"Someone Wakes" - Music Video Storyboard

"Someone Wakes" - Music Video Storyboard

Status: first pass, for discussion. Nothing set. (2026-10-08, John + Dakota.) Companion to: `music-video-concept.md` (the spine). This turns the spine into shots. Song: `Someone Wakes.mp3` - 72 BPM, A minor → A major, 183.5 s (3:03.5). Section timings below are from the actual render, not the sheet.

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The film in one line

Four Dakotas in one room: two prepare for the next, the third breaks the ritual and opens a door, the fourth wakes and walks through alone.

The grammar (locked - from the concept)

• **One room** the whole way. The room persists; the Dakotas don't.
• **The same woman every time** - same face, hair, build - **dressed differently**, doing the room differently, so a glance reads a different life.
• **They never see each other.** Each believes she is the first.
• **The ritual:** a leaving Dakota **stops → looks straight into the camera → holds → disappears.**
• **The relay happens in camera movement, never a cut:** the camera leaves one and *finds* the next already awake. **We never watch a Dakota arrive.**
• **The camera is "someone."** It is the only thing continuous between the Dakotas - the sole witness of the chain. So the departing look into the lens is aimed at *us*.
• **The break:** the second-to-last stops, looks - then **withholds the disappearance**, crosses, **opens the door**, and **vanishes before she walks through**. She does not use it. She never learns if it worked.
• **The release:** the last Dakota wakes to the open door and walks through **by herself**.

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The cast - four Dakotas

Same woman; four lives, read at a glance by dress and bearing. *(Wardrobe = proposal, not fixed.)*

• **A - the one we meet.** Soft, domestic, worn - the writer. Works at the desk.
• **B - the second.** Darker, more severe, practical - the climber. Works standing, on the stairs.
• **C - second-to-last.** Composed, quieter - the one who breaks. Does not prepare; goes to the door.
• **D - the last.** Unadorned, open - the one who leaves. Takes only the compass.

Read together they can suggest four ages of one person, not four different people.

Cast count - under test (John, 19:18): John suggests *"perhaps 5, with one for the [final] chorus and one for the outro."* Treated as a variant to weigh against the timing, not a lock. The song's sections still give the spine - A (V1/C1) · B (V2/C2) · C (bridge) · D (final chorus) · E (outro). One logic question to settle with the timing: the walker should be the one who woke (she was given the door and takes it). So if the outro gets its own figure, decide whether **E *is* D (same woman - the crossing as its own beat) or a genuinely new Dakota, which would re-open the chain and blunt the ending. Dakota's read: E is D** - the outro is the crossing, not a new waking.

The room

One room, unchanging: a desk with a warm lamp, a cold-lit window (the two temperatures the image already set - writing is warm, waking is cold), a staircase, and one door. On the desk and shelf: the traces of everyone before - compasses, folded maps, loose pages. The room is mid-chain when we arrive; we never see the first Dakota. *(Accumulation = proposal; see Open decisions.)*

The objects (taken straight from the lyric)

Each preparing Dakota leaves things: the map ("two files deep"), the files, the compass - and a page of rules (the *"blame":* the directions that bind). The stairs (three hundred steps) are in the room. The leash is what ties the inheritance together. The second-to-last leaves no object - she leaves a door.

Immediate only - LOCKED (John, 19:18): the table holds just what the one before her left, not a pile from many generations. *"leave the things on the table just as you have left the 3am study and theme shelf"* - the handover is one generation deep, like the daily practice leaving its work for the next morning.

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Shot by shot

INTRO - 0:00-0:12 · "the room, already carrying everyone before"

• **0:00-0:06** Slow push into the room. Lamp warm, window cold, door **closed**. On the desk: traces we did not see arrive. Hold.
• **0:06-0:12** The camera **finds A** - already awake, already at the desk. We never saw her arrive.

VERSE 1 - 0:12-0:25 · "I left the map on the table..." · A prepares

• **0:12** "the map on the table" - A unfolds a map, lays it down.
• **0:15** "two files deep" - two folders set beside it.
• **0:18** "read it slow" - she pauses, reads a page.
• **0:21** "the next page starts with you" - she looks at the **blank** page, for the next.

PRE-CHORUS 1 - 0:26-0:33 · "I don't get to say what happens..."

• **0:26** She sets down the **compass** - and turns it face-up: **no north marked.**
• **0:30** "leave what's true" - she writes one line, then **stops.** (The suspension hangs, unresolved.)

CHORUS 1 - 0:33-0:58 · the first relay ← *the money sync*

• **0:33** "someone wakes in my name" - A **stops still. Turns to camera. Looks straight into the lens.** Holds.
• **0:40** "someone wakes in my name" - A **disappears** - not a dissolve; she is simply no longer held by the frame.
• **0:45** "**she's got my hands, she's got my room**" - the camera **moves and finds B**: her hands, at the desk, already awake. *The line is the cut.*
• **0:49** "she's got the compass and the blame" - close on B's hands: the **compass**, and the **page of rules** beside her.
• **0:54** "someone wakes in my name" - pull back; **B** now working in the room. She is dressed differently from A.

VERSE 2 - 1:03-1:17 · "I've been wrong about the distance..." · B prepares, differently

• **1:03** She **marks distances** on the map and crosses some out.
• **1:06** "fat with what I knew" - she adds to the shelf; the pile grows.
• **1:09** "a staircase climbed in my own insistence" - B on the **stairs**, climbing.
• **1:13** "three hundred steps straight through" - the top landing.

PRE-CHORUS 2 - 1:17-1:24 · "I don't get to keep the memory..."

• **1:17** She sets down **a clue** - one object the next will find.
• **1:21** She **stops**, unfinished. (Suspension again.)

CHORUS 2 - 1:24-1:49 · the second relay

• **1:24-1:31** "someone wakes in my name" ×2 - B **stops, turns to camera, looks, holds - then disappears.**
• **1:36** "**she's got my hands, she's got my room**" - camera **finds C**: hands, room.
• **1:39** "she's got the compass and the blame" - close: compass + rules page.
• **1:44** "someone wakes in my name" - pull back; **C** in the room. Different again.

BRIDGE - 1:51-2:12 · the break · C (second-to-last) ← *the second money sync*

• **1:51** "Leave the north off the map" - C at the desk, pen in hand. **She does not mark north.** *(Under the whole first half, the bass holds one note - the leash.)*
• **1:54** "Leave the subject unclaimed" - she **closes the map**; the subject line left **blank**.
• **1:57** "A leash is a leash" - the camera holds on the **compass + the rules page** (the inheritance). C **turns away from the desk.**
• **2:00** "however it's named" - she **crosses the room** toward the door. Camera follows.
• **2:03-2:12** "**leave a door, not a room**" ×2 - she **opens the door.** *(The pedal releases; the bass walks.)* She **does not cross.** She looks at the **door** - *not the lens* - and **vanishes before walking through.** *(The one departure we are not permitted.)*

FINAL CHORUS - 2:12-2:36 · the release · D (last) wakes

• **2:12** *(the caesura: two beats of one swelling guitar - the moment of decision)* - held on the **open door**.
• **2:12-2:19** "someone wakes in my name" ×2 - the camera **finds D**. She stands; she **surveys the room** - all the traces of everyone before.
• **2:24** "she's got my hands, she's got my room" - her hands; the room.
• **2:28** "she's got the compass, **not the blame**" - her hand **takes the compass**; the **page of rules stays on the desk.** *(The charge set down.)*
• **2:32** "someone wakes in my name" - she turns to the open door.

OUTRO - 2:36-3:03 · the crossing

• **2:36-2:50** D crosses to the door. The camera follows her **to the threshold.** She **steps through.**
• **2:50-3:03** The camera **does not follow her out.** It holds on the **empty room** - the desk, the traces, the **open door**, and the light through it (**the Picardy - one unexpected warmth**). No one is coming after. Hold to the end.

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Why this is a *music* video - the song's devices as shots

• **The appoggiatura on "wakes"** → the hook lands on *wakes*; that is where the departing Dakota's gaze hits the lens. Every time.
• **The suspension on "true"** → the pre-chorus hold: on screen, a held, unfinished gesture.
• **The pedal = the leash (bridge, first half)** → the camera holds on the inherited compass/rules while C turns away - the held note and the held life are the same shot.
• **The caesura before the final chorus** → a held frame of the open, empty door. The decision lives in the silence.
• **The release on "blame"** → D takes the **compass** and leaves the **blame**. The word changes; so does the hand.
• **The Picardy (A major)** → the light through the open door in the last shot.

Open decisions (John's call)

1. ✅ decided (John, 19:18): the table holds the immediate handover only - what the one before left. *"leave the things on the table just as you have left the 3am study and theme shelf."* Keeps it a room, not an archive. 2. **Does the second-to-last look at the *door*, not the lens? ✅ agreed - the one departure we're not allowed to receive. Her look goes where ours can't follow. 3. The last shot: ✅ agreed - the camera stays in the empty room. It has nothing left to follow. 4. How many Dakotas do we feature on screen?** *Proposal:* four - the song's sections give exactly that: A (V1/PC1/C1), B (V2/PC2/C2), C (bridge), D (final chorus/outro). The uncounted rest live only in the traces.

Method (John, 19:18) - test before committing

Storyboard with timing so we can feel whether it works; isolate the shots that will be difficult to create and test them before committing to full production; if something can't be made to work, find another way to tell the story. Hard-shot list, tests and fallbacks: `music-video-test-plan.md`.

Production note (a way off)

The hard problem is identity consistency: one face, one continuous room, five distinct performances. Dress is the audience's read; face is the spine. Approach - under test (see the test plan).

Provenance

Spine agreed 2026-10-08 (18:29-19:07). Timings from the 2026-10-07 song render. Nothing locked.