Zombie Father Becomes Memory

[GENERATION GOAL] A 23-second photoreal cinematic short. A terrified 7-year-old East Asian girl runs down a cracked abandoned road under a storm-blue sky. Behind her, her father - a zombie sprints and catches her from behind in a desperate hold. Hard cut to the same pair in a golden-hour park: the living father lifts her and spins her one last time. Grief-memory short with a dead-world first act. Not a gore film. Not a jump-scare. [CAST — CONTINUITY LOCK] Girl: 7, East Asian, short messy black hair with uneven bangs, large wet eyes, mint-blue oversized t-shirt with a darker wet patch on the chest. Same face in both worlds. Zombie father: same man as the living father. Mottled gray-green rotting skin, dark veins, cracked lips, cloudy pale-yellow eyes, matted dirty black hair, stiff neck, slack jaw. Dark torn work jacket, filthy shirt, muddy trousers, dirt-caked hands. He is a corpse that still moves, not a pale spirit and not a CGI monster. Living father: mid-30s East Asian, warm skin, short dark hair, light stubble, cream linen shirt, tired gentle face. Do not change faces mid-act. The two fathers are one man in two states. [GLOBAL STYLE] Photoreal live-action, 35mm spherical, fine film grain, natural skin texture. 16:9. No logos, no extra people, no animals, no cars. [EVENT SCRIPT] 0–3s Medium shot, camera tracking backward at the girl's chest height as she runs straight at lens on a cracked, weed-split concrete road. Overcast storm-teal sky, tall wet grass both sides, distant dark tree line. Tears on her face, mouth open in a sob, hair bouncing. Dark wet stain on the t-shirt. Slight handheld micro-shake. End state: she is closer, still running at camera. Audio: wind, distant thunder, raw crying, sneakers on wet concrete. 3–6s Hard cut. Side tracking shot, low-mid angle, camera traveling left-to-right with the zombie father. He runs hard but wrong — stiff hips, heavy footfalls, torso leaning forward, one arm pumping, the other slightly slack. Cloudy eyes fixed on her. Matted dirty hair, torn jacket flapping. Grass smears with motion blur. Same teal grade, same dead road. End state: he is mid-lurch, almost on her. Audio: heavy dragging footsteps, wet fabric, breath that sounds broken, wind. 6–8s Hard cut back to the girl running at camera. The zombie father slams in from behind and clamps both dirt-caked hands on her shoulders and chest, pulling her into a tight hold. Medium shot. She faces camera, terrified, mouth open. His decaying face rises over her right shoulder — mottled gray-green skin, cloudy eyes, slack jaw, not roaring. The hold is a father's grab, not an attack. They stagger one step. End state: frozen hug on the cracked road. He holds. He does not bite. Audio: impact of the catch, her sharp cry, his ragged wet breath at her ear, wind dropping. 8–9s Hard cut. Brief over-the-shoulder from behind the living father's back. Cream shirt, warmer light blooming, park trees appearing. Hinge frame only. 9–12s Hard cut into the warm world. Medium shot, golden-hour park. Living father lifts the same girl and starts a slow spin on the grass. Both laughing. Her mint-blue shirt now dry. His cream linen shirt backlit. Trees, green lawn, sun low-left, warm rim light. Camera at chest height, gentle handheld drift. End state: mid-spin, her feet off the ground. Audio: birds, leaf wind, her laugh, his low warm laugh. No thunder. 12–15s Tight close-up of the girl, low angle looking up. Eyes squeezed from laughing, gold light on her cheek. His shoulder and jaw soft in the right of frame. Shallow DOF, backlight haze. She says, softly: "爸爸… Dad…" End state: hold on her laughing face. Audio: close-mic child's voice "爸爸… Dad…", then her laugh. 15–17s Close-up of the living father's face looking down. Warm skin, eyes almost closed from smiling, sun on the edge of his hair. End state: he keeps smiling down. Audio: his quiet breath, her laugh off-mic. 17–23s Extreme wide. Tree-lined golden lawn forming a corridor, sun bursting through the center, volumetric god rays, long shadows. Tiny figures in the middle: he spins her, her legs sweep. Camera locked, then a very slow push-in. Spin finishes. They walk a few steps deeper into the light. End state: small in the light, walking away from camera. Audio: one sparse piano line under wind and birds. No lyrics. [CAMERA RULES] Act 1: backward track, then side track, slight handheld, 35–50mm, chest height. Act 2 close-ups: 85mm feel, shallow DOF, backlight. Finale: locked or barely moving extreme wide, 24mm feel. One camera idea per beat. [LIGHTING AND GRADE] 0–9s: overcast teal-cyan, low saturation, damp concrete, no sun. 10–25s: late golden hour, warm amber, flare, god rays, higher contrast. The 9–10s cut is a full grade change, not a dissolve. [PHYSICS] Zombie run has weight and stiffness — not a float, not a clean athlete sprint. Jacket and dirty hair move with wind. The catch has mass: she is yanked backward. Park spin has real centrifugal pull. No rubber faces. No extra fingers. [ZOMBIE RULES — READ THESE] He is a zombie: rotting skin, cloudy eyes, stiff gait, dirt, torn clothes. He is not a ghost, not transparent, not glowing, not floating. He does not bite, chew, snarl at camera, or tear her shirt. No blood spray, no exposed guts, no falling flesh slabs, no worms in close-up. The horror is that her father is already a corpse and still reaching for her. [CONSTRAINTS] No third character. No branding. No modern vehicles. Do not replace the zombie with a pale spirit. Do not turn Act 2 into the zombie world.