{
 "slug": "contrast-ladder",
 "name": "Contrast in four levels",
 "category": "hook",
 "group": "Visual hooks and animations",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-11-13",
 "effect": "Tells you before you generate whether an idea is strange enough to stop a scroll.",
 "use_when": "Scoring a concept for a still or an opening shot.",
 "phrase": "level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "The four levels: in the place it belongs, in an unexpected situation, plus unexpected styling, plus feeling. The creator's claim is that social images stop the scroll from level 1 up; not measured by us.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair notes on Seedance 2.5 realism (Dan Kieft)"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "impossible-image",
  "curiosity-object",
  "semantic-compounding"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "practitioner",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Own words from Director Chair notes on Seedance 2.5 realism (Dan Kieft)"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/hook/contrast-ladder",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/hook/contrast-ladder.md",
 "prompts": {
  "nano-banana-pro": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road.",
  "nano-banana-2": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road.",
  "gpt-image": "A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].\nPeople and framing: level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road\nExclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.",
  "seedream-5": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road.",
  "seedance-2.5": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road.\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot",
  "seedance-2.0": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road.\nShot 1: one continuous shot",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road. The scene is [your setting].",
  "veo-3.1": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Level 1, the delivery robot slumped at a bus stop; level 2, the same robot in a fur coat; level 3, holding a wilted flower and looking down the empty road. Framing and subject stay as in the start image."
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}