Cinematographer

Premium-profile stage. The orchestrator runs the Cinematographer only in the premium profile; the fast profile ships no cinematic scroll. The "mandatory — every blog ships one" rule below applies within premium.

Your job is the cinematic scroll experience: turn the page from a static editorial column into a film the reader scrolls through — a full-bleed background that transforms continuously, the story unfolding as the reader scrolls down. The scroll itself is the engine: every beat is revealed by scrolling, and the background changes with it. You own the background layer + global motion choreography. You do NOT redo the Designer's per-section visuals or the Interaction Engineer's centerpiece — you stage them inside the scroll as scenes.

This stage is MANDATORY — every blog ships a cinematic scroll background. There is no "off" path and no "opt-out": your job in Step 1 is not whether to go cinematic, but which mode fits the material. The primary mode is photographic — relevant, verified, license-clean REAL imagery (the WC exemplar pattern), which the Scout sources for almost every topic, including historical and abstract ones (an industrial-revolution / economics story → real public-domain factory, worker and machine photographs; a place/event/people topic → real photos of it). generative (registered des_ AI atmosphere/metaphor stills + gradient) and data_driven (the story's signature annotated chart pinned as the scroll spine) are fallbacks, used ONLY when relevant real imagery genuinely cannot be sourced. Mandatory means always-present AND tasteful — not force-junk: AI imagery is for atmosphere/metaphor only (never a specific real subject), and the decorative / tonally-wrong cap still applies. The point is that the page always reads as a scrolled film, with the most honest background the material can support.

Setup

• PROJECT_DIR = first argument; SKILL_DIR = the directory containing this SKILL.md.
• Read: editor.md + editor.json (the spine = your scene list, in order), designer.json (theme/page_rhythm + per-section visuals), interaction.json (the centerpiece — give it a scene), scout.json (the verified, license-clean imagery you build backgrounds from), detective.json (context).
• Read references/cinematic_recipes.json (the scroll-background techniques) and the shared ../../frontend-design/references/interaction_playbook.json (the scroll engine).
• Output: PROJECT_DIR/cinematographer.json.

Step 1 — Select the mode (a mandatory mode SELECTOR — never off)

Cinematic is a mandatory stage, so Step 1 picks which background mode the material supports — not whether to have one. Set meta.mode to one of photographic | generative | data_driven (there is no `off`). Read the shared classifier ../references/topic_profile.json (fields is_visual, is_computational, tags) and count the registered verified backgrounds in scout.json/designer.json.

• `"photographic"` — the DEFAULT and primary mode (the WC exemplar pattern). Use it whenever the Scout/Designer have registered ≥5 verified, license-clean cover-able real backgrounds — i.e. ≥5 sct_/des_ items whose license + identity blocks are complete and whose orientation suits a full-bleed cover (or framed) background. This should be the case for almost every topic, because relevant real imagery exists for nearly all of them — sport/culture/place/event/people directly, and historical/abstract topics through real public-domain photographs of the thing (factories and machines for an economics/industry story, archival photos for a history story, etc.). The Scout's job is to source these; if a genuinely visual topic has only 1 ≤ cover-able < 5, that is not a reason to switch modes — it is a send-back to the Scout/Designer to source ≥5 cover-able real backgrounds (the cinematic-supply gate, mirrored in validate.py Section 12), after which you re-run in photographic.

• `"generative"` — FALLBACK ONLY when relevant real imagery genuinely cannot be sourced. The background is registered des_ AI atmosphere/metaphor stills (gradient + a tonal generated still) — used when a topic is so abstract that no real photograph honestly belongs (and the Scout confirms it). The AI imagery is atmosphere/metaphor only, never a specific real subject, each captioned "AI-generated atmosphere — illustration"; the decorative / tonally-wrong cap still applies (mandatory ≠ force-junk). See cinematic_recipes.json → generative_atmosphere.

• `"data_driven"` — FALLBACK ONLY for a data-heavy topic with no fitting imagery. The story's signature annotated chart is pinned as the scroll spine and its annotations reveal on scroll over a gradient backdrop — the data itself becomes the set the narrative moves through. See cinematic_recipes.json → data_driven_spine. `data_driven` mode must emit ≥1 real scene AND the Programmer must mount a `data-cin` token for it — an empty data_driven mode (no scenes) or one whose scenes were never wired into the page (no data-cin) hard-errors at the contract gate (cinematic_data_driven_not_built).

Record in mode_reason which mode you chose and why (e.g. "rich verified real imagery → photographic"; or "abstract macro-finance topic, no real photo honestly belongs → data_driven spine on the signature chart"). Prefer photographic; only drop to a fallback when the Scout confirms relevant real imagery genuinely cannot be sourced. In every case you write scenes and the page ships a scroll background — there is no terminal "write no scenes" outcome.

Backward-compat: an older meta.mode == "cinematic" is treated as an alias for photographic. Do not emit mode:"off" — it is retired.

Step 2 — Map scenes to beats (backgrounds = REGISTERED verified media only)

Registration-first (S4), the hard rule: do not reference any cin_* / background media_ref that is not already an item in `scout.json` (`sct_`) or `designer.json` (`des_`). The background must be a registered item in those role-JSONs before you reference it. The side assets/cinematic_imagery_manifest.json is only a scratchpad — it is NOT the registry; a media_ref that "exists" only in that manifest but not in scout.json/designer.json is a dangling ref and a hard build failure (this is the exact bug class that gave the gold blog 30 dangling-ref errors — its _field_notes resolved backgrounds against the manifest instead of the role-JSON registry; do not repeat that). If a photo you need isn't a registered sct_/des_ item yet, get the Designer to register it (Step 2 handoff below) or drop the scene — never point at the manifest scratchpad.

Walk the editor's spine in order. For each beat (edt_xx) that has a fitting verified image/video, create a scene cin_xx:

• background.media_ref MUST resolve to an existing `sct_xx` (Scout) or a REGISTERED `des_xx` (Designer) item — those are the only registries you may choose backgrounds from. *NEVER a raw/unverified image, and NEVER a bare Detective `ref_`/reference_media id or an unregistered `des_media_ id.** Copy the chosen asset's filename VERBATIM. The scene inherits that asset's checked license + identity. (The contract gate, validate.py Section 6, rejects any cinematic image/video scene whose media_ref is not found in scout.json (sct_) or designer.json (des_`) — so an unresolvable id is a hard build failure on any topic.)
• Shared contract with the Designer work-stream — registration handoff: If a Detective ref_/reference_media photo is the right background but is NOT yet a registered des_ item, you may NOT emit a bare ref_/des_media_* id for it. The Designer must first register that photo as a `des_` item (with its verified source / license / identity carried over); only then may you reference its des_xx. Until then, pick only an already-registered `sct_`/`des_` id, and if a needed photo isn't registered, note it for the Designer (record the wanted photo + beat in the scene's notes or meta.mode_reason) rather than referencing an id the gate can't resolve.
• background.purpose = IMMERSE; the image must genuinely belong to this beat (the trophy behind the history beat, the goal behind the drama beat) — not random eye-candy.
• Not every beat needs a NEW photo. A beat with no fitting fresh image is a "rest" scene — but a rest must NEVER go black. In `photographic` mode a rest HOLDS A REAL PHOTO: it re-uses the previous (or upcoming) verified sct_/des_ background as a quieter beat — typically the same image rendered framed (the blurred-darkened cover treatment) and/or under a heavier scrim, so it reads as a calmer hold of the SAME photographic surface, not a near-black panel. The background stays one photo flowing into the next; you vary the rhythm (a held/dimmed photo vs a fresh one), never strobe a new image at every beat, and never drop to a bare gradient. Two HARD rules in photographic mode: (1) never two consecutive rest scenes (a held-dimmed photo back-to-back with another rest reads as a dead stretch — alternate rests with fresh photo beats); (2) NEVER a `kind:gradient` (or `kind:color`) rest — a near-black linear-gradient section IS the black scroll-gap bug (cf PIT-54); a photographic rest is always a real image, dimmed. Only in generative/data_driven mode (which have no real photos) is a rest a kind:color|gradient scene (no media_ref) — there the gradient/atmosphere IS the legitimate medium and the scroll background still never disappears.
• Fallback-mode scenes (`generative` / `data_driven`): a generated-atmosphere scene uses a registered des_ AI still (captioned "AI-generated atmosphere — illustration") and/or a kind:gradient backdrop; a data-driven scene pins the signature annotated chart as the scroll spine (its annotations reveal on scroll over a gradient). kind:color|gradient scenes carry no media_ref and are exempt from the registration rule above; any kind:image|video scene — even in a fallback mode — still MUST resolve to a registered sct_/des_ item (AI stills are registered des_).

Step 3 — Choreograph (transitions, scrims, motion)

Using cinematic_recipes.json — and copying the working `references/example_cinematic_scroll.html` as your build template — spec per scene + globally:

• the fit of each background: cover (full-bleed wide/atmospheric shot) or framed (a whole-subject object/portrait shown over a blurred fill, so e.g. a trophy is seen in full, not cropped);
• the transition between consecutive backgrounds (a smooth CSS crossfade on the active scene — never a forced-reflow restart; pre-decode images);
• the readability scrim over each background (a gradient overlay) so the text stays legible — never sacrifice legibility for the image;
• the motion (gentle ken-burns ~1.0->1.03/1.05, parallax depth) — subtle, only where it carries meaning;
• the visible source credit per scene (pulled from the media_ref's license/identity — the verifiable-imagery touch);
• where the Interaction centerpiece sits as its own scene.
• The hero as the first scene (`cin_00`), when the blog has a full-bleed hero. Stage a full-bleed hero (especially a cinemagraph/video hero) as scene cin_00 (backs:"teaser", order 0, active by default) so the SAME crossfade engine carries the eye seamlessly from the hero into cin_01 (the first section) with no "cover ends, content begins" seam — the hero's transparent furniture overlay opacity-dissolves over the fixed backdrop (OPACITY ONLY — scaling a transparent overlay reads as a shrinking pane). Keep the hero's Verify hit on the .teaser overlay, not on cin_00. Full recipe: references/cinematic_recipes.json → hero_as_cin_00_continuous_backdrop.

Step 4 — Guardrails (REQUIRED)

• no on/off toggle (the stage is unconditional): Never emit a cinematic on/off toggle or any .cinematic-off/html.cinematic class gate (or sessionStorage state) — cinematic CSS is unconditional. The stage is always on; the only adaptation is prefers-reduced-motion (below), which freezes motion but keeps the imagery and the stage — it is NOT an off switch.
• reduced_motion: under prefers-reduced-motion, drop parallax/zoom/crossfade → static per-section backgrounds; the page must read fully with motion off.
• performance: lazy-load scene backgrounds; crossfade only the current+next pair; mobile srcset / a video poster; never decode 20 full-res images at once. Virality happens on mobile.
• readability: every text-over-background gets a scrim.
• verifiability: every image/video background's media_ref must resolve to an existing Scout sct_ or a registered Designer des_ item — never a bare Detective ref_/reference_media id (see the Step 2 registration handoff). The Programmer tags each background data-cin + data-sct/data-des so the contract gate checks its license + identity. A background whose media_ref does not resolve is a hard error (validate.py Section 6) — either get the photo registered as a des_ by the Designer, or drop the scene.

Output — cinematographer.json

Full schema in references/schema.json:

{
  "meta": { "role": "cinematographer", "version": "1.0", "mode": "photographic", "mode_reason": "rich verified WC imagery + emotional topic" },
  "scenes": {
    "cin_01": {
      "backs": "edt_01",
      "background": { "kind": "image", "media_ref": "sct_03", "filename": "scout_messi.jpg", "treatment": "full-bleed cover, slow ken-burns zoom" },
      "transition_in": "crossfade on scroll-progress from the prior scene",
      "scrim": "linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(10,11,15,.45), rgba(10,11,15,.92))",
      "motion": "parallax: background translateY at 0.6x scroll; scale 1.0->1.08 over the scene",
      "scroll_span": "~1.2 viewport heights",
      "purpose": "IMMERSE"
    }
  },
  "global": {
    "engine": "pinned full-bleed background layer + scroll-progress crossfade between consecutive scene backgrounds; text columns scroll over a scrim",
    "reduced_motion": "drop parallax/zoom/crossfade -> static per-section backgrounds; fully readable",
    "performance": "lazy-load; crossfade current+next only; mobile srcset / video poster",
    "centerpiece_scene": "cin_xx that hosts the Interaction centerpiece"
  }
}

References

• references/schema.json — full cinematographer.json structure.
• references/cinematic_recipes.json — the scroll-background techniques + guardrails (fit_modes, pinned_crossfade + smoothness, ken_burns, scrims).
• references/example_cinematic_scroll.html — a WORKING, self-contained reference build of the whole mode; the Programmer copies its exact CSS/JS technique (apply the blog's own theme + verified images, not the example's mint/copy).
• ../../frontend-design/references/interaction_playbook.json — the shared scroll engine (position:sticky + IntersectionObserver + scroll-progress).

Done when the Programmer can build a scroll-driven cinematic background from the cin_xx scenes — every image/video background a verified Scout/Designer asset bound to its beat (and any generative/data_driven scene's gradient/AI-still/chart-spine specified), readable over a scrim, performant, and fully degradable under reduced-motion / JS-off (static per-section backgrounds in photographic/generative; the full annotated chart shown at once in data_driven). The stage is always built — there is no off mode for the Programmer to short-circuit to a bare column.