Demo Video Script Template
Save this as: /capstone/demo.mp4 after recording. The script stays in your notes; the video is the deliverable.
Use it again: if you re-record after feedback. The five-beat structure does not change — only the takes.
The demo video is the one artifact in the capstone that is performed rather than written.
Five beats, ~30–90 seconds each. First take that satisfies the beats is the take that ships. Polish is not the target; a real operator with a real system is.
Header
Recording checklist (do this BEFORE hitting record)
- Close every personal tab, email, chat window, and notification banner.
- Turn off notifications for the full recording window (macOS: Focus mode; Windows: Focus Assist).
- Close any browser logged into a personal account you don’t want on camera.
- Confirm no API keys, tokens, or credentials are visible anywhere on screen — including terminal history, env files open in your editor, and password manager.
- Confirm no personal messages, private calendars, or family names are visible.
- Do a dry run of the full five beats without recording, to catch surprises.
- Record in a quiet room with a simple audio setup; viewer intelligibility matters more than production value.
Beat 1 — What this is, in one sentence
Purpose: Copy the charter’s one-sentence purpose verbatim. If the viewer misses every other beat, they still know what the system does.
What’s on screen:
Your face, or a title card with the capstone name. No terminal yet.
What to say:
Example narration (guide, not script): “Hi — I’m [name]. This is [capstone name]. In one sentence: [copy from charter §1]. I built it over the last three weeks as the capstone for AI Architect Academy. I’m going to show you one real run, one intentional failure, the posture it operates under, and what I’d build next.”
Beat 2 — One real end-to-end run
Purpose: Not a demo environment, not a mock — one real run against the real shared state.
What’s on screen:
Terminal or UI, zoomed so text is legible. You can cut a long-running step, but never cut the beginning or end — the viewer should see the trigger and the output.
What to say:
Example narration (guide, not script): “Component 1 triggers on [schedule or command]. Here I’m firing it manually so you can see it. It reads from [input], writes to shared state at [path]. Component 2 is watching for new shared-state files — there it goes. It calls [local or cloud model] with this prompt [quick view of the prompt, not in full] and produces [output]. Component 3 takes that output and [describes job]. End-to-end, this run took [time].”
Speed up (2x–4x) anything over 15 seconds of waiting, with an on-screen “2x” marker. Never speed up the final output rendering — the viewer needs to see it clearly.
Beat 3 — The intentional failure and the recovery
Purpose: The rubric treats this as a particularly important beat. A capstone that cannot show a recovery on camera is not ready.
What’s on screen:
You trigger the failure, the system reacts, you run the four-step incident loop in real time, you show the kill switch halting the system and the posture returning to green.
What to say:
Example narration (guide, not script): “I’m going to break the system on purpose. This is a scenario from my incident drill: [scenario from incident-drill-afteraction.md §1]. Watch what happens. Here’s the failure being logged. Here’s Component 2 seeing empty shared state and exiting cleanly instead of crashing. Here’s me firing the kill switch; the system halts in [seconds]. Here’s me rotating the key and re-running Component 1 once to confirm it’s clean. And here’s the posture check: no sensitive data moved, spend stopped accruing, the reviewer has been told. The full after-action is in /capstone/incident-drill-afteraction.md.”
Beat 4 — The posture check
Purpose: Name any amendments. Keep this terse — the viewer doesn’t need the full posture document, they need the six-row summary.
What’s on screen:
Your posture document, or the observation log’s posture-check block, or Architecture §6.
What to say:
Example narration (guide, not script): “This system operates under the posture in /capstone/security-posture.md, last dated [YYYY-MM-DD]. Six rows: data classification — sensitive stays local, personal routes to cloud only under [rule], public is unrestricted. Secrets — one API key, stored in [vault or environment], rotated every [N] days. Trust boundaries — [count], all on the diagram. Network — one endpoint, one model host. Cost — $[measured] projected monthly, inside my $[budget] cap. Kill switch — halts all three components in [seconds], tested [N] times. The capstone introduced [N] posture amendments; they’re listed in Architecture §6.”
Beat 5 — What I’d build next
Purpose: Gives the viewer a sense of the student as someone who has started, not finished.
What’s on screen:
Your face or a title card. No terminal.
What to say:
Example narration (guide, not script): “If I had another month, I’d build [one-sentence next system — name, problem, three-component shape]. I’d keep operating this capstone in the meantime; I’m not retiring it. Thanks for watching. Rubric is at /capstone/capstone-rubric.md. Sign-off conversation is next.”
Post-production checklist
- Total length is between 3:00 and 5:30.
- All five beats are present and recognizable.
- Beat 3 shows a real recovery, not a summary of one.
- No secret, personal message, family name, or private calendar appears on screen at any point (pause the video at random moments — does anything private appear?).
- Audio is intelligible throughout. No music bed covering narration.
- Export as .mp4 (H.264, 1080p or 720p — 1080p preferred).
- File saved to /capstone/demo.mp4.
- File is smaller than 500 MB so the reviewer can open it easily. Captions or transcript included for accessibility (optional but recommended).
Common mistakes to avoid
- Too long. A 10-minute demo is not more rigorous; it is less watchable. Cut.
- Too produced. The viewer wants to see the system operate, not your editing skills. No intros, no music stingers, no logos.
- Shilling the good parts only. Beat 3 is the rubric’s pivot; do not skip the failure to keep the video “clean.”
- Scripts read aloud. Write the script, then talk through it. Reading sounds stiff and tells the viewer you rehearsed the run.
- Sensitive data on camera. Easiest way to fail the posture inside a demo of the posture. Do the dry run first.
This template accompanies Lesson 10.5 of AI Architect Academy. The five-beat structure, the 3–5 minute length, and the Beat 3 recovery requirement are concept. Specific narration wording, shot framing, and editing choices are recipe.