Prompts / Google Flow

The Lighthouse Keeper

A keeper climbs a dark lighthouse in heavy snow, lights the great lens with a match, and the beam turns a sailing ship away from the rocks, painterly animated style.

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

The prompt

Painterly 2D-3D hybrid animation like a prestige animated series: hand-painted brush textures, mature realistic proportions, muted shadows with warm highlights, soft volumetric haze, cinematic lighting and camera. 0-3 s: night, heavy snow; a keeper in a long oilskin coat climbs the spiral stairs of a dark stone lighthouse, a small lantern in hand. 3-7 s: at the top he strikes a match and the great lens ignites with a roar of warm light. 7-10 s: the beam sweeps across the black sea and catches a sailing ship that turns away from the rocks just in time. Wide shot from the cliff. Sound: howling wind, a match strike, a deep foghorn, waves on rocks. 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

Style is stated before the storm. "muted shadows with warm highlights" sets up the contrast this scene relies on: a black sea and snow, then a roar of warm light. "soft volumetric haze" gives the beam something to travel through when it sweeps out across the water.

Timed beats

The prompt walks the keeper up, then turns the light outward. Beat one is the climb with the small lantern. Beat two is the match and the lens igniting. Beat three is the beam finding the ship. One action each keeps the cause and the rescue in order.

Camera

"Wide shot from the cliff." One fixed vantage covers all three beats. It favours the ending, where the tower, the beam and the ship need to share a single frame, rather than following the keeper up the stairs.

Sound

"Sound: howling wind, a match strike, a deep foghorn, waves on rocks." Wind runs under the climb. The match strike lines up with beat two. The foghorn and the waves belong to the ship and the rocks in the final beat.

Rules

The closing sentences ask for an edge-to-edge 16:9 picture with no letterbox bars and no added text: no subtitles, no on-screen text, no watermark, no logos. They end by restating 16:9 and a 10-second length.

Second by second

1. 0–3 s: night, heavy snow; a keeper in a long oilskin coat climbs the spiral stairs of a dark stone lighthouse, a small lantern in hand.
2. 3–7 s: at the top he strikes a match and the great lens ignites with a roar of warm light.
3. 7–10 s: the beam sweeps across the black sea and catches a sailing ship that turns away from the rocks just in time.

Make it yours

• Small rowing boat: Replace "a sailing ship that turns away from the rocks just in time" with "a small rowing boat that turns toward the harbour just in time".
• Summer thunderstorm: Change "night, heavy snow" to "night, a summer thunderstorm with lightning" and "howling wind" in the sound line to "rolling thunder".
• Vertical for Reels: Change both 16:9 mentions to 9:16. Replace "Wide shot from the cliff." with "Low shot from the cliff looking up the tower, then tilt down to the sea." so the tall tower fills the frame first.

Where this prompt is from

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

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