SL-55 / Camera as Participant

The Follow

Track it at its own height — and lose it behind something for half a second.

The brief

Tracking a rolling or bouncing object at its own height, briefly losing it behind an obstacle and having to find it again.

Why it's hard

A camera that never loses its subject is a camera that already knows where the subject is going. Occlusion is what proves otherwise.

The craft key

The occlusion is the realism. Make the blackout total, and make the recovery slightly wrong.

Skill Tests

03 / 28

Animal anatomy Human anatomy Biomechanics Physics & mass Water simulation Crowd dynamics Multi-shot continuity Face consistency Camera movement Unbroken take Motivated lighting Cutting rhythm Hands & fingers Hair & fabric Reflection & refraction Scale & depth Impossible geometry Period accuracy Music sync Aging & time Natural asynchrony Eye-lines & gaze Particle behaviour Motivated light source Consequence & persistence Time manipulation Graphic-layer discipline Colour as storytelling

Every challenge is scored against the same vocabulary, so you can compare them. Lit cells are what this one tests.

Starter prompt

Built with the CEMI MediaMax system for Google Veo 3.1. Prompts stay in English — that is the language these models take instructions in. Treat it as a starting point and start varying it.

the-follow

A bruised orange escapes a tipped crate and rolls down a wet cobbled market lane after rain, under grey afternoon cloud. The camera runs alongside at fruit height, fifteen centimetres above the stones, close enough that the cobble crowns clip the bottom of frame. At second three the orange passes behind a stack of blue plastic crates and is GONE for about half a second; the camera keeps its speed, guesses slightly wrong, and has to find it again on the far side, correcting with a small lateral jerk. In the running register of Andrea Arnold. DIRTY FOREGROUND: puddle spray, a dropped cabbage leaf, and awning drips crossing the lens. 24mm at f/2.8, water beads on the front element, visible barrel distortion, real 24fps. NO drone, NO gimbal glide, NO slow motion.

Derived from the CEMI MediaMax production canon — cemi.media

Style reference: Andrea Arnold

Why it's built this way

Occlusion is the realism: a camera that never loses its subject is a camera that already knows the future. The recovery beat — guessing wrong and correcting — is where the operator becomes a person. Ground-level height also delivers the dirty foreground for free.

Watch for

The model "cheats" the occlusion by making the crates transparent or by parting them, so the orange is never actually lost. If you can track the fruit continuously through the obstacle, re-prompt the blackout as a hard, total half-second.

Ran a challenge? Show us what you got.

Share your attempt — the triumphs and the glorious failures. The most instructive entries get featured on the board.