How it actually gets made

465 takes,
14 shots.

Everyone shows the one that worked. Here is the pile it came out of — the rejects, the notes written while watching them, and what it cost.

465Takes rendered

14Shots kept — one in 33

30.8hMeasured render time

7.9minAverage per take

Kept vs killed

The one
and the forty

Same shot, same prompt file, a different take. The line under each reject is the review note, word for word.

Rejected take: the beams come from the wrong place — Killed
E2_beams · take 43
“laser beams should come from his head”

Kept take: the beams come from the head — Kept
E2_beams · take 13
47 takes on this shot before one held.

Rejected take: camera far too wide — Killed
A_rooftop · take 35
“camera way too far: top-down wide of the whole block, hero is a speck”

Kept take: the framing that worked — Kept
A_rooftop · take 28
81% of this shot’s takes went in the bin. The worst ratio on the film.

Take with frozen fires — Killed
F_fall · take 32
“fires near the cars at the bottom of frame are frozen, not animated”

Kept take of the fall — Kept
F_fall · take 18
Every flame has to move. That is usually what kills a take.

The cutting room floor

Review notes,
unedited

“lasers shooting from the arms, not the head”E2_beams · take 41

“monster arms hang motionless; crowd not fleeing away from it; small fires frozen”C_launch · take 31

“il recule en marchant, un pied puis l’autre — les deux pieds doivent glisser ensemble”D_dodge · take 54

“arrive trop tard sur le toit, le beat de fatigue n’a pas le temps de poser”G_return · take 30

“reference pour le mouvement de camera et le lever de soleil a peine visible”G_return · take 21

87 takes carry a note like these. The other 378 were simply not it.The pile

The tool

Dailies

None of this survives in a folder of files. Every take is archived with the exact prompt, seed, references, engine and cost that produced it — which is why a shot can be recreated identically months later, and why the numbers on this page exist at all.

465 takes,14 shots.

The oneand the forty

Review notes,unedited

Dailies

465 takes,
14 shots.

The one
and the forty

Review notes,
unedited