Image - 2026-08-19 12:58

REFERENCE HANDLING: IMAGE 1 are the FACE REFERENCE— the same woman from the front and in three-quarter view. This is the character. Copy her identity exactly and do not interpret it: - long oval face, noticeably longer than it is wide, with a soft full lower cheek and a broad, slightly heavy jaw — her face is NOT narrow, NOT sharp, NOT sculpted - straight nose with a fine bridge and a rounded, slightly wide tip - FULL lips with a clearly drawn cupid's bow, natural rose colour, the lower lip soft and rounded - PALE GREEN-HAZEL eyes, translucent, with a darker limbal ring — her most distinctive feature - straight dark brown eyebrows, thick and unshaped, with a low arch - unretouched skin: visible pores on the cheeks and nose, faint redness around the nostrils and on the cheeks, fine lines at the outer eye corners and across the forehead, soft shadows under the eyes, small marks and freckles - a woman of about forty, and her face shows it honestly - long dark chestnut hair, well below the shoulders, loosely wavy, natural centre parting, thick and slightly unkempt - oversized oatmeal-cream chunky knit sweater with a wide ribbed crew neck, light blue washed straight jeans, bare feet Do NOT slim her face. Do NOT narrow her nose. Do NOT thin her lips. Do NOT sharpen her cheekbones. Do NOT make her younger or more attractive. Do NOT change her eye colour. She must be the same ordinary, real, forty-year-old woman as in the references. Take from IMAGE 1 ONLY her identity and clothing — not their flat lighting, not their grey background, not their pose. IMAGE 2 is the approved wide drawer shot. Take from it: the dark wooden dresser, the open bottom drawer, the teal drawer lining, the stack of sepia photographs, the grey cloth, the herringbone parquet, the striped wallpaper, her kneeling posture, the colour grade and the film grain. IMAGE 3 is the approved bottle shot. Take from it the exact bottle: wide flattened amber-brown glass flask, wide dark brown snakeskin leather band with the gold lettering "john varvatos" above "VINTAGE", short brushed gold cap. Same shape, same size, same proportions. SCENE AND BLOCKING: The woman is KNEELING on the herringbone parquet directly IN FRONT OF the dresser, sitting back on her heels, exactly as in IMAGE 3. She has not moved away from it. The dresser stands at the LEFT of the frame, close to camera, and its bottom drawer is OPEN toward her — we see into it: the teal lining, the fanned stack of old sepia photographs, the folded grey cloth. Her knees are almost touching the dresser. The camera is at ninety degrees to her, at the RIGHT side of the room, so we see her in THREE-QUARTER view — she faces left, toward the dresser and the window beyond it. The camera is LOW, slightly below the level of her eyes, looking gently upward at her. She has raised the bottle to her face with both hands and her eyes are CLOSED. Her chin is lifted a few degrees, her head tilted slightly back. She is breathing the scent in — the moment of inhaling, held still. Lips closed and soft. Not smiling, not crying. Quiet recognition, the stillness a second before grief. THE BOTTLE IS OPEN — this is essential: The brushed gold CAP HAS BEEN REMOVED. It lies in the open drawer on the teal lining beside the photographs, on its side, catching a small warm highlight. The bottle in her hands is therefore OPEN: at the top of the amber glass neck sits the exposed gold metal collar of the atomiser with the small spray nozzle standing up from it, bare and uncovered. The dark surface of the liquid is faintly visible through the glass just below the neck. She holds the open bottle just below her nose, about a hand's width from her face, the exposed nozzle nearest to her nostrils. Both hands cradle it — the fingers of one hand around the leather band, the other supporting from beneath. Her hands do not cover her mouth, chin or cheekbone. The leather band with the gold lettering faces the camera and stays legible. HAIR: Her long chestnut hair falls loose and forward over both shoulders. Several strands lie across her cheek and temple and she has not pushed them away. On the lit side the window light passes through the outer edge of her hair and turns the loose flyaway strands into fine glowing amber filaments. On the shadow side the hair goes almost black with a faint cool teal sheen. LIGHT — geometry is fixed, do not change it: There is ONE light source: the window in the LEFT wall, above the dresser, off frame to the LEFT. Warm golden light #E8A85C comes from the left edge of the frame and strikes the FRONT planes of her face — her forehead, the bridge and tip of her nose, her upper lip, her chin, the front of her closed eyelids and lashes. It also catches the tops of her knuckles, the top edge of the bottle and the gold collar of the open nozzle, and rakes the front edge of her hair. Everything turned away from the window falls into cool teal shadow #1E5F6B with NO fill light — the near side of her cheek toward camera, her jaw, her neck, her shoulder, the back of her head, the inside of the drawer. The shadows are BLUE, never warm, never brown. There is no second light source, no glow, no bounce. A shaft of warm light crosses the room from the left and dust motes drift slowly through it near her face. BACKGROUND: Behind her the room falls into soft defocus — the striped wallpaper, a slice of parquet, the cool blue shadow of the far corner. The dresser edge in the left foreground is slightly soft too. Nothing in the background is identifiable in detail. GRADE: Warm amber #E8A85C highlights, cool teal #1E5F6B shadows, saturation 78 percent, lifted milky blacks, gentle halation on the brightest edge of her face and on the gold collar, 6 percent 35mm film grain, anamorphic softness. Identical grade to IMAGE 3. Shot on ARRI Alexa 35, 85mm at T2, shallow depth of field, plane of focus exactly on her closed eyelashes. Photorealistic cinematic film still, 2.35:1 aspect ratio.