Prompts / Google Flow

The Hourglass Keeper

An apprentice turns a giant brass hourglass in a midnight clock-tower workshop, the sand glows and falls upward, and time freezes outside, in anime feature-film style.

A Google Flow prompt, shown with the unedited 10-second clip it made (16:9).

The prompt

Dramatic anime feature-film style: clean line art, bold silhouettes, strong rim light, high-contrast colour. 0-3 s: midnight in a clock-tower workshop; a young apprentice with ink on her cheek turns a giant brass hourglass over. 3-7 s: the sand glows blue and starts falling upward. 7-10 s: through the round clock-face window, the birds outside freeze mid-flight and the snow stops in the air; she smiles, close-up on her eyes. Sound: ticking clocks that suddenly stop, a shimmering chime, silence. Full-frame 16:9 with no letterbox bars. No subtitles, no on-screen text, no watermark, no logos. 16:9, 10 seconds.

What each part of the prompt does

Look

This one swaps the painterly look for anime and states it first: "clean line art, bold silhouettes, strong rim light". Rim light suits a dark workshop lit by a glowing hourglass, and bold silhouettes help the frozen birds stand out against the snow outside.

Timed beats

The apprentice turns the hourglass in beat one. In beat two the sand glows blue and falls upward. In beat three the birds freeze, the snow stops, and the frame closes on her eyes. Each beat adds one strange change, so the time stop arrives in steps.

Camera

Unlike most of these prompts, there is no separate camera sentence. The only camera direction sits inside beat three: "close-up on her eyes". Adding a line such as a slow push-in would give the first two beats a defined move too.

Sound

"Sound: ticking clocks that suddenly stop, a shimmering chime, silence." The ticking fills the workshop, the stop lines up with time freezing, and the chime suits the glowing sand. Ending on silence matches the still birds and snow.

Rules

The rules are complete: a full 16:9 frame with no letterbox bars, and no subtitles, on-screen text, watermark or logos. The text ban is worth having in a room full of clock faces. 16:9 and 10 seconds close it.

Second by second

0–3 s: midnight in a clock-tower workshop; a young apprentice with ink on her cheek turns a giant brass hourglass over.
3–7 s: the sand glows blue and starts falling upward.
7–10 s: through the round clock-face window, the birds outside freeze mid-flight and the snow stops in the air; she smiles, close-up on her eyes.

Make it yours

Old clockmaker: Replace "a young apprentice with ink on her cheek" with "an old clockmaker with round spectacles" and "she smiles, close-up on her eyes" with "he smiles, close-up on his eyes".
Frozen rain: Change "the snow stops in the air" to "the rain stops in the air" to put frozen raindrops outside the clock-face window instead of snow.
Vertical for Reels: Change both 16:9 mentions to 9:16, and add a camera sentence before "Sound:", such as "Slow tilt up from the hourglass to the clock-face window." so the tall frame links the two halves of the room.

Where this prompt is from

All the Google Flow film prompts are free on AI Video With Code.

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