Blind performance test (written before reading notes)

Method: 2 fps contact sheets for each passage (critic4/.jpg), then 1.5–12 fps crops around the figure (critic4/crops/.jpg). Times are in seconds.

x13_1. Color industrial panorama (pan), grey stone parapet across the bottom

• Beats: 0–3 stands with back to camera, surveying. 3.5–5 hands on hips, then hand to chin. 6–9.5 shifts weight and gestures at chest. 10–13.5 walks right along the parapet; red shoes plant, shadow stays under the feet. 14–16.5 stops and points up at the smokestacks.
• Attitude: from a contemplative surveyor to someone who has identified something.
• Meaning: a small observer surveys an industrial town and points out its smokestacks.
• Integration: the parapet gives clear support, and the shadow falls down and to the right under the feet. Saturated yellow over a faded Kodachrome plate is acceptable. No pops.
• Grade: READS (the point at the end is small).

x13_2. B&W coal field / hopper cars

• Beats: 0.5, 2, 4, 6, 11: bends to pick up a lump. 1.5, 3, 5, 7.5: tosses it over the shoulder, and a dark speck arcs in the sky at 3.5–4 and 6. 8–11 stands. 12–12.5 holds a hand out. 13.5–14.5 walks forward. 14.5–16 squats and studies a lump held in both hands.
• Attitude: mechanical repetition, then a pause to contemplate.
• Meaning: a tiny worker hand-clears an endless coal field, then stops and looks at one lump.
• Integration: grayscale grade matches. The soft shadow falls to the lower left, which is plausible. Contact is good.
• Grade: READS.

x14_0. 1940s pencil-workers picket line, two figures (light and dark)

• Beats: 0–9.5 both march with the strikers holding blank three-line placards. 10.0–10.33 the signs tumble. 10.33→10.5 the signs vanish (pop), and a grey plank appears at the bottom edge. 10.5–14 both stand empty-handed, hands at chest, while the strike moves on.
• Attitude: participation, then loss of nerve or loss of the sign.
• Meaning: two outsiders join a strike with blank signs and drop out.
• Integration: the scale is child-size against adults. The sign drop pops (10.33–10.5). The plank on the ground does not match the sign that fell. The figures walk in place, and the crowd does not interact with them.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x14_1. Field brawl / crowd game, two figures wrestle

• Beats: 0–1 standing face to face. 1–3 crouch in a sumo stance. 3.25 lunge. 3.5–9 locked grapple. 9.5–11 sit on the ground. 12 stand. 12.5–13 tangled again.
• Meaning: two figures wrestle like the background crowd.
• Integration: the overcast plate has no hard shadows, yet the figures cast very dark, hard, detached blob shadows offset to the right (FAIL, whole clip). The figures look semi-transparent mid-lunge (3.25). The scale sits in the near-middle ground and is fine.
• Grade: PARTLY (the action reads, the integration fails).

x15_3. Close-up of a laughing man in a helmet

• Beats: 0–1 stands. 1.2–1.6 startled O-mouth. 3.6–6 turns away, hands behind back, fidgeting. 6.4–7.6 thumbs-up toward the man. 8.0 hand on head. 9.6–10.8 covers its face.
• Attitude: startled, then shy, then approving, then embarrassed.
• Meaning: a little bystander reacts to a man's big laugh, warming to him and then wincing.
• Integration: no support surface (the figure hangs over out-of-focus railings) and no shadow. Tone and grain match.
• Grade: PARTLY. The beats read, but the thumbs-up and the facepalm contradict each other without a cause.

x15_4. Young man talking against damask wallpaper

• Beats: 0–1.2 sits down on the chair-back doily (legs disappear). 3.6–4.4 head down, hand to face. 4.8–6 side-eye with worried brows. 6.4–8.4 hunched. 8.8–9.6 straightens. 10–12 both hands clamped over its ears.
• Attitude: from a polite listener to a listener overwhelmed by chatter.
• Meaning: the figure is talked at until it covers its ears.
• Integration: the seat on the doily is plausible, though the legs vanish rather than fold. No shadow. Tone matches.
• Grade: READS.

x16_0. Color chorus line on stage

• Beats: 0–3 enters from right and walks into the line. 3–8 stands stiff while the dancers kick. 8.3–11.7 arms out to the sides, trying to link arms. 13–14 arms thrown up.
• Meaning: an outsider slots into the chorus line, fails to dance, and celebrates anyway.
• Integration: the figure stands on the stage at child height. It never kicks in sync, so it reads as stiff rather than "trying". No visible shadow.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x16_2. TV host at desk with hourglass

• Beats: 2–4 walks to the hourglass. 4–6 hands and ear on the glass. 6.7–8.7 pushes against it with its back, face red with strain. 9.3–12 walks away. 12.7–14.7 by the man's cuff, startled by his thumb. 15.3–18.5 slumps, knees hugged, at the base of the hourglass.
• Attitude: curiosity, effort, defeat.
• Meaning: the figure tries to hold back time and gives up.
• Integration: good desk contact and scale, and it is occluded and lit plausibly. Shadow faint.
• Grade: READS.

x17_1. Rotating ivory automaton / Pegasus carousel

• Beats: 0–1 goggle eyes, both arms up. 1.5–5.5 arms raised stiffly, statuette-like. 6–7 turns toward the ivory nude and gestures. 7.5–11.5 resumes the raised-arm pose.
• Meaning: the figure poses as one more ornament on the rotating carousel.
• Integration: it rides the base as it rotates. The small dark triangle at its feet reads as a shadow. Low contrast against the dark interior.
• Grade: PARTLY (the pose reads, the intent is ambiguous).

x18_0. Woman with remote, 1950s TV console

• Beats: 0–4 watches. 4.5 points at the TV, and at 5.0 the screen blanks: shock. 6.5, 9–10 reaches and waves at the screen. 10.5–12 turns to camera, big eyes, pointing at the TV. 12.5–16 faces us, hand on chest. 13.5 plate white flash.
• Attitude: from viewer to "I did that?" self-importance.
• Meaning: the figure thinks its gestures change the channel.
• Integration: red shoes stand on the console top. Scale and colour are fine. No shadow.
• Grade: READS.

x18_4. Dune photo shoot (backlit)

• Beats: 0.5–2.5 enters right and walks onto the crest. 3–3.8 stands, hand to face. 4.5–11.5 holds one arm high, steps at 5.2.
• Meaning: the figure poses or waves for the photographer like the model (ambiguous).
• Integration: the dark silhouette matches the backlit plate. The shadow falls along the slope. Feet are planted.
• Grade: PARTLY (the raised arm is unexplained).

x19_0. Sepia silent comedy, man changing clothes

• Beats: 0–3 hunched, hand at chest. 3–4 reaches toward the man (offer or ask). 8.5–9 ducks as the coat is swung. 9.5–11 stands straight, arm raised.
• Meaning: a timid bystander nearly gets clobbered by a flung coat.
• Integration: the soft shadow is fine. At 9.5–10.5 the figure draws over the man's legs, and the depth order is doubtful.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x19_1. Woodland smoke blast

• Beats: 0–1.5 stands. 1.5 the smoke erupts at the figure. 3–7 engulfed, correctly behind the smoke. 7.5–11.7 stands soot-grey. 11.75–12.25 keels over backward. 12.5–14 lies flat.
• Meaning: the classic delayed collapse after an explosion.
• Integration: the occlusion by smoke is good. The shadow blob sits right of the feet, detached (9.5–11.5). The fall is quick but legible.
• Grade: READS.

x20_1. Surf boats in heavy waves

• Beats: 0–2.5 waves. 3.5–6 both arms up. 6.5–9.5 sinks until only the dome of the head shows. 10–11 resurfaces, arms up. 11.5–13.5 floats on its back, one hand raised, drifting off right.
• Meaning: a swimmer hails the boats, gets swamped, and drifts away.
• Integration: the hard horizontal matte line at the waterline, with no splash, no foam and no bob with the swell, is the main fault (6.5–13.5). Scale is fine for foreground.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x20_2. Road grader in desert

• Beats: 0–3 walks to the front tyre. 3.5–6 hands on the tyre. 7–11 pushes against it, face red. 11–12 the grader advances. 12–15.5 ends low at bottom-left, behind or under the blade, sitting.
• Meaning: the figure tries to stop the grader and is scooped or flattened by its advance.
• Integration: contact and shadow are mostly OK. The final position behind the blade is unclear (pushed? sitting?).
• Grade: PARTLY.

x21_1. Couple at breakfast table

• Beats: 0–4.5 walks across the tablecloth toward the woman. 5.0→5.5 drops off the table's front edge. 6–13.5 stands in front of the vertical tablecloth drop with no support, and its shadow stays on the tabletop above. 11–12.5 dizzy eyes.
• Meaning: the figure falls off the table and hangs there dazed.
• Integration: FAIL from 6 to 13.5 (floating, detached shadow).
• Grade: FAILS.

x21_4. Boy with reel mower, figure behind hedge

• Beats: 0–0.5 waves both hands. 1–6 stands rigid behind the hedge, which occludes it correctly. 6.5–8 alarm marks above its head as the boy approaches. 8.2–8.7 falls backward and lands lying on the path IN FRONT of the hedge. 9–12 lies flat.
• Meaning: the figure panics at the mower and faints flat.
• Integration: the depth jump from behind the hedge to in front of it (8.2–8.7) is impossible. The mower never comes near the figure.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x22_0. Storm-wrecked house (sepia), camera pans

• Beats: 0–9 walks right through the debris. 9.5–11 steps up onto the fallen trunk. 12–12.5 looks down. 13–15.5 balances, arms out, gestures at the ruin. 16–16.5 stands. 17–18 sits on the trunk.
• Meaning: a survivor surveys the wreck and sits in defeat.
• Integration: tone matches. It tracks the trunk through the pan. Slightly translucent pale fill.
• Grade: READS.

x22_4. Crop-duster biplane coming at camera

• Beats: 0–6 stands at the right edge watching. 6–7.5 half-exits the right frame edge and re-enters. 7.7–11.3 walks left across the plane's path. 11.7 ducks. 12–13 lies flat as the plane roars over.
• Meaning: the North by Northwest dive.
• Integration: scale, contact and the small shadow are fine. The aimless exit and re-entry at 6–7.5 weakens it.
• Grade: READS.

x23_0. Fist on a war map (pillarboxed 1280x720)

• Beats: 0–15 wanders in small loops over the map near the fist and a black plane marker, with no clear goal.
• Meaning: unclear (pacing on a map).
• Integration: a very dark, large shadow blob, too dense for the plate. Handheld plate. Tracking holds roughly.
• Grade: FAILS (no readable action).

x23_2. Apartment courtyard with flower beds

• Beats: 0–2 walks with the women. 2.5–4.5 stoops or kneels (smelling flowers?). 5–12 walks right along the path, stops, looks around.
• Meaning: a resident's stroll (weak).
• Integration: a large soft shadow blob displaced about one body-width right of the feet, reading as floating.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x24_1. Profile close-up of an older man talking

• Beats: 0.5–2 enters left. 2–6 stands, looking up at him. 7–10 hand over mouth. 10.5 crouches. 11–15 squats hugging its knees.
• Meaning: the lecture overwhelms (or bores) the small listener.
• Integration: a soft wall shadow and a floor line, so it is well grounded.
• Grade: READS (hand over mouth is ambiguous: yawn or shock).

x24_2. Giant tunnel bore

• Beats: 0.8–2.5 walks. 3–10 stands. 8.3–9.2 shades its eyes, looking up. 15.8–16.7 crouches.
• Meaning: dwarfed by the tunnel.
• Integration: plausible, but the figure is about 30 px tall and the actions are illegible at frame scale.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x25_0. Microscope field, hex lattice

• Beats: 0–3.5 lies floating outside the circle. 4–6 swims in. 6–10 reaches into the central vertex. 10.5 the field slides away. 11.5–12 left sitting in black.
• Meaning: the figure swims into the specimen and is left behind.
• Integration: weightless is acceptable in an abstract plate.
• Grade: READS.

x25_2. Wall of ears, giant central ear

• Beats: 0–3 walks in. 3.5–6 stands near the ear. 6–10 leans in, hand to ear. 7.5–10 the ear flares. 10.5 white flash: blown back horizontally. 11.5–13 sits. 13.5–14.5 lies flat.
• Meaning: an eavesdropper is blasted by what it hears.
• Grade: READS.

x26_1. Teacup on saucer, woman's hat in foreground

• Beats: 0.66–1 shrugs in front of the cup. 1.33 POP to the left at a smaller scale. 2–3 behind the cup, arms out. 3.3 right again. 5.33 floats in mid-air top-left, small. 6.33 only a head behind the cup. 7–9.7 lies flat and SLIDES across the saucer right to left. 10 gone. 10.33 tiny at right.
• Meaning: illegible.
• Integration: repeated pops in position and scale, mid-air float, and a sliding body.
• Grade: FAILS.

x26_2. Man reading newspaper in armchair

• Beats: 0–0.5 stands on the ottoman holding a white sheet. 1–9 sits on the ottoman, legs dangling, holding the sheet like a paper, wide-eyed, then squinting at 7. 9.5 alarm. 10–13 stands with the sheet, smaller after the camera change.
• Meaning: mimics the reader (weak).
• Integration: the scale jump at 9.5–10.5 on the plate's camera move.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x27_0. Night amusement park (Luna Park lights)

• Beats: 0–6 walks in the crowd. 7–8.5 arms up toward the lights. 9–11.5 turns, waves. 12 exits left.
• Meaning: wonder at the fair (weak).
• Integration: the figure is lit brighter than the dark crowd. Legs are hard to read.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x27_4. Canted skyscraper street

• Beats: 0–6.5 stands huge, big eyes, arms out, gawking. 7–8.5 drops into a crouch. 9–10 cowers. 10.5–11.5 stands small at the bottom.
• Meaning: vertigo in the city.
• Integration: big foreground scale. The crouch transition is abrupt (6.5–7). Feet near the frame bottom.
• Grade: READS.

x30_0. Girl with hand mirror

• Beats: the real figure stands on the chair back. 1.5 a second figure pops into the mirror, over the girl's reflected face, and wanders. 9.5–11 it exits the mirror's right edge. 12–13.5 the real figure walks off left.
• Meaning: confusing. The "reflection" is not the real figure's reflection, so it reads as a second figure inside the mirror.
• Integration: the pop at 1.5. The reflection geometry is wrong.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x30_1. Colorized rail line, camera dollying forward

• Beats: 0–7.5 walks ahead on the track. 7.66–7.83 a second identical figure fades in (a split?). 8.2–8.8 they press together, heads touching. 9–11 side by side. 11.5–16.5 separate onto parallel tracks.
• Meaning: one becomes two, and they go separate ways.
• Integration: walking against the dolly reads. The split pops at 7.66–7.83.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x31_2. Tract houses, pan

• Beats: 0–12 walks along the street at camera pace. 12–15 face changes (glasses). 16–16.5 shrugs, arms out.
• Meaning: lost among identical houses.
• Integration: feet planted, shadow behind-left.
• Grade: READS (weak payoff).

x31_5. Clerk stamping papers

• Beats: 0–13 stands by the man's arm. 3.3 hand at face. 6–7.3 looks at the stamping hand. 8–8.7 hand to forehead. Then still.
• Meaning: a bystander watches tedium.
• Integration: desk contact is fine.
• Grade: FAILS (near-inert, no beat lands).

x32_2. Statistic chart of worker icons

• Beats: 1.5–2.5 enters right. 3–6 looks up at the chart. 6.5 caption card ("thirteen workers ... mental skills"). 8–10 points at the card. 10.5 shrugs or scratches. 12.5 hunches.
• Meaning: the figure reads the statistic and realises it is not among the 13.
• Integration: a shadow on the chart wall. No floor, but the plate is flat.
• Grade: READS.

x32_3. Schoolboys stampede past policeman

• Beats: 0–3 walks in. 3–8.6 stands as the crowd starts. 9–11 engulfed, with boys passing in front. 11–13 carried right and out.
• Meaning: swept up in the stampede.
• Integration: a huge detached double-lobed shadow, about one body-length left of the feet (0–9), versus short shadows in the plate. FAIL on the shadow. Occlusion is good.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x33_4. Hand with wristwatch in machine

• Beats: 1.3–2 hand to face. 2.7–7.3 hand to chin or forehead, looking at the watch. 8–10 hands together. 10.7–11.3 spiral dizzy eyes.
• Meaning: hypnotised by the ticking watch.
• Integration: standing on the base, OK.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x33_5. Luggage tags, suitcase foreground

• Beats: 0–12 walks along the top of the suitcase scanning the tags. 12.3–12.7 sits. 13–14.5 sits on the edge, legs dangling.
• Meaning: can't choose a destination, so it sits on its luggage.
• Integration: contact is good.
• Grade: READS.

x34a_0. Sepia beach with a giant lobster-like creature

• Beats: 0–5 walks in from right. 6 scratches its head. 7 hands on hips. 10–15 sits on the sand.
• Meaning: puzzles at the beached monster and sits (no interaction).
• Integration: shadow down-right, fine.
• Grade: PARTLY.

x35_0. Refrigerator stage, dancing couple

• Beats: 0–2 arms out. 4.7–5.3 crouch or bow. 8.7–9.3 hand to face. Otherwise stands.
• Meaning: wallflower.
• Integration: the reflection in the glossy floor is excellent. Tiny scale.
• Grade: PARTLY (near-inert).

x35_1. Barber cutting a boy's hair

• Beats: stands at left for 14 s. 8.7–9.3 hand on head.
• Meaning: none.
• Integration: OK on the ledge.
• Grade: FAILS (inert).

x36_2. White fog field

• Beats: 0–3 stands facing camera. 3–6 recedes and dissolves into the fog. 6–13 absent. 13–17.7 returns, growing. 18–18.7 holds a small white disc at its chest. 19+ hands down, the disc gone.
• Meaning: goes into the void and comes back changed or bearing something.
• Integration: the fog fade is excellent.
• Grade: PARTLY (the object is unclear and vanishes).

x37_2. Hexagonal cabinet unfolding (top view)

• Beats: walks about, stops (5.8–6.7 hands at face), walks, raises a hand at 11.7, walks back.
• Meaning: wanders while the cabinet unfolds, with no reaction to the reveal.
• Integration: the shadow direction matches the cabinet's shadow (good).
• Grade: PARTLY.

x37_5. Time-lapse seedling

• Beats: 0–1.3 pushes on the seed hook. 2–4 slides down to the base. 4.7–5.3 stands. 6–10 one arm raised high, pushing the stem up. 10.7–14.7 stands and looks up. 15.3–16.7 sits.
• Meaning: helps the seedling rise, then rests.
• Integration: soil contact OK.
• Grade: READS.

x40_2. Housing blocks multiplying (stop-motion model)

• Beats: 0–5 the lone figure stands. 5.2 onward, identical figures pop in alongside the new blocks until a crowd fills them (14.5).
• Meaning: housing multiplies its identical residents.
• Integration: the pop-ins match the plate's stop-motion idiom. Shadows fall the same way as the blocks'.
• Grade: READS.

x41_0. Man reclining in chair, low key

• Beats: 0–1.3 points at the man. 2–5.3 waves for attention. 6–7.3 arm stretched pointing off-left. 8–8.7 slumps. 9.3–11.3 lies down on his arm.
• Meaning: fails to get the man's attention and gives up.
• Grade: PARTLY (tiny, low contrast).

x41_1. Man asleep on a couch, figure on bedpost

• Beats: 0.5–7 stands on the finial. 7.3 hops. 8–13.5 sits on the finial.
• Meaning: a tiny watcher over the sleeper.
• Integration: tiny and dark, legibility very low.
• Grade: FAILS (illegible, no beat).

Blind tallies (46 passages; x36_4 absent, x41_0 present)

• READS (17): x13_1 x13_2 x15_4 x16_2 x18_0 x19_1 x22_0 x22_4 x24_1 x25_0 x25_2 x27_4 x31_2 x32_2 x33_5 x37_5 x40_2
• PARTLY (23): x14_0 x14_1 x15_3 x16_0 x17_1 x18_4 x19_0 x20_1 x20_2 x21_4 x23_2 x24_2 x26_2 x27_0 x30_0 x30_1 x32_3 x33_4 x34a_0 x35_0 x36_2 x37_2 x41_0
• FAILS (6): x21_1 x23_0 x26_1 x31_5 x35_1 x41_1