Blind reading (written before opening any notes)

Method: per passage, a 2 fps timestamped contact sheet (critic3/sheets/), six full-res key frames (critic3/f/T_*.jpg), and denser 6 fps crops where the action was unclear (x5_4, x12_0, x10_3). Times are in seconds from passage start.

x1_1 (15.25 s): dark ornate interior, circular ring/portal; the plate irises from the dark interior into a lit exhibition hall

Beats: 0–1.5 empty plate. 1.5–2.5 she slides in from the left, cropped at the chest, and looks at the ring. 3–3.5 wide-eyed surprise as the hall appears through the ring. 4–5 she stands in front of it. 6–8 two-handed "ta-da" presenting gesture, then a chin-stroke/point. 9–11 points into the hall. 12–13 smug, pleased smile while pointing. 14–15 turns her back to camera, facing the hall, as if about to go in.
Attitude: curiosity, then surprise, then host-like pride, then resolve.
Meaning: she discovers a doorway into another world and decides to step through.
Integration: never shown below the hips, so no ground contact. She is lit as warmly and brightly as the lit hall while standing in the near-black foreground, so she reads as a pasted sticker, not a body in that dark space. No shadow or rim light. She is in front of the ring, but the depth relation is unclear.
Grade: PARTLY. The action is legible, but tone and placement fail.

x1_2 (15.4 s): shot through a car windshield at speed down a test track

Beats: 0–4 she stands on the hood/dash line with hands on hips, cocky. 4.5–6 leans, waves and gestures to someone ahead. 6.5–9 turns, arm over head (looking back/shielding?). 10–11 faces camera, eyes wide, alarmed. 11.5–13 turns sideways and crouches/braces, red shoes visible. 13.5–15 big open-armed shrug.
Attitude: bravado, then alarm, then a "what can you do" shrug.
Meaning: a hood-ornament daredevil rides the test car, gets scared, then shrugs it off. Crash-test context implied but no crash.
Integration: feet sit roughly on the hood edge. The plate shakes with the vehicle while she stays locked to the frame, so she does not ride the plate's vibration. Scale is huge (she fills half the windshield). There is no wind effect at all on a body standing on a speeding hood. No shadow. Tone (warm khaki) is acceptable against the cold cyan plate but brighter.
Grade: PARTLY.

x3_0 (14.25 s): top-down view of a clear blister/egg tray; tiny dummy figures sit in each cell; one cell is dark

Beats: 0–1.5 she walks in from the right. 2–3 steps into/over the dark cell. 4–6 stands in it and looks down. 6–9 points/reaches upward; she has picked up the small figure from the dark cell and holds it against her body. 10–13 faces camera holding the small one, with an alarmed "!" or antenna marks; a hand goes up.
Attitude: purposeful, then protective/alarmed.
Meaning: she picks the one in the dark pod out of the batch and holds it, an act of rescue or adoption.
Integration: the camera looks straight down but she is drawn in side elevation, so she reads as lying flat on the plastic. Her shadow (lower right) agrees with the highlight direction on the cells, which is good, but the shadow is a full standing silhouette, which contradicts the overhead view. She is about 3x the size of the cell figures. The rescued figure is ambiguous: is it a plate object or a drawn one?
Grade: PARTLY.

x3_1 (8.3 s): the burning airship (Hindenburg-like), hull filling frame

Beats: 0–1 legs appear at the top edge. 1.5–2.5 she tumbles horizontally past the burning nose. 3–4 head-down fall across the hull. 4.5–6 rotates and flails. 6.5–7 upright with arms out. 7.5–8 exits bottom right.
Attitude: helpless, flailing.
Meaning: she is thrown from the disaster and falls.
Integration: grey tone, grain and contrast match well. She passes in front of the hull with no interaction with the flame or smoke (no occlusion by smoke, no flare). The scale is too large for a person against a 240 m hull, but that is acceptable for a cartoon. The passage is short and the fall reads.
Grade: READS.

x4_0 (12.5 s): extreme close-up of a child's face; the child lowers the eyes, closes them, then reopens

Beats: she stands frontally on the nose bridge throughout with zero body movement. Only the face swaps: 0–0.5 wide eyes; 1–6 closed eyes with an "o" mouth, then droopy lids, following the child's lowered lids; 6.5–7.5 half-lids; 8–12 wide eyes again as the child looks up.
Attitude: she mirrors the child's drowsiness and alertness.
Meaning: she is a tiny mirror/conscience of the child's state of attention.
Integration: legs run off the bottom of the frame, so there is no contact. A full-body cast shadow sits on the right cheek, completely detached from her (its top is at eye height), as if she stood a body-length in front of a wall. Against a face at essentially the same depth this reads as a sticker plus a separate sticker. The body is frozen for 12 s, so it reads as a still graphic, not a performer.
Grade: PARTLY, bordering on FAILS (no performance in the body).

x4_2 (15.4 s): extreme close-up of a younger child's face, brow furrowing toward tears

Beats: 0–3 child only. 3–3.5 she pops in at the right edge, half out of frame. 4–5 stands looking at the child. 5.5 hand to back of head. 7–8 hand shading her eyes / to the forehead, peering in close, mouth open. 9–10 scowling, suspicious side-eye. 11–15 worried brows, frown, hands hanging.
Attitude: curiosity, then scrutiny, then sorrow/empathy.
Meaning: she watches a child about to cry and becomes sad with him.
Integration: half her body is cut off by the right frame edge for the whole passage. Her entrance at 3 s is a pop, not a walk-in. Her feet rest on an unexplained dark mass at the bottom right. Tone and grain match the plate well.
Grade: PARTLY.

x5_2 (12.5 s): high-angle street crowd surging toward the camera

Beats: she stands still in the middle of the flow. 2.5–3.5 arms out ("whoa", bracing). 5 hand to chest / adjusts. 7.5 wide-eyed alarm. 8–12 frozen, arms down, while the crowd passes.
Attitude: overwhelmed, then stuck.
Meaning: a lone still figure in a mass that does not notice her.
Integration: some people in front partially overlap her legs, which helps. She is a head taller than the surrounding adults and her feet are indistinct (a dark blob), so she is either a giant or floating. No interaction with anyone (no bumping or dodging) for 12 s in a dense crowd. The grey tone matches.
Grade: PARTLY.

x5_4 (14.2 s): cinema audience seen from behind, film on screen

Beats (only visible in 3x crops): a grey disc head among the audience, right of center. 2–4 a small hand rises above her head (raising a hand / waving). 6–10 the head disappears (ducks down or turns). 10.5–13.5 the head is back, still. Two short leg stubs dangle on the front balcony ledge at the bottom, far below and detached from the head.
Attitude: unreadable at viewing size.
Meaning: maybe she is an audience member who raises her hand and then hides. A viewer at normal size will not find her.
Integration: occlusion by the row in front is nice in principle, but the legs dangling over the front ledge while the head sits two rows back makes an impossible body. The figure is too small and too dark to read.
Grade: FAILS.

x6_0 (16.7 s): flat white fog over a dark ground plane, an empty plain

Beats: 0–2.5 walks left. 3–4.5 stops, looks. 5–6 both arms up, waving/calling. 7–7.5 hand to brow, peering. 8–9 walks. 10 confused face. 11–12 stands. 13 tentative hand out. 14–16 turns away, crouches/sits with her back to us.
Attitude: hope, then calling, then searching, then resignation.
Meaning: lost in an empty world, she calls, gets no answer and sits down.
Integration: contact shadow under her feet is consistent, grain and tone match, she sits on the ground plane well, and the scale is plausible. She is not dimmed by atmospheric fog the way the horizon is, but that is minor.
Grade: READS.

x6_5 (15.5 s): drifting fog over a grassy slope

Beats: 0–1 stands. 1–2 a fog bank engulfs her and she fades. 2–3.5 re-emerges, looks around, scratches her head. 4–6 fades again. 6.5–9 reappears and looks around. 10–12 fades as a ghost outline. 12.5–15 crouches and sits hugging her knees, looking out.
Attitude: disoriented, then patient waiting.
Meaning: the fog keeps erasing her; she sits down to wait it out.
Integration: fog occlusion is tied to the plate density (strong). The contact shadow is consistent. At 10–12 she becomes a line ghost while the plate grass is still visible through the same fog density, so the fade is slightly heavier than the plate.
Grade: READS.

x7_1 (12.9 s): man squatting on a gravel slope scooping stones into his hands

Beats: 0–2 stands beside him. 2.5–3 drops into a squat, copying him. 3–9 squat-scoop, reaching to the ground. 9–10.5 half-rises holding something. 11–12.5 squats again, head tilted, while dark pebbles fly at the left edge.
Attitude: imitative, earnest.
Meaning: she apprentices herself to the worker, copying the gesture.
Integration: her hands never visibly contain or move gravel during 3–9 s; the pebbles at 9 and 12 appear at the frame edge, disconnected from her hands. Her cast shadow falls to the right of her feet while the man's and the slope's shadows fall to the left/upper left: the light direction is wrong. Tone and scale (knee-high) are fine.
Grade: PARTLY.

x7_2 (16.25 s): table, plate, a cook's hands working a pastry/dough

Beats: 0–3 stands left of the plate; "..." marks hang on the plate. 3–6 walks along the plate rim. 6.5–8.5 raises hands as if asking. 9–11 stretches a very long arm across the plate. 12–12.5 her hand lands on the cook's hand. 13–16 withdraws, both hands to her face (shy, embarrassed, or tasting).
Attitude: hesitant wanting, then reaching, then contact, then bashful.
Meaning: she wants to help, or to be noticed, and touches the cook's hand.
Integration: the "..." mark on the plate is unexplained (speech? crumbs?). The stretchy arm is clear but the hand-on-hand contact is not answered by the plate (of course). Feet are on the tablecloth with a small dark shadow. Scale is cup-height. Acceptable.
Grade: PARTLY.

x8_0 (16.25 s): dark carved statue on a pedestal ("COCOA"), white wall, color

Beats: 0–2.5 walks in from the left. 3–7 approaches and stops. 7–9 looks up at the statue. 10.5–13 kneels, then reaches a hand out to the base. 14–16 stands, hand raised, looking up.
Attitude: approach, awe, reverence/offering, then attention.
Meaning: she pays homage to the idol.
Integration: feet sit on the dark shelf edge, plausible as a toy-scale figure. There is a shadow-like shape on the wall at 0–3 s that does not track her afterward. No shadow at all once at the statue, although the plate has a hard key light. The saturated yellow suits the color plate.
Grade: READS (integration PARTLY).

x8_1 (16.25 s): men's shoes shuffling on a lit floor

Beats: 0–2.5 enters at the right edge. 3–5 tucks in at the toe of the right shoe. 6–12 crouches by the shoe and touches/pats it (shining it? hiding?). 13.5 sits on the toe. 15–16 crouched, face scared.
Attitude: timid, then attached, then frightened.
Meaning: a tiny being sheltering at the foot of a giant who could step on her.
Integration: her shadow is a round blob 60–100 px lower-left of her feet, detached, while the plate's shadows fall to the upper right. Both direction and contact are wrong. She never reacts to the shoes' movements (no flinch when a shoe lifts at 10–11 s).
Grade: PARTLY.

x9_2 (16.3 s): low-angle meadow, big tree, dark houses, clouds

Beats: 0–2 stands. 1.5–3 walks/jogs a step. 5.5–6 shades her eyes and looks off. 7–11 crouches, inspecting something in the grass. 11.5 still crouched. 12–14.5 stands with her back half to us, looking at the houses. 15–16 sits.
Attitude: exploratory, then attentive, then settled.
Meaning: a wanderer arriving in a pastoral place, examining it, choosing to stay.
Integration: feet in grass, plausible. Overcast light means no shadow is needed. Large foreground scale but fine.
Grade: READS.

x9_3 (15.25 s): hillside wildfire, smoke, color

Beats: 2.5–3 walks in from the right. 3–6 stands facing the fire. 7–9 "≡" breath/heat marks, flushed lower face (coughing). 9.5–10.5 hand to head/mouth, recoil. 11–12 reaches hands toward the fire (pleading or warming). 12.5–14 turns. 14–15 walks off right.
Attitude: watching, then choking, then reaching, then retreat.
Meaning: she confronts a fire she cannot stop and leaves.
Integration: clean flat yellow with no orange fire spill or rim on the side facing the flames, and no smoke passing in front of her. She looks pasted on top. Feet are on dark ground, plausible.
Grade: READS (integration PARTLY).

x10_3 (17 s): overhead sandtray, hands placing objects

Beats: 0–3 walks into the tray, leaving a dotted footprint trail. 3–7 stands. 7–16 dark ellipses and dot arcs appear on the sand near her while she mostly stands. Hands enter and place objects (a cup etc.).
Attitude: none legible.
Meaning: unclear. The ellipses read as graphic overlays, not as holes, stones or shadows.
Integration: the footprint trail is good. The ellipses are flat and unexplained. She barely acts: no response to the hands entering at 11–16 s.
Grade: FAILS.

x10_4 (16 s): dark night, giant searchlights switching on one by one leftward

Beats: 0–3 walks left, glancing at the light. 4–6 a second light comes on and she turns. 6–9 walks on. 9.5 points left toward where the next light will be. 10–15 walks left while more lights ignite behind her.
Attitude: curious, then anticipatory.
Meaning: she leads (or follows) the sequence of lights, as if lighting them by walking.
Integration: her long cast shadow points left, away from the lights, which is correct. Her body is not lit by the huge lamps (no rim or bloom on her right side). Is she causing the lights? The timing is not tied to her gesture.
Grade: PARTLY.

x11_0 (14.2 s): wooden box camera face with a lens; an operator's hand holds the lens cap

Beats: 1–2.5 walks in. 3–6 peers into the lens. 6.5–7.5 recoils, startled face, hands up. 8–9.5 hands on the lens rim. 10–11 the hand enters with the cap and caps the lens; her figure stays drawn over the hand. 11.5–13.5 stands against the capped lens, pressing/peering, defeated.
Attitude: curious, then startled, then shut out.
Meaning: she tries to see into the machine and is shut out by the operator.
Integration: there is no floor; the box face is vertical, yet she stands as if on ground at the bottom of the frame, so she floats. At 10–11 she is composited over the hand that caps the lens; plausible depth-wise only because she floats in front. There is no shadow on the wood although the plate has strong side light.
Grade: PARTLY.

x11_4 (15.8 s): dim lobby; a man takes a pratfall and clowns around; a suited bystander stands at the right

Beats: 0–0.5 wide eyes as the tumbler falls. 1–5 stands beside the bystander, arm out. 6–9 faces the tumbler with alarmed face. 9–13 points at him. 14–15 open-hand "what?" gesture.
Attitude: shocked, then pointing out, then bemused.
Meaning: she is a second bystander commenting on the clown.
Integration: her feet are at about the bystander's hip height, with a dark shadow patch beside her at the same height, so she floats against the wall. At about half the man's height she looks child-sized but hovering. Little body acting; mostly face swaps plus one pointing arm.
Grade: PARTLY.

x12_0 (16.7 s): overhead miniature street grid, toy cars

Beats: 0–1.5 stands by a white car in the lane. 1.5–2 cars approach. 1.7–2.3 she leans into an oncoming dark car (pushing it?). 2.3–3 cars pile up around her and she steps out. 4.5 bent over at the pile. 6–12 stands beside the pileup. 13–14 raises an arm (signalling, or "I'm fine").
Attitude: busy, then caught, then dazed/signalling.
Meaning: either she caused a pile-up by stepping into traffic, or she tried to stop it. Ambiguous.
Integration: an outline-only rendering, different from other passages. Her shadow falls lower right, consistent with the cars. Side-view figure on an overhead plate (same problem as x3_0). She overlaps the cars without occlusion logic.
Grade: PARTLY.

x12_3 (20.4 s): aerial rail yard, moving camera

Beats: a thin line-only figure stands among tracks. From about 4 s a white line grows from her feet. 12–20 the line forks into a Y at her feet. She barely moves.
Attitude: none readable.
Meaning: maybe a figure at a fork, choosing a track. The white line could be her path or a switch.
Integration: she tracks the camera move acceptably. The outline figure is nearly invisible at viewing size. Her scale makes her a giant as long as a rail car.
Grade: FAILS.

x13_1 (17 s): color pan over an industrial city from a rooftop ledge

Beats: 0–4 hands on hips on the ledge, looking out. 5 hand to head. 7–9 gestures toward the city. 10.5–13 walks along the ledge with the pan. 14–16.5 points up at the smokestacks.
Attitude: proprietary survey, then curiosity, then pointing something out.
Meaning: she surveys the factory town and singles out the stacks.
Integration: the ledge looks like a uniform added grey slab that does not move with the pan, but she does stand on it. Shadow falls lower right on the ledge (OK). Her yellow is more saturated than the faded color plate.
Grade: READS.

x13_2 (16 s): coal hopper cars full of coal, bright sky

Beats: 0–1 squats and picks up a lump. 1.5 stands. 2.5–3.5 throws (a dark speck crosses the sky at 3.5–4). 4–5 bends again. 5.5–8 throws again. 12–13 holds a lump out. 14–15.5 sits in the coal holding a lump.
Attitude: playful, then absorbed.
Meaning: a child playing with coal, then sitting with it.
Integration: stands on the coal surface with a lower-left shadow (consistent with the plate's car-side shadows). The thrown lump is tiny but present.
Grade: READS.

Blind tally: READS 8 (x3_1, x6_0, x6_5, x8_0, x9_2, x9_3, x13_1, x13_2) / PARTLY 13 / FAILS 3 (x5_4, x10_3, x12_3)