← All drafts
PARKED — do not generate from this yet. Written against the outline; the
screenplay (`the-offer.fountain`) has since changed. Regenerate this sheet
from the final script before use.
Companion to `luthers-dilemma.md` (Scene 2 — The refusal). One entry = one AI
video generation. Paste the BOILERPLATE block into every prompt, then add the
clip's own text. This is the dialogue scene: **every Luther speech is
recorded separately and played as VO over cutaways** — his mouth is never the
shot's subject while he speaks. **The contract stays folded or shows only its
back** — no writing on it is ever legible. Other text in frame is fine, in
period German.
Live-action cinematic footage, Germany 1539. Soft midday light through small
leaded windows, muted earthy colors, shallow depth of field, quiet
concentrated mood.
- LUTHER: heavyset man in his mid-fifties, clean-shaven, short dark curly hair under a black scholar's cap, plain black scholar's gown over a white shirt. Calm, stubborn, at ease. (Identical to the Scene 3 sheet.)
- HEAD PRINTER: a broad man in his sixties, grey beard, ink-stained leather apron over a good dark doublet, weathered hands. (Identical to the Scene 1 sheet.)
- TWO OR THREE PRINTERS: younger masters in clean aprons, hats in hand — they have come as petitioners.
- SETTING: Luther's own small print shop and study — a single modest press, a broad worktable, shelves of books, a large worn Bible lying open on a reading desk.
- The folded contract prop recurs: palm-sized, folded in quarters, outer faces blank. Same paper as Scenes 1 and 3. Its written face never turns to camera.
- All text in frame is period German — never English. The Bible and any printed sheet in blackletter (Fraktur/Schwabacher), the contract in a 16th-century manuscript hand. Reject any generation showing English words.
The printers file in through the shop door, hats in hand, the head printer
last with the folded contract held like something fragile. Camera: static from
inside the room.
- Audio: door, footsteps, the town outside fading as the door closes.
- Text check: contract folded, blank. ✔
Luther at his worktable, reading proofs. He looks up at the delegation and a
faint, knowing smile crosses his face — he's heard it all before. Camera: slow
push on Luther.
- Audio: quiet room; his VO, dry: **"Three times you have come to me with this."**
- Text check: proofs on table unreadable. ✔
The head printer makes the case, earnest, gesturing once toward the town
outside; the younger printers nod along. Camera: favor the group; the head
printer three-quarter angle so lip-sync is soft.
- Audio: his VO: **"Wittenberg's fortunes are your books, Doctor — and Leipzig is circling. We ask only first access to what you write. Leipzig cannot print what they never receive."**
- Text check: ✔
Top-down insert on the worktable: the folded contract slid across toward
Luther's side. A beat — then Luther's hand pushes it back, unopened. Camera:
locked-off insert.
- Audio: paper sliding on wood, twice. Nothing else.
- Text check: folded, blank faces. ✔
Luther speaks without heat, looking at the printers, then down at his own
ink-stained hands. Camera: medium side profile, then a cut-in on the hands —
his mouth never fills the frame.
- Audio: his VO (from the Table Talk): **"God has raised me in a fatherly way, me and my whole household, and given me everything freely — without payment. Shall I sell His gift of grace back to Him?"**
- Text check: ✔
A younger printer protests — palms open, reasonable: no one is asking him to
sell grace; it's a contract, like any author signs. Camera: on the printer,
with Luther's unmoved profile in soft foreground.
- Audio: printer's VO to that effect; keep it brief and deferential.
- Text check: ✔
Luther answers, wry and content; mid-speech, cut to a slow insert of the worn
open Bible on its desk, then back to the printers listening. Camera: medium on
Luther angled away → Bible insert → printers.
- Audio: his VO: **"The Elector gives me two hundred gulden a year I never asked of him. God has given me a wife and children — a most beautiful blessing. I have quite enough, and I am satisfied."**
- Bible pages may read as print — blackletter German, never English. ✔
The head printer steps forward, picks the folded contract off the table, and
holds it out to Luther — almost a plea. Camera: medium two-shot, head printer's
back quarter to camera.
- Audio: his VO: "At least look at what you are refusing."
- Contract check: folded. ✔
Luther takes the paper and unfolds it. Camera locked on his face over the
back of the sheet — the audience never sees its face. A long silence. His
eyes move across the writing once. **His face gives nothing away — no reaction
at all.** Camera: slow, almost imperceptible push.
- Audio: paper unfolding, then held silence — let it sit.
- Contract check: critical — back of sheet only; reject any bleed-through. ✔
He folds the paper back up with the same calm and slides it across the table.
The printers' shoulders drop as they listen. Camera: hands insert on the fold
and slide, then medium on the deflating printers.
- Audio: his VO: **"In all my life I have never sold a single copy, nor lectured for a fee — and I mean to carry that boast into the grave. Having food and clothing, I shall be content."**
- Contract check: folded, blank. ✔
A beat of defeat — then the head printer, gathering the contract, tries one
more thing; the younger printers exchange a look. Camera: medium on the head
printer, angled.
- Audio: his VO: "Then speak with Katharina. Perhaps she'll persuade you."
- Contract check: gathered up, folded. ✔
Luther sighs — the first crack in his composure, exasperation not temptation —
takes the folded paper from the table, and walks out the door. The printers
watch him go. Camera: static wide, door closing.
- Audio: footsteps, door; the room's silence after.
- Contract check: folded, in his hand — matches the paper he carries into Scene 3. ✔
- Luther identical to the Scene 3 sheet; head printer identical to Scene 1's.
- Same room throughout: one press, worktable, book shelves, Bible desk.
- Midday light, consistent direction, all clips.
- The contract is the same palm-sized quarter-folded paper across all three scenes, blank outer faces.
- No writing on the contract is ever legible in any generated frame — the number exists only in Scene 3's INSERT-01. Other in-frame text is fine, in period German.
- Luther's speeches are VO over cutaways; his mouth is never the subject while he speaks.