01 · The idea
What this is
Luca's ask: "Custom videos for people we are trying to prospect to. It needs to feel like a movie trailer or TV ad specifically about our value proposition and the value to the person we are reaching out to as well as their company."
We give the system a LinkedIn URL. It researches the person, their company, and their tech; writes a grounded 45-60 second trailer script; generates voiceover and one or two cinematic AI shots; assembles a polished branded video with their logo, live website, and real facts. Every video passes human approval before generation money is spent, and again before anything reaches a prospect. Delivery is a personalized landing page linked from the outreach email.
Fully automated per video, with no manual video building. The one-time human craft is designing the master trailer template; after that, every video is machine-assembled fills. We already run image-generation automations without human intervention on this same stack, so this is assembly of proven parts, not invention.
First target: Paul Mather, Managing Director, Marlowe Fire & Security. Our research already caught something important about his company (§6).
02 · Validated
Founder answers, received 9 July
Value proposition: "Stop renting software. Own it."
We replace rented SaaS with custom software clients own outright: their code, their data, their roadmap, delivered in weeks by a senior team, with three-month exit rights from day one and a twelve-month fee lock.
CTA: a 15-minute intro call.
Angle: we'll explain why we went to this much effort to get their attention. The video itself is the proof of what we build.
Volume: 10-20 videos/month, months 1-2. Confirmed.
Creative sign-off: Kyle approves the master template once, Josh approves each video, and Luca or Neil give final sign-off before any send.
Delivery: email, LinkedIn, or WhatsApp.
Email is the automated path. LinkedIn and WhatsApp are manual sends by the team; LinkedIn messaging is never automated.
The campaign is unblocked. The build is running against these answers.
03 · The product
The video itself
Fixed 45-60s structure; only the personalized content changes per prospect. This is what keeps every video polished and repeatable:
| Time | Beat | Example: Paul Mather |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:05 | Hook. Cinematic shot + punchy line naming their world; their logo resolves in | "In UK fire & security, compliance never sleeps, and neither do the risks." |
| 0:05-0:15 | Problem. The specific tension for their role, grounded in real research | Engineer teams, 24/7 monitoring, data in a dozen systems |
| 0:15-0:30 | Value prop. One clear promise, shown not told | "Stop renting software. Own it." Code, data, docs, yours from day one |
| 0:30-0:45 | Their company, specifically. Name them, show their live site, cite a real fact | The Marlowe → Mitie Fire & Security transition itself |
| 0:45-0:55 | Soft CTA. One ask | 15-minute call + booking link on the final frame |
Production values: cinematic music bed with a hit on the CTA, kinetic typography (max six words on screen), their brand color pulled from their site, one consistent AI narrator voice as our signature, cuts on the beat. No AI human faces or avatars. Research consistently shows they damage trust in cold outreach. The "wow" comes from one or two short atmospheric AI shots plus real brand assets.
04 · The system
How it works
- Intake: LinkedIn URL + prospect name (required: it's the wrong-person tripwire) + optional angle and campaign tag.
- Research & prep (auto, minutes, pennies): scrape profile + company + website (no LinkedIn login, zero account risk) → research brief with every claim source-tagged; unknowns stay blank, never guessed → scene-by-scene plan → automated fact-checker → asset auto-acquisition: logo, website screenshot (cookie banners stripped, redirects followed), brand color. Output: one review card. The info, the plan, and an asset checklist where every item is ready low-confidence or missing, with a manual-upload slot as last resort.
- Gate 1, plan approval: we fix flags, edit lines, press Generate Video. Nothing expensive has been spent yet; iterating here is free.
- Generate & render (auto, 5-15 min): per-scene voiceover → 1-2 AI hero shots (auto-archived to our storage before provider links expire) → template render → notification.
- Gate 2, video approval: Josh reviews and tweaks. Text edits re-render free from cached assets; one voiceover line costs cents; a hero re-roll is an explicit, clearly-priced button; every take is kept in a gallery.
- Deliver (auto): personalized landing page + link for the outreach email; per-video cost logged.
Anti-hallucination is architecture, not a prompt wish. The AI can only use facts we scraped; every claim carries its source; the verifier and Gate 1 sit before any generation money is spent; nothing reaches a prospect without approval at Gate 2.
Phase 2, full auto (only after Phase 1 is proven): Gate 1 auto-passes videos with zero flags and zero fact-check violations; anything else still stops for a human. Graduation is data-driven, e.g. ten consecutive videos needing no Gate-1 edits, not a vibe.
05 · The build
What we're building, and when
We evaluated three architectures (pure no-code n8n · full custom portal · thin portal over n8n) through three lenses: operator day-to-day, build load, and founder ROI. The middle path won. Because our AI stack is already running (n8n, Apify, fal.ai, kie.ai, Railway, and existing image-gen automations), the timeline is days, not weeks:
- Days 1-2: master template + proof video. Kyle designs the master trailer template and stands up the pipeline skeleton. Josh drives the creative testing: hero-shot recipe runs in fal/kie, voiceover auditions, music shortlist. Paul Mather's video is produced through the automation, exercising both gates for real. Hard checkpoint at 48h: if the template engine can't hit the "movie trailer" bar, we switch render engines before building further.
- Days 3-5: hardened automation + first delivery. The full pipeline runs end-to-end with asset archiving, completion webhooks, and missing-asset flagging live. Josh stress-tests both gates, builds the pronunciation dictionary (UK names like "Mitie" and "BAFE" trip the voiceover without it), and runs the review loop until Paul Mather's video is send-ready.
- Week 2: the review portal + first batch. Kyle ships the one-screen review portal (player, scene strip, fact-check panel, cost-labeled edit tiers, version history). Josh runs the first ~10 prospects through it end to end, owns the quality gate on every video, and tracks reply metrics so the founders see conversion data, not just output.
- Later, only if it works: upgrade the render engine for instant previews and ~$0.02 renders behind the same data contracts. A component swap, not a rebuild. We deliberately don't make that bet before reply data exists.
06 · Proof it matters
The first prospect, and the catch we already found
Paul Mather. Verified facts, safe to use:
- Managing Director since Oct 2017 (his LinkedIn headline says "Director of Business Development": a stale tagline, not his title)
- End-to-end UK fire & security: design, install, maintenance, 24/7 monitoring; NSI Gold and BAFE accredited
- Mitie completed its £350M acquisition of Marlowe plc in early August 2025 (~2,700 colleagues joining ~76,000)
The catch: the company has already rebranded. As of April 2026 contracts moved to Mitie Security Ltd trading as "Mitie Fire & Security", and marlowefireandsecurity.com now redirects to mitiefireandsecurity.com. A video proudly branded "Marlowe" would arrive looking out of date: the exact embarrassment this system is designed to prevent. Instead, the transition becomes our freshest personalization hook, and the pipeline screenshots the new site.
Sources conflict on employee count, so no video will ever cite a hard headcount. "Hundreds of engineers" is the verified-safe phrasing.
07 · The team
Roles
| Who | Role |
|---|---|
| Kyle | The brain and orchestrator: system architecture, pipeline build, AI prompt design, master template creative direction, campaign formula tuning |
| Josh | Execution owner: runs every video end to end (research review at Gate 1 → tweak loop at Gate 2 → delivery), owns the fact-check gate and the pronunciation dictionary, curates hero-shot takes and the music library, runs the deliverability test, tracks reply metrics per video |
| Luca / Neil | Value prop + CTA (answered, §2), final sign-off on every video before send, budget, campaign targets |
Josh's seat is the quality engine of this system: at 10-20 videos/month, roughly 30-60 minutes of his judgment per video is what separates "impressive personalized trailer" from "obvious AI spam", and his reply-metric tracking is how we'll know the channel works.
08 · The money
Costs, in one breath
Roughly $1-3 per video all-in (research, script, voiceover, AI shots, renders, re-rolls) and $200-300/month fixed at 10-20 videos, mostly cancellable monthly, so the experiment can be killed cheaply. It runs on accounts we already pay for (Railway, n8n, Apify, fal.ai, kie.ai) plus one standard Anthropic API key for the research AI.
09 · Eyes open
Risks we're actively managing
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Video looks "AI-generic," not cinematic | 48-hour aesthetic checkpoint before deeper build; AI footage limited to 1-2 atmospheric shots; no AI faces |
| Wrong facts about a prospect | Grounded research + source-tagged claims + automated verifier + human gates. Already caught the Marlowe→Mitie rebrand. |
| Wrong person (common names) | Name required at intake, hard-matched against the scraped profile; identity panel at Gate 1 |
| Music licensing | Stock licenses often exclude per-recipient generated video; pre-cleared library, checked once before volume sends |
| Email deliverability | Video links can hurt inbox placement; Josh runs a small deliverability test before scaling |
| LinkedIn scraping ToS | Public-data, cookieless scrapers only; no automated LinkedIn messaging, ever; GDPR basis + one-command data purge built in |
| Cost creep from re-rolls | Every asset cached forever; re-renders reuse, never regenerate; per-video and daily spend caps with a visible meter |
10 · The first script
Paul Mather's trailer, scene by scene
Three competing scripts were drafted (transition-led, pain-led, ownership-led) and judged through three independent lenses: a cold-outreach conversion expert, a simulated sceptical UK managing director receiving it, and a trailer-craft edit review. This is the synthesis. 59 seconds, 131 words, every claim traceable to verified facts.
| Scene | Voiceover | On screen |
|---|---|---|
| HOOK 6s |
"In fire and security, everything is monitored. Except the systems the work runs through." | Rain-soaked CCTV dome at dusk, red LED glowing (AI shot). Cards: EVERYTHING IS MONITORED / ALMOST EVERYTHING. Hard cut to black. |
| PROBLEM 13s |
"Hundreds of engineers. Thousands of jobs. Evidence an NSI Gold audit accepts. And underneath, a patchwork of rented systems, held together with spreadsheets and re-keyed data. Rented never quite fits." | Red-lit plant room, conduit and blinking LEDs, cuts accelerating. Cards punch on the beats, landing on RENTED NEVER QUITE FITS. |
| VALUE 14s |
"There is another way. Software you own outright, built around the way your operation actually runs. Code, data, documentation. Yours from day one. Bespoke software that once took a year now ships in weeks." | Macro of a brass key turning in an industrial lock; the grade warms from steel blue to gold as the bolt slides home (AI shot). Cards: OWN IT OUTRIGHT / CODE. DATA. DOCS. / WEEKS, NOT QUARTERS. |
| COMPANY 15s |
"Marlowe Fire and Security is becoming Mitie Fire and Security. The UK's largest fire and security provider, taking new shape. Every system underneath faces the same choice. Unify, or multiply." | His old domain visibly redirecting to the live mitiefireandsecurity.com, then a slow scroll of the real site. Smash card: UNIFY, OR MULTIPLY. Then: BEFORE THE DEFAULTS LOCK IN. |
| CTA 11s |
"We made this film for one person. You. Stop renting software. Own it. Fifteen minutes, we'll explain why. Bring your worst spreadsheet." | Bookend: the CCTV dome's red LED blinks out. Cards: MADE FOR PAUL MATHER / AN AUDIENCE OF ONE / FIFTEEN MINUTES + booking link. Final title: STOP RENTING SOFTWARE. OWN IT. |
Email wrapper: thumbnail is a film poster reading A FILM FOR PAUL MATHER with a 59 SEC badge; subject line "Paul, a 59 second film made for you." The sceptic-lens review deliberately keeps the acquisition out of the first 30 seconds (opening on someone's deal is what every vulture consultant does) and the word "AI" out of the script entirely; the film itself is the demonstration.
11 · Where we are
Status
- DoneDeep research on tooling & approach, independently fact-checked against live vendor pages, July 2026
- DonePaul Mather / Marlowe / Mitie facts verified with sources
- DoneArchitecture decided: three designs scored by independent review panels
- DoneBuild blueprints written & cross-checked: storyboard schema, AI prompts, asset pipeline, hero-shot recipes
- DoneProcess red-teamed end-to-end: ~40 failure modes with automated detection and recovery, folded into the operating spec
- DoneFounder validation received: value prop, CTA, volume, sign-off chain, delivery channels
- DonePaul Mather's script drafted, judged through three lenses, and synthesized (§10)
- NextDays 1-2: master template + Paul Mather's video produced through the automation, then Josh's tweak loop and founder sign-off