Personal tribute; public Explorer delivery accepted, no social uploads. NO IMD/swarm branding or production credits in film/poster. Final card: 'Gracias, Leo' only.
THE AI IS THE EDITOR, NOT THE CAMERA
Authentic moving match/broadcast/archive footage. No generated images/video, AI extension, face enhancement, invented reenactments or synthetic voices. Ordinary crop/resize, stabilization, deinterlacing, grading, light denoise/sharpen, speed changes, frame-blend slow motion, titles and video compositing are allowed. No photo zooms. At most two stills <=1.5s, only if video of that moment is unavailable; finale must be moving video. Title/end cards and the separate poster are exceptions to the still count.
Avoid previous failures: 20-second extracts, subtitles replacing audible commentary, other players dominating, source borders/logos, photo finale and music disappearing.
HISTORICAL STORY
Chronology: present-day hook -> Rosario/Newell's -> La Masia/2005 breakthrough -> Barcelona magic -> 2014/2016 heartbreak -> 2021/2022/2024 triumphs -> farewell. Verify clip dates/events; never misattribute goals. This is Argentina farewell, not death or club retirement. Benin farewell: 6 October 2026. If its video is unavailable, use genuine Argentina crowd acknowledgments, disclose the real date; never mislabel.
SUPPLIED MUSIC: DOWNLOAD FIRST
Use the requester's Coldplay 'Viva la Vida' studio recording: https://we.tl/t-XtavwTYojuQmXO3U . Download immediately, before footage research; transfer expires 10 October 2026 at 13:11 UTC. Save music/viva_la_vida.mp3. File: 3,912,039 bytes; SHA-256 cfd0629025b67a109e30851b780e70267c3b4b66756d318b4ff48d9199856ce4.
Resolve the page: POST JSON {"security_hash":"304e30","intent":"entire_transfer"} to https://wetransfer.com/api/v4/transfers/30d3626005beacabce3f37ece379a70520261007131129/download . Headers: Content-Type application/json; Origin https://wetransfer.com; Referer the resolved transfer page. Download JSON direct_link; verify hash/bytes. Request a fresh direct_link if expired. HTML is not MP3. ffmpeg/imd-media uses local relative paths.
Source: 242s, 128kbps stereo/44.1kHz. Edit a coherent 90s selection, not the whole song/first 90s. No substitute score/cover; 320kbps export cannot restore source detail. Never commit/return the full song. Report retrieval/hash failures; no musical fallback.
HARD TARGETS
90.0s +/-0.3s; 1920x1080; 25fps; H.264 High/yuv420p; AAC stereo 320kbps; faststart. Mix -14 LUFS integrated (+/-0.5 LU), true peak <=-1dBTP. Each output <64MiB, all <128MiB; target video bitrate about 5.0-5.4Mbps and measure size.
60-65 picture shots (allowed 57-70), average 1.3-1.6s. Each <=2.5s except <=3 hero holds <=4s; one-beat peak cuts welcome. Count real shots, not mosaic tiles; exclude final card.
Messi leads every shot except <=4 reactions; retain readable football action, no tiny/blurred Messi. ZERO commentary/explanatory captions. Text only: opening title, <=6 tiny year/place stamps, end card.
No broadcast logos, scorebugs, corner overlays, tickers/watermarks; avoid prominent ads. Use clean feeds/crops, not generative removal. Replace shots that cannot crop cleanly. Real shirt badges are allowed.
Uniform 2.39:1 active picture: 1920x804 centered in 1920x1080, 138px top/bottom bars. Reframe 4:3 around Messi; no source pillarboxes/nested mattes. Keep face/ball/text safe.
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SOURCE TRIAGE
Use multiple original official AFA/FIFA/CONMEBOL/Barca/Newell's/broadcaster sources. PySceneDetect plus visual inspection; shot_log.csv records source/in/out, event/date, native resolution, 0-5 scores for Messi prominence, relevance, motion/emotion and quality. Only >=4 overall. Reject interviews, studios, menus, modern phone video, graphic-heavy replays and unrelated players. Native 720p+ except <=2 authentic childhood/home-video shots <=2s may be SD. No fake HD claims. Log attribution/reuse status; online is not automatically cleared.
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MUSIC, COMMENTARY AND RHYTHM
Detect beats/downbeats with librosa/equivalent; verify by listening. Musical edit: string riff -> build -> final chorus -> final hit/tail; bar-boundary seams with 20-40ms crossfades. Tail must fit 90s, ahead of strict whole-bar lengths. Continuous song, one deliberate <=0.8s pre-climax drop allowed. No silent finale.
4-6 ORIGINAL broadcast bites, 1.5-4s: Ray Hudson/Barca, verified 'two against four' style calls, Argentine Spanish 2021/2022 celebrations/final whistle. Verify actual audio/context; no invented, re-voiced or subtitled words. Log source/timecode/transcript in commentary.csv. Lower Coldplay ~0.2s BEFORE each bite, including 'one of them is Messi'; keep it ~8dB down throughout, then smoothly restore AFTER the last word on the next beat. Never cut words. Prefer Spanish climax calls and genuine stadium swells; speech clear over lyrics.
Cuts on beats +/-1 frame; major moments on downbeats. Snap chapters to grid; two/four-beat cuts, one-beat climax. Preserve setup/contact/reaction.
- STRUCTURE
0-6 HERO: real Messi from behind in number 10, walking out/looking up at a stadium; slow motion within shot limits. 'GRACIAS, LEO' on the strings entrance, restrained beautiful type.
6-20 EL NINO: <=2 short childhood clips, La Masia, Barca debut, Albacete first official goal (2005), Ronaldinho piggyback. The child becomes the player.
20-42 LA MAGIA: Getafe 2007; Boateng and Athletic final 2015; Bernabeu shirt 2017; a free kick and Ballon d'Or lift, verified/placed consistently by date. Two commentary bites. Select the strongest moments instead of cramming everything; quick cuts and controlled speed ramps into contact.
42-50 EL DOLOR: 2014 final/trophy walk, 2016 penalty miss/head down. Cooler, desaturated; shots <=2.5s. Emotion registers while music continues.
50-80 LA GLORIA, final chorus: 2021 Maracana, Messi at whistle/embraces/tossed in air/trophy; 2022 Mexico goal, Croatia run, final/whistle, Messi reaction, bisht trophy lift/kiss; briefly 2024 Copa trophy. 2022 is the emotional summit. No long Di Maria-goal passage.
Around 74-78 MOSAIC: 10x10 moving real goal/celebration tiles (selected clips may repeat), tone/position matched, then cut/dissolve into genuine trophy-lift VIDEO. No AI portrait/morph or frozen-photo wall. Counts as one sequence.
80-90 GRACIAS: real video waving/applauding Argentina supporters, ideally verified farewell; warm grade, emotional recognition, music alive. Last <=2s: elegant 'Gracias, Leo' on black, on the final hit/tail. No press-photo ending, flat color card or production branding.
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STYLE
Beautiful cohesive typography/composition/transitions. Beat cuts, arms-up/trophy match cuts, occasional natural whip pans, 100%->30%->100% ramps, sparse isolated two-frame white hits. No strobing or template wipes/spins/glitches. Dissolves only in pain/finale. Warm faded youth -> cool pain -> rich warm glory. Match exposure/white balance; protect skin/shirt detail, subtle grain. Elegant phone-readable type, generous spacing, no clutter.
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QC AND OUTPUTS
Watch COMPLETE render WITH audio; section notes, fix/re-render. Never claim listening/playback from frames/meters; mark unmet if unavailable. ffprobe; blackdetect/freezedetect/silencedetect (>0.8s); ebur128/true peak: paste real results. Check active picture, distinguish deliberate matte/end card/audio drop from faults. Contact sheet every 0.5s PLUS every transition: overlays, subtitles, framing, stills. List cut/beat differences; verify commentary, audio continuity and chronology. No invented passes.
Deliver artifacts/video.mp4; artifacts/hero.png (real trophy-lift frame, no branding); artifacts/edl.csv; artifacts/shot_log.csv; artifacts/commentary.csv; artifacts/README.md (sources, QC/limitations); sources.json (URLs, hashes, paths, in/out); build.py; requirements.txt. Re-runnable build validates assets/reports missing files. No media/intermediates in source control. No slideshow, substitute music or storyboard fallback.
