A cinematic film editor's UI feels like a darkroom — quiet light, generous shadows, ink-on-paper type. The system codifies that mood as tokens, components, and rules.
The four ideas that govern everything below. Reach for them when a decision is hard.
Shadows are deeper than gray. Highlights are warm, never neon. Avoid pure white on pure black — it photographs cheaply. The whole interface should feel like 35mm at golden hour.
Italic serif is reserved for the moment a feature wants to feel like a craft choice — never decorative. Mono for measurements, sans for everything else.
Show the seed. Show the pass. Show the credits. The user should feel they're directing a precise apprentice — never that the machine made decisions in the dark.
A 12-hour edit needs information density. Don't blow up controls for the casual user — give them a Compact mode toggle and treat the timeline like a cockpit.
Two themes, one accent family. Dark is canonical — every screen is designed there first; light is a daytime alternate.
Three families. Each one has a job — never use one in another's role.
4-px grid. Radii grow with surface size. Shadows are warm and rare — only floating things cast.
Atomic UI. Buttons, chips, sliders, cards — what every screen is built from.
1.5px stroke, line-only, rounded ends. Glyphs (✦ ↻ ↧ ⌘) are reserved for AI affordances.
Cinematic = slow in, slow out. Nothing snaps. The cursor glides; modals breathe.
Lumen speaks like a quiet, well-read editor. Confident. Not chatty. Never breathless about AI.
The studio shell is a fixed three-column grid. Side · stage · right. Timeline always at the bottom; no exceptions.