Video Script โ Mobile Chat
Status: DRAFT v4 for review. Beat list specified by @tristan (8/10) and followed exactly. One unbroken take, matching the original Ghostreader v3 web demo. Product footage is a single continuous mobile screen recording โ no cuts, no speed ramps โ then a hard cut to the end card.
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v4 changes: Two questions instead of one (the second is what produces the citation link). Difficult source material. The v3 "swipe away and back" beat is dropped โ it wasn't in @tristan's list, and the citation follow carries the place-keeping idea on its own. Three tagline lines, interspersed rather than stacked (rationale below). Runtime grows to ~20s.
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Answered: citations are tappable on mobile โ
ยท preset prompts exist โ
ยท the chat sheet covers the document while open โ
(so no claim of the page staying visible).
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โ ๏ธ UI assumption flag: I have not seen this build. Every beat describes intent. The recorder should match the shipped UI and flag mismatches before the edit locks.
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RECORDED AND LOCKED (@tristan, 8/12). @christina shot and cut this 8/11โ8/12; locked at her v3. Edit feedback and the one unresolved note are tracked in assets.md, not here. The script below is the as-specified intent, kept for reference and for any future re-cut.
Format Inspiration
- Our own Ghostreader v3 web demo (0:14, 254 likes / 31.7K views) โ the direct predecessor and the thing we're matching. Product-first, no voiceover, no title card, continuous screen recording. Mobile Chat is the same feature on a second surface, so this should read as the sequel, not a reinvention.
- Quick Lookup (101 likes / 18.9K views) โ our proven mobile grammar: act in the reading view โ instant AI answer โ the answer sticks.
- @kepano interactive transcript (13.5K likes / 842K views) โ reach benchmark for an in-reading-view interaction demo. Note what it doesn't do: no explaining, no feature list.
- @Flighty โ the bar for letting an interaction breathe.
- The foil: @EthanHe_42's "you can now chat with PDF on @grok" (532 likes) โ the commodity category PBU #14 explicitly distances us from.
Concept
The meta (@tristan, 8/11): what we're conveying is a reading assistant that's reading alongside you โ someone you can turn to and ask, who already knows what you've read so far. Every beat below is evidence of that one idea, not a feature demo. If a shot doesn't make the assistant feel present, it's the wrong shot.
Someone is reading something genuinely hard. They ask a vague question and get a real answer. Then they ask a second question โ the kind you can only ask about a document you're inside of โ and the answer comes back with a link that takes them straight to the passage.
That two-question shape is what makes the assistant feel like a person rather than a tool. You don't ask a search box "what does he mean here?" โ you ask someone who's been reading with you. And the follow-up question is exactly how a real conversation goes: you get an answer, and it prompts the next thing you want to know. The recorder should treat the gap between Answer 1 and Question 2 as a beat of thought, not dead air โ that pause is a person deciding what to ask next, and it's doing more narrative work than any animation could.
The two-question structure is the whole design. The first question proves it understands where you are. The second proves it understands the whole document โ and produces the citation naturally, because "where else does he mention X?" is a question whose honest answer is a link. Nothing has to be staged to make citations appear.
One continuous take. The unbroken take is the argument: the moment we cut, the viewer assumes we hid a loading spinner.
Narrative Arc
All within one take, ~17.5s:
- Reading (0.0โ3.0) โ a genuinely difficult passage. Slow thumb scroll. Establishes a reading app, not a chat app.
- One tap (3.0โ4.0) โ thumb to the toolbar, Ghostreader opens in one motion.
- Question 1 (4.0โ6.0) โ "what does he mean here?" Typed fast. No context given.
- Answer 1 (6.0โ9.0) โ a genuinely good, clarifying answer. Hands off.
- Question 2 (9.0โ11.5) โ "where else does he mention X?" The document-wide question.
- Answer 2 (11.5โ14.5) โ answer comes back with a link.
- Follow the link (14.5โ15.5) โ one tap.
- The landing (15.5โ17.5, SLOW) โ document scrolls to the source passage, highlighted. Hold. Payoff frame.
- End card (hard cut, 2.5s).
Target runtime: ~20s total (~17.5s product + 2.5s card). Longer than the web demo's 0:14 โ the second question costs about six seconds. Worth it: it's what makes citations land honestly instead of decoratively. If it drags, tighten the opening read and Answer 1's hold; do not cut Question 2.
Taglines โ placement
@tristan's three lines and where they go. Overlaying on the video is confirmed (@tristan, 8/11) โ he specifically called for "Context aware, with links to citations" as an on-video callout, which settles the intersperse-vs-stack question.
| Line | Placement | Status | Why |
|------|-----------|--------|-----|
| Ask anything while reading | On-screen, over Question 1 (~4.5โ6.0) | proposed | Lands exactly as a vague question is being typed. |
| Context aware, with links to citations | On-screen, over Answer 2 (~12.0โ14.0) | confirmed 8/11 | Lands exactly as the linked answer resolves. Both halves of the claim are visible underneath it โ the answer is on screen and the link is in it. |
| Now live on mobile | End card | confirmed | The news. Last thing seen. |
Intersperse, don't stack. Three lines on one end card is a wall nobody reads. The usual objection to interspersing โ text competing with the demo โ doesn't apply here, because each line describes precisely what's happening in that second. Line and proof are simultaneous, so it reads as labelling rather than interrupting.
Placement note for the citations line: it must not land before the link is actually visible in the answer. If it appears while the answer is still streaming, it's a claim; once the link is rendered underneath it, it's a caption. Wait for the link.
Fallback if it clutters in the edit: pull line 1 out and open the tweet copy with it. Line 2 stays on the video per @tristan's call.
Style for on-screen lines: small, low-contrast, lower third, fade in/out over ~0.4s. Never overlapping the answer text. One line on screen at a time, never two.
Product
reader
Music
Minimal, warm, no vocals. Low under the reading beat so the first tap reads as the first event. Light steady pulse through the two questions. Resolve on the citation landing. Nothing triumphant โ calm competence. Match the Ghostreader v3 web demo's energy.
Audio
- Voiceover: no
- Strip all diegetic audio (taps, haptics, keyboard clicks). Music only.
Shots
Shot 1 โ The Whole Thing, One Take
- Type: screen-recording
- Duration: ~17.5s
- Speed: 1x throughout. Never speed-ramp any part of this shot. If a beat can't survive at 1x, that's a product finding to report, not an editing problem to solve.
- Cuts: none
- Platform: mobile (iPhone)
- Window setup: Reader mobile app, new toolbar on (per brief โ never show the settings toggle, the enable prompt, or the old toolbar). Clean status bar, Do Not Disturb on. Choose light or dark mode for whichever makes the citation highlight pop โ the highlight is the payoff frame, so it decides.
- Starting state: Mid-document, not at the top. We're joining someone already reading.
Source document requirements โ the recorder picks a real article meeting all five:
1. Genuinely difficult. Dense argument, technical or philosophical โ the kind of paragraph you'd reread. If a viewer could parse it at a glance, Question 1 looks unnecessary. This is the single most important requirement.
2. The on-screen passage refers to something by pronoun or shorthand ("he", "this", "that move") so Question 1 can be context-free.
3. It contains a concept, term, or person โ X โ appearing in at least one other place in the document, ideally well away from the current position, so Question 2's answer has somewhere real and distant to link to.
4. Visibly serious and recognizable. Not a listicle.
5. Both answers render in ~3s without the chat sheet needing to scroll.
Questions: Q1 default "what does he mean here?" ยท Q2 default "where else does he mention X?" (substitute the real term). Both short enough to type at 1x without a speed ramp.
- Beat-by-beat action sequence:
1. 0.0โ3.0 โ Read. Slow, natural thumb scroll across a hard paragraph. No hesitation, no hunting. The viewer should believe a person is reading and struggling slightly, not demoing.
2. 3.0โ4.0 โ One tap. Thumb to the Ghostreader control in the bottom toolbar (the "Ask anything" affordance). Single deliberate tap. The sheet rises and covers the document โ expected. Let the rise animation play at full speed; its fluidity is what sells "effortless."
Edit note (@tristan, 8/11): emphasize this tap with a circle / tap-ripple animation on the "Ask anything" control โ not a zoom/punch-in. A zoom moves the whole frame and reads as camera work; a tap indicator reads as a finger and keeps the frame still, which matters in a one-take where every other beat holds steady. Keep it subtle: single ripple, ~0.4s, no lingering ring.
3. 4.0โ6.0 โ Question 1. Type "what does he mean here?" at a brisk, natural pace. Nothing pasted, no context supplied. That absence is the point.
4. 6.0โ9.0 โ Answer 1. Hands completely off. Let it stream. The answer must be genuinely clarifying โ if it's generic, the whole video is generic. Dry-run this until the answer is good; if it won't come back strong, change the passage, not the edit.
5. 9.0โ11.5 โ Question 2. Type "where else does he mention X?" This is the beat that separates us from every chat-with-PDF tool โ a question about the whole document, asked from inside it.
6. 11.5โ14.5 โ Answer 2. Hands off. The answer resolves with a tappable link to another passage. Confirmed tappable on mobile (@tristan, 8/10).
7. 14.5โ15.5 โ Follow the link. One deliberate tap.
8. 15.5โ17.5 โ The landing. Document scrolls to the source passage and highlights it. Hold ~1.5s. Hands off. Payoff and thumbnail frame. Do not cut early. Best if the destination is far from the starting position so the travel is visible.
- Cursor/touch: Four interactions total โ toolbar tap, two typed questions, link tap. Everything else hands-off. The restraint is what sells that the product is doing the work.
- What the viewer should notice: It understood a vague question. Then it knew the rest of the document. Then it took them there.
- What they shouldn't have to notice: that neither question contained any context.
- What to have ready: Article saved and open at the right scroll position; both questions dry-run 3+ times, confirming Answer 1 is genuinely clarifying and Answer 2 links to a real, distant passage.
- Cleanup: Notifications hidden, status bar tidy, chat history cleared so the sheet opens empty.
- Transition: hard cut to end card
Shot 2 โ End Card
- Type: title-card
- Duration: 2.5s
- Visual: Reader product gradient. Animated typed text:
> Now live on mobile
Optional small lockup beneath, fading in late: "Chat with any document โ new in Reader."
- Why this works: The take already made all three arguments. The card's only job is to say it's shipped.
What We Are Deliberately Not Showing
- The settings toggle, the toolbar enable prompt, the old toolbar (per brief โ assume the new toolbar is on).
- Swipe-to-next-document and easier delete. Real wins, but thread material โ not this video.
- Preset prompts. They exist and are worth a mention in copy, but both questions here are specific enough that typing is the honest demo.
- Anything implying whole-library chat on mobile. This is single-document chat; Global Ghostreader is web/desktop only.
Recording Prep Checklist
- [ ] Reader mobile app, latest build, new toolbar enabled before recording
- [ ] Clean device: Do Not Disturb, full battery, no notification badges
- [ ] Chat history cleared so the sheet opens empty
- [ ] Article chosen meeting all five source requirements โ difficulty is the one that matters most
- [ ] Term X identified, appearing in at least one other spot well away from the start position
- [ ] Q1 dry-run 3+ times โ answer is genuinely clarifying, not generic
- [ ] Q2 dry-run 3+ times โ answer returns a tappable link to a real, distant passage
- [ ] Light vs dark mode decided (whichever makes the citation highlight pop)
- [ ] On-screen line timings agreed, or the decision made to move them to tweet copy
- [ ] Record at retina/2x, clean screen recording
- [ ] Music track pre-approved (minimal, warm, no vocals)
Recording + Edit
- Capture the full loop in one unbroken take. Expect many takes for one clean run โ that's the cost of the format.
- No cuts, no speed ramps inside the take. If it drags, fix the article or the questions, then re-record.
- Add a circle / tap-ripple indicator on the "Ask anything" toolbar tap (beat 2) โ not a zoom (@tristan, 8/11).
- Add the two on-screen lines per the placement table โ or hold them for the tweet copy if they clutter.
- Hard cut to the end card.
- Cut to music; let the citation landing breathe.
- Draft for review before final export.
- Final export: MP4 (H.264), ~20s target, must work with sound off.
