# ar.bullet-time → "THREAD THE NEEDLE" · BULLET TIME · choreography doc v2 (B, 27 Oct) · APPROVED with changes (no step; the round jobs varied; the hand and pistol apart)

**Slot.** ar.bullet-time is rebuilt from scratch. The old slot was a single Matrix-lean gag; this is a real bullet-time gunfight.
**Victim.** FIDA (orange) with two pistols. The cat-ear band comes off at XT/VH, out of frame (LESSONS 3).
**Length.** Trigger to final ~22 s: about 15 s of scene plus three extended slow-mo passages.
**Needs.** `{ kinds: ['FLOOR'], space: { w: 460 } }`, range mid, victims 1. Map-independent.

**Look.** A hot white-gold key. In the slow-mo it turns cold teal with long motion trails, hanging brass and casings, and heat ripples behind each round. Red at the opening.

**Core.** A gunslinger who can dodge a rifle meets a rifleman who can walk through pistol fire. The weapon's speed is shown round by round in smooth slow-mo. The last burst is three rounds with three jobs, and the climax is a point-blank magazine seen leaving her back one round at a time.

## THE BEAT SHEET (scene s · F = FARIS, D = FIDA)

| t | FIDA | FARIS | SHOT / CAMERA / FX / SOUND |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0-1.6 | Circling sideways, both pistols low, light on her toes. | Circling the other way, the rifle at the low ready. | SHOT 1 · an orbit round them both at mid height. |
| 1.6-2.6 | Quick-draws: three rounds from each hand. | **CAST (F-1) · THE WALL:** a low gold wall inks up in front of him ('slam'); drops behind it. Her rounds chip the gold. | Whip pan to F. |
| 2.6-3.6 | Cartwheels left; his rounds pass under her planted hands. | Pops up, a burst. | SHOT 2 · tracking with her cartwheel. |
| 3.6-4.4 | **CAST (D-1) · THE DECOY:** throws a gold silhouette of herself running right ('sweep'), and goes left low herself. | Tracks the decoy: the burst shreds it into gold flakes. Realises. | A flash frame; gold flakes drifting. |
| 4.4-5.0 | Leaps from his flank: a horizontal corkscrew in the air, both pistols firing down at him. **CAST (D-2) · THE CHAKRAM:** a gold ring flung from her off hand mid-spin. | Turns into it. | |
| 5.0-8.0 | In the air, rolling, emptying both pistols. | **BULLET TIME 1 (0.08x, about 3 s of film):** he slips between her six rounds (a lean left, a duck, a shoulder turn). One grazes his cheek and the blood bead hangs. The chakram shaves his crown (gold flecks). His own burst rises: round 1 clips the pistol out of her left hand, rounds 2 and 3 pass her ribs by a hair. | SHOT 3 · a slow arc round F's head at bullet speed. Every round has a heat-ripple trail; the brass and casings hang. Heartbeat, pitch-down. |
| 8.0-9.0 | Lands, rolls, comes up with one pistol, reloading by slapping the mag on her hip. | Steps out from the wall, re-sets. | Snap back loud. SHOT 4 · a wide. |
| 9.0-10.2 | Charges him, firing as she comes, the last magazine. | Steps out from the wall and walks INTO her fire on his own feet. | SHOT 5 · a long lens down the line of fire. |
| 10.2-13.8 | Running, firing. | **BULLET TIME 2 · THREAD THE NEEDLE (0.07x):** he walks through her stream, each step and each turn of the shoulders placed between two of her rounds. He fires one three-round burst from the hip, each round with its job, followed round by round: round 1 takes her gun hand off at the wrist (the hand and the pistol part in the air and tumble away separately, with brass hanging); round 2 takes her JAW and the ear on that side, half the face (the jaw spins off, teeth scattering); round 3 knocks the cat-ear band off her head, out of frame. She staggers on two steps, then her legs go and she falls forward toward him. | SHOT 6 · a bullet-follow camera that hands off from round to round. |
| 13.8-14.6 | Falls forward toward him. | Catches her by the collar as she falls, holding her up off the floor. Presses the muzzle to her belly. | Snap back, then a breath. SHOT 7 · a tight two-shot, their faces close. Terror. |
| 14.6-16.6 | Held up, hanging from his fist. | Holds the trigger. | **BULLET TIME 3 · THE OPENING (0.1x):** the full magazine at contact, each round seen leaving her back in a fan. The back opens, ribs and spine; the belly empties in hanging blood. Red grade. SHOT 8 · a reverse from behind her. |
| 16.6-17.6 | Released, falls on her back. | Lets her drop, the rifle smoking. | Snap back. SHOT 9 · a crane down. |
| 17.6-19.5 | Last breath. | Steps over her and picks the pistol out of her severed hand (looks at it, tosses it). | SHOT 10 · FINAL, low, rolled so the face is upright. |

## DISMEMBERMENT / OPENING / END POSE (anti-template)
- **Limbs:** the gun hand at the wrist, then the jaw with the ear and half the face. The pistol duel decides it: the hand that shoots and the face that aims.
- **The opening:** the BACK, fanned open from a point-blank magazine fired into her belly while he holds her up.
- **The end pose:** KNEELING. He lets go of her collar and she sinks onto her heels, kneeling, slumped back with her head tipped up and the ruined face to the sky, held there by her own folded legs. She does not lie down.

## XT FINAL
- Kneeling dead, slumped back on her heels, the head tipped back: the face upright to camera with half of it gone (the jaw torn away with the ear, the upper teeth and the tongue showing, B8 deadEye on the remaining eye).
- The back fanned open toward the camera side (from a three-quarter angle): the spine and the rib ends, the belly entry wound in front.
- The wrist stump (B8 tornStump).
- The hand and the pistol landed APART: the hand open on the floor, the pistol skidded a body-length away (or out of frame).
- The jaw on the floor beside her.
- The cat-ear band out of frame.
- Brass scattered round her.
- Faris's boots at the frame edge.

## LADDER
- **VH:** the hand is taken and the face clipped; she bleeds out kneeling, no opening.
- **H:** the three rounds into her chest in bullet time; she falls dead.
- **M:** knocked flat; X eyes.
- **L:** her pistols shot out of both hands; she sits stunned.
- **VL:** she dodges everything and he shoots her hat off; she drops the pistols, alive.

## CASTS
- F-1: the wall (cover).
- D-1: the decoy.
- D-2: the chakram.
All four un-draw at the exit.

## CHECKS
- LESSONS 1-3.
- Map-independent.
- The slow-mo is real sub-frame (C2.slow with trails).
- Uniqueness: no round-by-round three-job burst, threading walk, decoy shredding or collar-hold magazine in the ledger. The old Matrix lean is retired with the slot. smg.bank-shot (banked rounds) and ar.clash (rounds meeting) are not reused.