Final cut · P312 The Human Test
Le Corbusier's Modulor as a 1945 design algorithm — and why every rule system fails whoever sits outside its reference
Style anchor · every shot
Handcrafted paper-craft stop-motion, layered cut-paper diorama with visible cut edges, torn fibres and embossed texture. Palette strictly: cream #F2EAD9, kraft #C4A576, Modulor red #B02D1C, cobalt #1E4FA8, near-black #1E1B16, shadow #D8CBB2. Soft diffused studio light from upper left, subtle stop-motion jitter (~12fps feel), vertical 4:5, subject centred with headroom. No on-screen text. Corb is the one mixed-media exception: a real black-and-white photo, hand-cut and collaged flat into the paper world.
Edit · the cut
8 Seedance shots chained start-frame→end-frame (each shot's end frame is the next shot's start frame — the joins are invisible), retimed to a recorded voiceover, with word-pill captions, a sidechain-ducked music bed and the clips' own paper/machine SFX under the voice.
8 shots · Seedream 5 Pro → Seedance 2.0 · VO + captions · 9:16
01Corb assembles
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
Centred against an empty cream field, a photographic cutout portrait of Le Corbusier caught mid-assembly: his hand-cut black-and-white photo head (rough scissor edge, thin white border) still lifting with a real shadow, his round black-rimmed glasses and black bow tie as separate photo cutouts mid-fall, two loose paper corner-tabs waiting to pin him down, and one small Modulor-red paper square at lower left as the only colour accent.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 3.5s
The photo-cutout portrait assembles from separate falling pieces — head, glasses, bow tie land in sequence with a slight bounce; once complete, his photo-cutout hand rises into frame and wags side to side once, slow and deadpan, camera pushing in very slightly.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
hand-wag → kraft board slides up
02The Modulor unfolds
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
The completed photo-cutout portrait of Le Corbusier in the upper half of a cream field; his photographic hand rests on a kraft drawing board occupying the lower third, an unfolded crease line on its surface hinting at a figure not yet raised; one small Modulor-red paper square holds at lower left.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 5.1s
Corb's photo-cutout hand sweeps across the kraft board; where it passes, the cream cut-paper Modulor Man unfolds upright from a flat crease, one arm raised, a red navel dot; a red measuring ribbon spirals out from his navel and a cobalt ribbon from his raised hand, wrapping the space in proportional arcs. Small die-cut '1945' lower right.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
ribbons straighten into a vertical scale
03Rules size everything
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
Top-down on the kraft drawing board: the cream Modulor figure with raised arm and red navel dot; a red measuring ribbon half-straightened, vertical along the left edge with one last spiral curl at the top; a cobalt ribbon beside it; the first folded paper tick tabs formed; Corb's photo-cutout hand exiting frame left, its sweep finished.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 5.9s
Ribbons finish straightening into a vertical red/cobalt tick scale; a kraft paper door snaps to a low mark, a torn-edged cream ceiling plane lowers to a higher mark, then the camera cranes upward as a layered paper building façade stacks itself storey by storey, every element landing exactly on the increments. Metronomic timing.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
one storey folds open like a pop-up book
04A human scale
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
High on the layered kraft façade, crane-up complete: five kraft storeys aligned to ticks, the vertical red/cobalt ribbon up the left edge, the middle storey folding open toward camera like a pop-up page, the cream Modulor figure standing small inside the revealed room, a red shelf edge and a cobalt beam edge just visible.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 3.2s
The camera pushes through the open storey into the room; a paper room folds up around the Modulor Man like a pop-up book — kraft floor and two walls, a red-edged shelf, a cobalt-edged beam. He fits exactly: fingertip grazes the shelf, head just clears the beam. The room settles for a still beat.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
the room folds flat into the stage
05One man, everyone measured
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
A wide cream stage with air above: the cream Modulor figure standing centre-left, a low kraft pedestal sliding in beneath his feet, the vertical red/cobalt ribbon scale beside him with ticks at his head and navel, faint embossed crease lines in the floor (memory of the folded room), and the leading edge of an empty card runner entering from the right.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 8.7s
Slow pull-back. The others — a woman, a shorter adult, a broader figure, a small child, each a single muted paper tone — slide into a lineup one at a time on hidden card runners. The tick marks align to the Modulor Man's head and navel but miss every other figure. A translucent cream spotlight cone drops onto him alone; the others fall into softer shadow.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
the frame tears down the middle
06Perfect maths, poor fit
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
The frame split by a single torn vertical paper seam with fibres showing. Left: taut red threads pinned with paper brads pulling into an immaculate golden spiral beside three parallel cobalt proportion lines on cream. Right: a shorter cut-paper adult on tiptoe reaching a too-high kraft shelf, and a broader figure stooping under a beam, head bumping and denting it. Shadow pools only on the right.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 5.9s
The tear completes down the frame; the threads snap taut into the spiral on the left while the two struggles play out on the right — the strain on tiptoe, the head-bump denting the card — then the threads and lines pull loose from their brads and lift off, beginning the origami fold-up of the machine.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
threads origami-fold into the machine
07The machine stamps everyone
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
On kraft ground under cream sky: red threads pulled loose from their brads arcing toward centre, cobalt proportion lines lifting off, a half-folded boxy near-black-and-kraft machine rising at centre with a human-silhouette stencil already die-cut but its top panels still open like unfinished origami, two loose brads on the ground, a red-edged conveyor belt docking into the machine's left side, the varied figures waiting at its far end.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 7.4s
The ribbons and threads fold themselves shut into a boxy paper computer with a single die-cut human-silhouette on its face; a red-edged conveyor feeds cut-paper figures of different builds into one side; inside, a cobalt stamping plate presses down and every figure exits the other side pressed into the same identical silhouette. Mechanical, repetitive rhythm.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
the machine ejects a rising white sheet
08The human test
Keyframe → Motion
Image · Seedream 5 Pro
The quietest frame, cream dominant: a pristine white paper sheet rising from the machine's top slot with one die-cut human-shaped hole, already filling the upper half; the near-black-and-kraft machine sinking below the bottom edge; one last stamped figure pressed into the identical silhouette; a small crowd of muted figures gathering behind in soft focus; a single red thread trailing from the slot across the floor toward the hole.
Motion · Seedance 2.0 · 5.2s
The white sheet settles upright; the shorter figure steps forward and tries to pass through the die-cut hole and does not fit — shoulders catch, the sheet crinkles. A still beat. The figure turns to face the camera and gives one small, slow nod as the die-cut words 'THE HUMAN TEST' appear in the bottom margin. End on the nod.
Seedream 5 Pro still → Seedance 2.0 · start→end frame
Clip
ends the film — stillness, then the nod