to avoid banding in gradients and skies.
- **Assets:** Source video (⚠ MISSING) · optional: LUT file
- **Fallback:** If skin and background sit at the same grey after conversion, switch the channel-mix filter (red ↔ blue) before adding contrast; for very flat footage raise contrast in two stages rather than crushing blacks.

**G. Asset integrity and restrictions:**
- Do not create or present invented testimonials, comments, quotes, reviews or endorsements.
- Do not fabricate numbers, metrics, charts or results. Data visualisations use only the supplied data.
- Do not create fake screenshots or UI and present them as real. Illustrative graphics must be clearly illustrative.
- Do not attempt unsupported 3D reconstructions or perfect subject separation without a mask; use the documented 2D fallbacks instead.

**I. Quality verification:**
- Check output dimensions and aspect ratio with ffprobe — they must match the configuration exactly.
- Check the output frame rate and that the duration is within ±0.5 s of the target.
- Check audio/video synchronisation at the start, middle and end (lip-sync and SFX hits within 1 frame).
- Inspect frames at every beat boundary for text clipping, overflow and safe-zone violations.
- Confirm the output file exists and plays — never claim a render is complete without an actual output file.
- Report any missing asset or unimplemented effect explicitly.

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