# Recoup Internal Video Grok 1.5 Imagine Facetime

> INTERNAL — Recoup staff tooling, gated by the recoup-internal keyword. Invoke ONLY when the request explicitly includes "recoup-internal" (e.g. "recoup-internal make a FaceTime ad"). Never use for customer-facing or artist requests. Produce a FaceTime-call-style ad — two people on a screen-recorded video call — where every talking-head clip is generated by Grok Imagine 1.5 on fal.ai speaking scripted dialogue verbatim, with native voice and lipsync (no TTS, no lipsync model). Use when the user wants a FaceTime call ad, a two-person conversation video, a Grok Imagine video, or an AI-talking-artist clip. Covers take structure around the 15s cap, the prompt grammar for word-perfect dialogue, the real-person likeness pipeline and consent gate, QC, assembly, and handoffs to hyperframes (chrome/render) and recoup-internal-social-ship-posts (publish/measure).

- Skill: `recoupable-skills/recoup-internal-video-grok-1-5-imagine-facetime` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add recoupable-skills/recoup-internal-video-grok-1-5-imagine-facetime`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/recoupable-skills/recoup-internal-video-grok-1-5-imagine-facetime/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- Author: recoupable (https://skillmd.com/u/recoupable-skills)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/recoupable-skills/recoup-internal-video-grok-1-5-imagine-facetime

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# FaceTime-Call Ads with Grok Imagine 1.5

Two people on what looks like a screen-recorded FaceTime call, talking about the product.
Core discovery: `xai/grok-imagine-video/v1.5/image-to-video` **speaks prompt-scripted dialogue
verbatim, with the speaker's own voice and correct lipsync** — no TTS, no lipsync pass (both
lost the bake-off; a sync pass deadens the face, HeyGen avatars read as studio ads).

Reference build (copy it, don't rebuild): the marketing workspace's `content/facetime-call/`
— `NOTES.md` is the decision log, `index.html` the FaceTime chrome. `FAL_KEY`: `mono/api/.env.local`.

## ⚠️ Consent gate

Real artists' AI likenesses **never ship without the artist's explicit sign-off** + an AI/permission
disclosure in the post. Send each artist their clip privately for approval first (it doubles as
warm-lead outreach). Fictional characters need no gate.

## Pipeline

1. **Script** ~45-60s as alternating turns (A, B, A, B): topic-first, one proof point, organic
   close ("okay, send me the link") — ship-posts' copy principles apply.
2. **Faces**: one 9:16 FaceTime-frame image per character (below).
3. **⛔ FRAME APPROVAL GATE — user OKs every frame before ANY video call.** Frames cost $0.022
   to fix; takes ~$2, and a frame defect multiplies into every take generated on it. Skipping
   this roughly doubled the prototype's spend.
4. **Takes**: one generation per turn. On a new frame, QC one take before batching the rest.
5. **Cut** (every cut = character switch) → **chrome** (hyperframes) → **ship** (ship-posts).

## Takes

- **15s hard cap per generation** (rejected at generation time, not enqueue). Prompt in
  timestamped ~5s beats: `(0-5s) … (5-10s) … (10-15s) …`.
- **One generation = one continuous voice; voice is NOT stable across generations.** Never split
  a character's consecutive lines across takes; hide every take joint behind a cut to the other
  character. Alternating turns does this for free.
- Unbroken shot >15s: `extend-video` (+2-10s, "what happens next" prompt) continues voice and
  scene — input must be **≤15.0s** (outputs run ~15.04s; trim to 14.9s first).
- Size duration to the lines (~2.5-3 words/s). Trim end-of-take dead air in assembly using
  Whisper word timestamps.

## Prompt grammar

```
FaceTime video call, subtle camera micro-shake, <room/lighting>, natural casual delivery
with clear enunciation. Exactly one person in the room, only <her> voice, <her> lips move
with every word <she> speaks starting immediately from the very first word.
(0-5s) <The character> says, speaking from the first moment: "<line>"
(5-10s) <small physical direction> and says: "<line>"
(10-15s) Looking straight into the camera <she> says: "<line>"
```

- **No action verbs in dialogue beats** — "laughs and says" produces 3s of laughing INSTEAD of
  the line. Emotion goes in the tone direction; the beat verb is always plain `says`.
- The one-person / only-her-voice / lips-from-first-word / one-hand-on-the-phone clauses each
  kill a real artifact (phantom voices, opening mime, third hands). Keep them all.
- **QC every take**: `ffmpeg -vn` → `fal-ai/whisper` (`chunk_level: "word"`), diff transcript
  against script; pull frames at suspect timestamps. Slurs or mime-gaps → re-roll (~$2).

## Faces

- Fictional: `grok-imagine-image` t2i — "vertical smartphone selfie video call still frame …
  grainy front-camera quality … authentic FaceTime screenshot aesthetic, not professional."
- Real person: photo → `grok-imagine-image/edit`. **Letterbox square sources to 9:16 first**
  (else x-axis squish). Prompt must say "**plain raw camera image only: no user interface, no
  status bar, no text**" or Grok bakes a fake FaceTime UI into the image. Bars survive → one
  more edit ("extend this exact scene … no black bars"). Strip gibberish clothing text if it appears.
- **Reuse the same approved frame for all of a character's takes** — that locks face and room.
- Artist photo sources, in order: workspace `content/*/assets/art/`; og:image of their
  IG post pages (profile avatars are 150px); Spotify oEmbed `thumbnail_url`.

## Mechanics, assembly, handoff

- fal queue: `POST queue.fal.run/<model>` → poll `…/requests/{id}/status` → GET result. Media
  inputs >~700KB must go via fal storage (`rest.fal.ai/storage/upload/initiate` → PUT → `file_url`).
  Validation failures cost nothing.
- Assemble: normalize takes (720x1280@30, h264, aac) → concat demuxer, trimming each at its
  Whisper speech-end (+0.3s).
- Chrome: copy the reference hyperframes project (caller bar + ticking timer, rec pill, PiP of
  the other character with crossfade at cuts, grain, end card; Geist fonts — the renderer can't
  supply Apple system fonts). `npm run check` must pass with zero errors, then `npm run render`.

## Cost (measured 2026-07-02)

720p video bills $0.14/s (480p $0.08/s — untested quality lever); identity edits $0.022. A
debugged 50s two-character video ≈ **$10**; budget ~2 re-rolls per 4 takes.