🐻🍯 The Raise Bear — "Asking for a raise"

Shared conventions (specs, sound arc, brand rules, aspect reframes, AI porting notes) live in README.md. This file is the scenario.

Promotes: https://www.hivejournal.com/rehearsal-room/shared/asking-for-a-raise Fear-creature: 🐻 bear (intimidation) · Payoff: 🍯 tub of honey Logline: The terror of asking for a raise shows up as a literal bear — until rehearsal turns it into a sheepish teddy that hands over a tub of honey. Persona (from the share): Dana's manager — results-driven, a little guarded. The prepared line (the calm payoff turn): "I'd like to walk you through the scope I've taken on this year — and talk about whether comp can reflect it."

Treatment (26s)

Alt endings: Honest-funny — bear slides honey over slowly: "…send me the numbers first." · Meta button (+2s) — bear, now in a tiny tie, rehearses its OWN raise on a laptop.

15-second cut

CapCut text track (15s)

1.  0.0  → 1.0    "POV: asking for a raise"             upper-third · Fade · big bold
2.  3.6  → 6.0    "(It's just a salary conversation.)"  lower-third · Fade · smaller italic muted
3.  6.1  → 9.0    "So they rehearsed it first."         lower-third · Slide-up · medium bold
4.  9.1  → 11.4   "Same bear. Different you."           lower-third · Pop · medium bold
5.  11.5 → 13.9   "Also: honey 🍯"                       center · Bounce · big bold, gold tint
6.  14.0 → 15.0   "Rehearse it →" + "hivejournal.com/rehearsal-room"  center · Fade · gold/emerald accent

Audio markers: 1.0 ROAR + scratch · 6.1 warm shift · 11.5 triumphant sting (see README sound arc).

Veo 3 prompt sheet

Paste the README style anchor (room = "office") into each. Use a bear-suit + actor reference still; feed Shot 1's last frame as Shot 2's start image.

SHOT 1 — Empty stage (~3s)
Slow push-in on an empty office stage, dust motes in the spotlight beam, ominous
calm, no people. [style anchor]
Audio: a low ominous drone, rising slightly.

SHOT 2 — Bear bursts out (~4s) [start image: Shot 1 last frame + bear ref]
A person in a goofy brown bear mascot costume explodes out from behind the desk,
arms raised, roaring, lunging at camera; camera flinches back, handheld shake,
papers fly. [style anchor]
Audio: a sudden loud cartoonish bear roar, then a vinyl record-scratch.

SHOT 3 — Menace (~4s)
The goofy bear-mascot swats a coffee mug off the desk, knocks over the chair, looms
over a terrified person curled on the floor; spotlit, theatrical, handheld. [style anchor]
Audio: chaotic comedic stings; a muffled whimper.

SHOT 4 — (real screen-capture, do NOT generate) Rehearsal Room asking-for-a-raise share.

SHOT 5 — Bear deflates (~6s)
Foreground: a calm person reads from a laptop. Background, soft focus: the goofy
bear-mascot deflates — arms sag, roar fades to a confused grumble, it sits and
tilts its head, listening. Light warms cold blue to gold. [style anchor]
Audio: music shifts from tense to warm and hopeful.

SHOT 6 — The line (~4s)
Medium shot: the person stands tall and calm under warm spotlight, speaking evenly:
"I'd like to walk you through the scope I've taken on this year — and talk about
whether comp can reflect it." [style anchor]

SHOT 7 — The honey (~5s)
The goofy bear-mascot blinks, reaches into its costume and produces a large gold tub
of honey, offering it with both paws like a sacred offering, sheepish and proud; the
person gently accepts it. [style anchor]
Audio: a soft triumphant sting; a happy little bear grunt.

SHOT 8 — End card (build in CapCut): stage bg + logo + 🍯 + URL.

Midjourney stills

STAGE PLATE (Shot 1 start-frame / end card)
cinematic photograph of an empty office "stage" — a single modern desk and chair
under a dramatic warm side spotlight, dark theatrical backdrop, faint haze in the
beam, polished floor reflections, shallow depth of field, moody, premium film still
--style raw --ar 9:16 --v 7 --stylize 150 --no people, text, watermark

HONEY-HANDOVER KEY ART
cinematic photograph on a spotlit office stage: a person in an obviously goofy brown
bear mascot costume sheepishly holding out a large gold tub of honey with both paws;
a calm person in a plain shirt reaching to accept it; warm golden key light, dark
theatrical backdrop, comedic but heartfelt, premium film still --style raw --ar 4:5
--v 7 --stylize 120 --no real wild bear, scary, gore, text, watermark

THUMBNAIL
cinematic photograph, low angle: a goofy brown bear mascot mid-roar bursting from
behind an office desk under a dramatic spotlight, papers flying, bold negative space
upper third for text, high contrast, premium film still --style raw --ar 1:1 --v 7
--stylize 100 --no real wild bear, gore, blood, text, watermark

Captions / hooks

1. POV: asking for a raise feels like this. 🐻 Then you rehearse it first. 🍯 → [link]
2. The scariest part of asking for a raise is the version of it in your head. So we built a place to meet that version before the real one. → [link]
3. Same boss. Same ask. Different you. (Results may include honey.) → [link]
4. Nobody rehearses the raise conversation. Everybody dreads it. We're fixing the first part. → [link]

First-frame overlays (A/B): "POV: asking for a raise" · "It's just a salary conversation."