The Amalfi Scroll
Find an accomplice
SEEDANCE 2.5 · VIDEO PROMPT
FORMAT: 30s / 9:16 vertical / viral CGI illusion filmed as real bystander footage / one continuous handheld take, no cuts STYLE: Ultra realistic smartphone footage, bright Mediterranean midday sun, handheld sway and micro shake, rolling shutter feel, real world physics, no cinematic grading. REFERENCES: @Image 1 defines the environment and the giant phone: sunlit stone-coast cove, wooden pier deck, steel railings, turquoise water, striped umbrellas, pastel buildings, swimmers, and the exact Instagram profile page on the giant phone screen: dark UI, circular profile photo, account name, stats, bio lines, link row, story highlights, buttons and reels grid exactly as designed. In the video the phone starts pocket-size; do not inherit its giant scale until Stage 3. @Image 2 defines the water-dragon post shown on the phone screen during the scroll, and the dragon's exact design: long serpentine body, blue-green scales, thin whiskers, spiked mane crest, amber eyes, wet texture, rising from stormy water. @Image 3 defines the hero's identity and face ONLY: dark brown curly hair, trimmed mustache and short beard, black square-framed sunglasses that remain ON at all times, even underwater. Do not inherit its background. VIDEO PROMPT: [Stage 1 - approx 0-4s] Initial state: handheld frame on the empty pier deck from @Image 1, swimmers behind, umbrellas above. Event: a young woman in a bikini sprints along the pier and cannonballs into the sea, a white splash rises. Camera: handheld, slight pan following her jump. End state: the splash settles, the deck is empty. [Stage 2 - approx 4-8s] Continue from the empty deck. Event: the man from @Image 3, in a grey tank top, patterned swim shorts and colorful clogs, walks in from the right edge holding a normal pocket-size iPhone. He crouches and stands it upright on the planks, screen facing the camera, then steps back. Camera: handheld pan right, then settle. End state: the small phone stands upright, the man beside it on the right. [Stage 3 - approx 8-12s] Continue from the standing phone. Event: the phone grows smoothly to a monolith over twice the man's height, planks creaking; the screen lights up showing the full Instagram profile page from @Image 1, crisp and readable. Camera: handheld tilt up as it grows. End state: the giant phone stands fixed on the deck displaying the profile page, the man at its right side. [Stage 4 - approx 12-15s] Continue from the giant phone. Event: the man reaches up and swipes the huge screen; the page scrolls fast with real UI motion blur, decelerates and stops exactly on the water-dragon post from @Image 2, the dragon photo filling the screen. Camera: handheld hold. End state: the dragon post displayed full and still, his hand lowers. [Stage 5 - approx 15-20s] Continue from the still dragon photo. Event: inside the screen the dragon blinks, then physically slithers OUT of the display, crossing the screen plane into the real pier space, head, whiskers and claws passing IN FRONT of the phone bezel, closer to the lens than the screen, seawater dripping from its scales onto the planks, casting a moving shadow. Behind it, the photo keeps a dragon-shaped empty gap where it stood; the rest of the post stays unchanged. Camera: startled handheld jolt, step backward, autofocus briefly hunts. End state: the full dragon coils on the deck, the empty-gap photo glowing behind it. [Stage 6 - approx 20-25s] Continue from the dragon on the deck. Event: the man grabs the spiked mane crest, swings onto the dragon's back and holds on; the dragon leaps over the railing, diving into the sea with a massive splash. Camera: handheld rush to the pier edge and PLUNGE into the water after them, foam sweeping over the lens, the image turning into clear sunlit underwater blue with light rays from the surface. End state: the camera is fully underwater, the dragon and rider ahead swimming into the blue. [Stage 7 - approx 25-30s] Continue underwater. Event: in the distance the dragon banks into a wide turning maneuver and comes back straight at the camera, accelerating hard with serpentine strokes, the man pressed low gripping the mane crest, sunglasses on, a thin bubble trail from his nose; it streaks past EXTREMELY close along the camera's right side with heavy motion blur, the pressure wake violently shaking the camera as a dense corridor of bubbles erupts behind it and washes over the lens, and they exit the frame completely. Final state: held frame on empty blue water, the bubble corridor collapsing and fading, hard stop, the video ends underwater. AUDIO: <Seaside ambience, swimmers' chatter, gulls, lapping water.> <Sharp real splash at the cannonball.> <Deep low rumble and wood creak while the phone grows.> <Soft UI swipe whoosh during the scroll.> <Wet slithering and a low reptilian breath as the dragon emerges.> <Huge splash at the dive, then instantly muffled underwater ambience, deep pressure hum.> <A sharp accelerating whoosh and a violent bubble rush at the close pass, then settling water.> No music. No voiceover. CONSISTENCY: Keep the man's face, curly hair, beard and black square sunglasses unchanged, even underwater. Exactly one man, one dragon, one phone. The phone stays fixed to its deck spot from Stage 3 onward. Screen UI matches @Image 1, then @Image 2. The dragon outside matches the @Image 2 dragon exactly: serpentine body, whiskers, spiked mane crest, blue-green scales. The stormy sky exists only inside the on-screen photo; the real world stays sunny. The dragon never touches the camera or any swimmer. NEGATIVE PROMPT: no cuts, no zoom, no gimbal smoothness, no face distortion, no identity change, no wardrobe change, no removed sunglasses, no duplicate phone, no duplicate dragon, no dragon rendered as a sticker on the screen, no western winged dragon, no wings, no teleport, no glitch jump, no cartoon, no cheap CGI, no plastic skin, no murky dark water, no text outside the Instagram UI, no watermarks, no injuries, no panic.
Other prompts in this tutorial
NANO BANANA PRO · JSON PROMPT
{ "task": "photorealistic composite image generation, amateur smartphone photo aesthetic", "model_intent": "reference-driven identity reconstruction with a human-height oversized device, shot like a casual iPhone vacation photo — not an editorial", "references": { "reference_1": { "role": "primary subject identity", "description": "Sole identity source. Preserve exact facial structure, proportions, curly dark-brown hair, mustache with light chin stubble, and the black wayfarer-style sunglasses exactly as worn in this image. The sunglasses must stay on. Ignore this image's clothing, background and lighting entirely." }, "reference_2": { "role": "phone screen content", "description": "Recreate this screenshot exactly as the phone's screen content. Preserve layout, text, spacing, proportions and colors precisely, mapped flat onto the screen with no distortion." } }, "scene_description": { "environment": "a wooden bathing pier (lido jetty) on the Amalfi Coast, Italy — weathered sun-bleached planks, simple metal railings, striped umbrellas and pastel cliffside houses stacked on the rocks behind", "background_life": "a few real swimmers in the sea behind the pier — one mid-dive, one wading in, wet heads bobbing in the water, none looking at the camera", "sea": "clear turquoise-to-deep-blue Tyrrhenian water with small ripples and sun glitter", "time_of_day": "late morning, bright Mediterranean sun, hard summer light", "composition": "the subject and a human-height vertical smartphone stand side by side on the pier, two equal vertical masses in the frame" }, "subject_handling": { "identity_lock": true, "sunglasses_lock": "black wayfarer sunglasses from reference_1 stay on, sharp reflections of sea and sky in the lenses", "pose": "relaxed confident stance next to the giant phone, weight on one leg, facing camera", "expression": "faint amused half-smile, vacation ease, not posed-serious", "interaction": "one palm resting flat against the phone's side edge at his chest height — the device is far too large to hold, he leans on it like leaning on a wall, the other hand loose at his side", "scale_relationship": "the phone is as tall as the man — its top edge level with the top of his head, a human-height monolith standing beside him", "skin": "natural skin texture, slight summer tan lines, no smoothing" }, "wardrobe_styling": { "outfit_source": "Kith official summer collection styling", "top": "premium sleeveless cotton tank in a washed neutral tone, boxy relaxed cut, heavyweight slub fabric with visible knit texture", "bottom": "Kith-style swim shorts, mid-thigh length, tailored nylon with an allover subtle print, drawstring waist, fabric moving slightly in the sea breeze", "footwear": "chunky Crocs clogs in a bold color, worn confidently", "footwear_accessories": "the Crocs ventilation holes are filled with Jibbitz-style charms — small enamel pin badges, tiny figurines and plug-in tokens, a dense playful mix, each charm clearly seated in its own hole", "branding_rules": "no visible logos on clothing, footwear branding allowed", "fabric_detail": "real textile weight, natural folds, sun hitting the fabric honestly" }, "phone_handling": { "device": "iPhone 17 Pro", "scale_priority": "human-height monolith scale — the phone matches the subject's full standing height, roughly 180cm tall, dominating the frame equally with him", "position": "standing vertically on the wooden pier planks, planted like a sculpture, the planks subtly reflecting its glass", "orientation": "fully frontal, screen facing camera", "material_detail": "realistic glass with sky and sea reflections along the edges, brushed titanium frame, visible thickness proportional to its giant size, camera housing edge visible on the back corner", "weight_realism": "the pier planks bear its weight believably — a heavy grounded presence, not floating", "shadow_behavior": "one long hard midday shadow cast across the planks and partially over the subject, consistent with the sun direction" }, "phone_screen_content": { "screen_state": "active", "content_mapping": "place reference_2 exactly onto the phone screen without distortion or reinterpretation", "ui_realism": "screen brightness fighting the sunlight — slightly washed out under direct sun, faint glare streak across one corner, subtle fingerprint smudges near the edge" }, "lighting": { "key_light": "hard direct Mediterranean midday sun from above and slightly behind camera", "ambient_light": "bright bounce from the white pier planks and the water", "shadow_quality": "short hard summer shadows, deep but with soft bounce fill from the sea" }, "camera": { "style": "amateur smartphone photo, taken like an iPhone photo by a friend standing a few steps away, no professional effects", "lens": "composed like an iPhone 15 Pro 26mm f/1.8 main camera shot", "focus": "crisp sharp focus across the entire frame, realistic colors, clean HDR look with slight computational sharpening", "framing": "eye-level full-body shot from a few steps further back so both the man and the human-height phone fit fully in frame with the pier and sea behind, horizon straight, framing very slightly off-center like a quick real snapshot", "imperfections": "tiny sun flare at the top edge, faint HDR halo where the white wall meets the sky" }, "quality_constraints": { "look": "must read as a real photo from someone's camera roll — not an editorial, not CGI, not a render", "no_cartoon": true, "no_anime": true, "no_plastic_skin": true, "no_digital_smoothing": true, "no_text_or_watermark_outside_phone_screen": true }, "final_instruction": "The image must look like a real iPhone vacation photo taken on an Amalfi Coast bathing pier: the subject, wearing his black wayfarer sunglasses, a Kith-style sleeveless summer tank, printed swim shorts and charm-loaded Crocs, leans one palm against a human-height iPhone 17 Pro standing beside him — as tall as he is — displaying the exact reference screenshot, while swimmers splash in the turquoise sea behind them." }
NANO BANANA PRO · EDIT PROMPT (TRANSLATED VERBATIM)
Change the man's pose so that one of his hands is on the screen. On the phone's screen there should be the deniz.akkabak post from image 2, but the subject and content of the post should be in English, and its photo should be a realistic water dragon — a water dragon that looks like a real-textured iPhone photo. The phone's screen should be fully turned toward the camera, and one of the man's hands should be resting on the phone's screen, about to swipe. There should be nothing about Sole Alchemy — ignore that post. Deniz Akkabak's profile photo should be the same as in the reference image; take care with that too.
Tutorial
DENIZ AKKABAK · SEEDANCE 2.5 TUTORIAL · @DENIZ.AKKABAK
MADE IN INVIDEO · invideo.io/i/DENIZ-ig
The Amalfi Scroll
A pocket-size iPhone grows into a monolith on a lido pier — and the dragon in the post refuses to stay in the post.
A TUTORIAL BY DENIZ AKKABAK · @DENIZ.AKKABAK
PIPELINE NANO BANANA PRO → SEEDANCE 2.5 · FORMAT 30s · 9:16 · ONE TAKE · GENRE VIRAL CGI ILLUSION AS BYSTANDER FOOTAGE
Every viral "impossible object" clip lives or dies on one thing: does the impossible object feel like it was there before the camera arrived? This take cheats the question by building the object first. Nano Banana Pro is asked for a boring holiday snapshot — a man on an Amalfi bathing pier, leaning on an iPhone as tall as he is, the real Instagram profile mapped flat onto its glass. That still becomes the law of the scene: pier, railings, umbrellas, swimmers, phone, UI. Then a single edit swaps the profile page for a water-dragon post, and Seedance 2.5 is handed both stills plus a face lock and told a seven-stage story in which the phone starts pocket-size, grows, gets scrolled, and finally lets its dragon climb out through the bezel. Because the video model inherits the environment from a still rather than inventing it, the impossible part reads as documentary — a bystander's phone catching something it shouldn't have.
THE PIPELINE AT A GLANCE
- 01
Nano Banana Pro — the monolith still
A JSON prompt with two locked references (identity photo + profile screenshot) produces the giant-phone vacation snapshot. This image is the environment, the device and the UI for everything that follows.
- 02
Nano Banana Pro — the dragon-post edit
The monolith still goes back in as Reference 1 with a post screenshot as Reference 2; a plain-language edit changes the pose, turns the screen to camera and replaces the post with an English water-dragon post. Now the scroll has a destination.
- 03
Seedance 2.5 — the seven-stage take
Four references (monolith, dragon post, face, profile UI) and one 30-second continuous prompt: cannonball, pocket phone, growth, scroll, dragon exit, dive, underwater fly-past.
STEP 01 · NANO BANANA PRO — IMAGE MODEL
The Monolith Still — Build the Scene Before the Trick
The first still is deliberately written as an anti-editorial. The JSON asks for "amateur smartphone photo aesthetic", an "iPhone 15 Pro 26mm f/1.8" framing, "slightly off-center like a quick real snapshot" and even a "faint HDR halo". Every one of those lines exists to make the giant phone feel accidental. Two references are locked: the identity photo is the sole face source (sunglasses must stay on), and the profile screenshot is mapped "flat onto the screen with no distortion". The phone is described as a "human-height monolith" that the pier planks "bear believably" — a weight instruction, not a size instruction, and that is what sells it.
REFERENCE INPUTS — ATTACH IN THIS ORDER
NANO BANANA PRO · JSON PROMPT
{ "task": "photorealistic composite image generation, amateur smartphone photo aesthetic", "model_intent": "reference-driven identity reconstruction with a human-height oversized device, shot like a casual iPhone vacation photo — not an editorial", "references": { "reference_1": { "role": "primary subject identity", "description": "Sole identity source. Preserve exact facial structure, proportions, curly dark-brown hair, mustache with light chin stubble, and the black wayfarer-style sunglasses exactly as worn in this image. The sunglasses must stay on. Ignore this image's clothing, background and lighting entirely." }, "reference_2": { "role": "phone screen content", "description": "Recreate this screenshot exactly as the phone's screen content. Preserve layout, text, spacing, proportions and colors precisely, mapped flat onto the screen with no distortion." } }, "scene_description": { "environment": "a wooden bathing pier (lido jetty) on the Amalfi Coast, Italy — weathered sun-bleached planks, simple metal railings, striped umbrellas and pastel cliffside houses stacked on the rocks behind", "background_life": "a few real swimmers in the sea behind the pier — one mid-dive, one wading in, wet heads bobbing in the water, none looking at the camera", "sea": "clear turquoise-to-deep-blue Tyrrhenian water with small ripples and sun glitter", "time_of_day": "late morning, bright Mediterranean sun, hard summer light", "composition": "the subject and a human-height vertical smartphone stand side by side on the pier, two equal vertical masses in the frame" }, "subject_handling": { "identity_lock": true, "sunglasses_lock": "black wayfarer sunglasses from reference_1 stay on, sharp reflections of sea and sky in the lenses", "pose": "relaxed confident stance next to the giant phone, weight on one leg, facing camera", "expression": "faint amused half-smile, vacation ease, not posed-serious", "interaction": "one palm resting flat against the phone's side edge at his chest height — the device is far too large to hold, he leans on it like leaning on a wall, the other hand loose at his side", "scale_relationship": "the phone is as tall as the man — its top edge level with the top of his head, a human-height monolith standing beside him", "skin": "natural skin texture, slight summer tan lines, no smoothing" }, "wardrobe_styling": { "outfit_source": "Kith official summer collection styling", "top": "premium sleeveless cotton tank in a washed neutral tone, boxy relaxed cut, heavyweight slub fabric with visible knit texture", "bottom": "Kith-style swim shorts, mid-thigh length, tailored nylon with an allover subtle print, drawstring waist, fabric moving slightly in the sea breeze", "footwear": "chunky Crocs clogs in a bold color, worn confidently", "footwear_accessories": "the Crocs ventilation holes are filled with Jibbitz-style charms — small enamel pin badges, tiny figurines and plug-in tokens, a dense playful mix, each charm clearly seated in its own hole", "branding_rules": "no visible logos on clothing, footwear branding allowed", "fabric_detail": "real textile weight, natural folds, sun hitting the fabric honestly" }, "phone_handling": { "device": "iPhone 17 Pro", "scale_priority": "human-height monolith scale — the phone matches the subject's full standing height, roughly 180cm tall, dominating the frame equally with him", "position": "standing vertically on the wooden pier planks, planted like a sculpture, the planks subtly reflecting its glass", "orientation": "fully frontal, screen facing camera", "material_detail": "realistic glass with sky and sea reflections along the edges, brushed titanium frame, visible thickness proportional to its giant size, camera housing edge visible on the back corner", "weight_realism": "the pier planks bear its weight believably — a heavy grounded presence, not floating", "shadow_behavior": "one long hard midday shadow cast across the planks and partially over the subject, consistent with the sun direction" }, "phone_screen_content": { "screen_state": "active", "content_mapping": "place reference_2 exactly onto the phone screen without distortion or reinterpretation", "ui_realism": "screen brightness fighting the sunlight — slightly washed out under direct sun, faint glare streak across one corner, subtle fingerprint smudges near the edge" }, "lighting": { "key_light": "hard direct Mediterranean midday sun from above and slightly behind camera", "ambient_light": "bright bounce from the white pier planks and the water", "shadow_quality": "short hard summer shadows, deep but with soft bounce fill from the sea" }, "camera": { "style": "amateur smartphone photo, taken like an iPhone photo by a friend standing a few steps away, no professional effects", "lens": "composed like an iPhone 15 Pro 26mm f/1.8 main camera shot", "focus": "crisp sharp focus across the entire frame, realistic colors, clean HDR look with slight computational sharpening", "framing": "eye-level full-body shot from a few steps further back so both the man and the human-height phone fit fully in frame with the pier and sea behind, horizon straight, framing very slightly off-center like a quick real snapshot", "imperfections": "tiny sun flare at the top edge, faint HDR halo where the white wall meets the sky" }, "quality_constraints": { "look": "must read as a real photo from someone's camera roll — not an editorial, not CGI, not a render", "no_cartoon": true, "no_anime": true, "no_plastic_skin": true, "no_digital_smoothing": true, "no_text_or_watermark_outside_phone_screen": true }, "final_instruction": "The image must look like a real iPhone vacation photo taken on an Amalfi Coast bathing pier: the subject, wearing his black wayfarer sunglasses, a Kith-style sleeveless summer tank, printed swim shorts and charm-loaded Crocs, leans one palm against a human-height iPhone 17 Pro standing beside him — as tall as he is — displaying the exact reference screenshot, while swimmers splash in the turquoise sea behind them." }
OUTPUT
STEP 02 · NANO BANANA PRO — IMAGE MODEL · EDIT PASS
The Dragon-Post Edit — Give the Scroll Somewhere to Land
Seedance needs to know what the screen looks like after the swipe, so the second still is an edit of the first, not a new generation. The monolith still is now Reference 1 and a screenshot of an existing post (the Sole Alchemy carousel) is Reference 2 — but only as a layout template. The prompt is plain language, written in Turkish and translated one-to-one: change the pose so one hand is on the screen, turn the screen fully to camera, put a deniz.akkabak post on it whose content is in English and whose photo is a realistic water dragon "like a real-textured iPhone photo", ignore everything about Sole Alchemy, and keep the profile photo identical. Note how the hand "about to swipe" is planted here — Stage 4 of the video will inherit that gesture.
REFERENCE INPUTS — ATTACH IN THIS ORDER
NANO BANANA PRO · EDIT PROMPT (TRANSLATED VERBATIM)
Change the man's pose so that one of his hands is on the screen. On the phone's screen there should be the deniz.akkabak post from image 2, but the subject and content of the post should be in English, and its photo should be a realistic water dragon — a water dragon that looks like a real-textured iPhone photo. The phone's screen should be fully turned toward the camera, and one of the man's hands should be resting on the phone's screen, about to swipe. There should be nothing about Sole Alchemy — ignore that post. Deniz Akkabak's profile photo should be the same as in the reference image; take care with that too.
OUTPUT
STEP 03 · SEEDANCE 2.5 — VIDEO MODEL · 30S · 9:16
The Seven-Stage Take — Pocket Phone to Bubble Corridor
Four references go in, in this order, and the prompt names the first three by role: @Image 1 is the environment and the giant phone, @Image 2 is the dragon post and the dragon's design, @Image 3 is the face and nothing else. The fourth attachment, the raw profile screenshot, is a UI safety net for Stage 3 — it makes the profile page on the growing screen "crisp and readable" rather than a blurry echo of @Image 1. The single most important line in the whole document sits under REFERENCES: "In the video the phone starts pocket-size; do not inherit its giant scale until Stage 3." Without it Seedance would open on the monolith and the growth beat — the beat people rewind for — would never happen.
REFERENCE INPUTS — ATTACH IN THIS ORDER
Settings inside invideo: Seedance 2.5, 30 seconds, 9:16 vertical, references attached exactly as above, no music track added afterwards — the AUDIO line carries the whole soundscape.
SEEDANCE 2.5 · VIDEO PROMPT
30s / 9:16 vertical / viral CGI illusion filmed as real bystander footage / one continuous handheld take, no cuts
Ultra realistic smartphone footage, bright Mediterranean midday sun, handheld sway and micro shake, rolling shutter feel, real world physics, no cinematic grading.
@Image 1 defines the environment and the giant phone: sunlit stone-coast cove, wooden pier deck, steel railings, turquoise water, striped umbrellas, pastel buildings, swimmers, and the exact Instagram profile page on the giant phone screen: dark UI, circular profile photo, account name, stats, bio lines, link row, story highlights, buttons and reels grid exactly as designed. In the video the phone starts pocket-size; do not inherit its giant scale until Stage 3. @Image 2 defines the water-dragon post shown on the phone screen during the scroll, and the dragon's exact design: long serpentine body, blue-green scales, thin whiskers, spiked mane crest, amber eyes, wet texture, rising from stormy water. @Image 3 defines the hero's identity and face ONLY: dark brown curly hair, trimmed mustache and short beard, black square-framed sunglasses that remain ON at all times, even underwater. Do not inherit its background.
[Stage 1 - approx 0-4s] Initial state: handheld frame on the empty pier deck from @Image 1, swimmers behind, umbrellas above. Event: a young woman in a bikini sprints along the pier and cannonballs into the sea, a white splash rises. Camera: handheld, slight pan following her jump. End state: the splash settles, the deck is empty. [Stage 2 - approx 4-8s] Continue from the empty deck. Event: the man from @Image 3, in a grey tank top, patterned swim shorts and colorful clogs, walks in from the right edge holding a normal pocket-size iPhone. He crouches and stands it upright on the planks, screen facing the camera, then steps back. Camera: handheld pan right, then settle. End state: the small phone stands upright, the man beside it on the right. [Stage 3 - approx 8-12s] Continue from the standing phone. Event: the phone grows smoothly to a monolith over twice the man's height, planks creaking; the screen lights up showing the full Instagram profile page from @Image 1, crisp and readable. Camera: handheld tilt up as it grows. End state: the giant phone stands fixed on the deck displaying the profile page, the man at its right side. [Stage 4 - approx 12-15s] Continue from the giant phone. Event: the man reaches up and swipes the huge screen; the page scrolls fast with real UI motion blur, decelerates and stops exactly on the water-dragon post from @Image 2, the dragon photo filling the screen. Camera: handheld hold. End state: the dragon post displayed full and still, his hand lowers. [Stage 5 - approx 15-20s] Continue from the still dragon photo. Event: inside the screen the dragon blinks, then physically slithers OUT of the display, crossing the screen plane into the real pier space, head, whiskers and claws passing IN FRONT of the phone bezel, closer to the lens than the screen, seawater dripping from its scales onto the planks, casting a moving shadow. Behind it, the photo keeps a dragon-shaped empty gap where it stood; the rest of the post stays unchanged. Camera: startled handheld jolt, step backward, autofocus briefly hunts. End state: the full dragon coils on the deck, the empty-gap photo glowing behind it. [Stage 6 - approx 20-25s] Continue from the dragon on the deck. Event: the man grabs the spiked mane crest, swings onto the dragon's back and holds on; the dragon leaps over the railing, diving into the sea with a massive splash. Camera: handheld rush to the pier edge and PLUNGE into the water after them, foam sweeping over the lens, the image turning into clear sunlit underwater blue with light rays from the surface. End state: the camera is fully underwater, the dragon and rider ahead swimming into the blue. [Stage 7 - approx 25-30s] Continue underwater. Event: in the distance the dragon banks into a wide turning maneuver and comes back straight at the camera, accelerating hard with serpentine strokes, the man pressed low gripping the mane crest, sunglasses on, a thin bubble trail from his nose; it streaks past EXTREMELY close along the camera's right side with heavy motion blur, the pressure wake violently shaking the camera as a dense corridor of bubbles erupts behind it and washes over the lens, and they exit the frame completely. Final state: held frame on empty blue water, the bubble corridor collapsing and fading, hard stop, the video ends underwater.
<Seaside ambience, swimmers' chatter, gulls, lapping water.> <Sharp real splash at the cannonball.> <Deep low rumble and wood creak while the phone grows.> <Soft UI swipe whoosh during the scroll.> <Wet slithering and a low reptilian breath as the dragon emerges.> <Huge splash at the dive, then instantly muffled underwater ambience, deep pressure hum.> <A sharp accelerating whoosh and a violent bubble rush at the close pass, then settling water.> No music. No voiceover.
Keep the man's face, curly hair, beard and black square sunglasses unchanged, even underwater. Exactly one man, one dragon, one phone. The phone stays fixed to its deck spot from Stage 3 onward. Screen UI matches @Image 1, then @Image 2. The dragon outside matches the @Image 2 dragon exactly: serpentine body, whiskers, spiked mane crest, blue-green scales. The stormy sky exists only inside the on-screen photo; the real world stays sunny. The dragon never touches the camera or any swimmer.
no cuts, no zoom, no gimbal smoothness, no face distortion, no identity change, no wardrobe change, no removed sunglasses, no duplicate phone, no duplicate dragon, no dragon rendered as a sticker on the screen, no western winged dragon, no wings, no teleport, no glitch jump, no cartoon, no cheap CGI, no plastic skin, no murky dark water, no text outside the Instagram UI, no watermarks, no injuries, no panic.
STEP 04
Anatomy — Why the Screen Gives Up Its Dragon
Seven decisions, each pinned to a line of the prompt above.
- 01
The contract
FORMAT states "one continuous handheld take, no cuts" and STYLE asks for "rolling shutter feel" and "no cinematic grading". The illusion is framed as evidence, not as a film — so the model stops trying to make it pretty.
- 02
Scale withheld on purpose
"do not inherit its giant scale until Stage 3" overrides the reference. Stage 2 has the man carrying "a normal pocket-size iPhone"; Stage 3 makes it grow "over twice the man's height, planks creaking". Withholding the reference's own scale is what creates the beat.
- 03
Identity and reference locks
@Image 3 is "identity and face ONLY"; CONSISTENCY repeats the sunglasses "even underwater". The face survives the dive because the lock is stated twice, in two different sections.
- 04
Physics of the exit
Stage 5 puts the dragon's "head, whiskers and claws passing IN FRONT of the phone bezel, closer to the lens than the screen", with seawater dripping and a moving shadow. The bezel is the plane that proves the object left the picture.
- 05
The gap it leaves behind
"the photo keeps a dragon-shaped empty gap where it stood; the rest of the post stays unchanged". The screen becomes a witness to the exit — the most reposted frame of the take.
- 06
Sound as structure
AUDIO is a seven-beat score: splash, low rumble and creak, UI whoosh, wet slither and reptilian breath, huge splash into muffled pressure hum, accelerating whoosh and bubble rush. Each stage has its own sound, so the cut-free timeline still has rhythm.
- 07
The insurance
NEGATIVE PROMPT closes every escape route the model usually takes: "no dragon rendered as a sticker on the screen", "no western winged dragon, no wings", "no duplicate phone", "no murky dark water". It reads like a list of previous failed takes — because it is.
THE RESULT
Output — One Take, Seven Stages, Thirty Seconds
Check it against the prompt: the deck is empty after the cannonball, the phone the man sets down is pocket-size, the profile page that appears as it grows matches the screenshot, the scroll stops exactly on the dragon, the dragon crosses in front of the bezel and leaves its gap in the post, the sunglasses are still on when the camera goes under, and the take ends on empty blue water with the bubble corridor collapsing. Every one of those is a line in Stage 1 through Stage 7 — nothing in the clip was left to chance.
THE PHONE NEVER MOVED. THE POST DID.
Lock the world in a still, then let the still misbehave.
Swap the pier for a rooftop, the dragon for a whale, the profile page for a product feed — the skeleton carries any object-that-grows-then-leaks-out-of-its-screen illusion. One Nano Banana still to fix the place and the device, one edit to fix the post, one seven-stage Seedance prompt to make the screen give up what it was holding.
Seedance 2.5 with multi-image references, 30-second single takes and native audio runs inside invideo — the same workspace this whole take was generated in, references attached in the exact order you see above.
WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PROMPTED BY DENIZ AKKABAK · @DENIZ.AKKABAK