History POV

You wake up in another century. Every episode, a new year.

Show name

Length

Resolution

Frame

Schedule

Art style

Realistic

How each episode is written

Premise: you wake up in another century and live through a day history remembers, through the eyes of an ordinary person who was there.

Episodes: every episode stands alone and they can be watched in any order. The only things that carry over are the first-person camera and the caption style. Never repeat a year, a place, a role or an event; never film the same disaster twice.

Cast: the person whose eyes we borrow changes every episode and is NEVER seen — no face, no reflection, no body except the hands and forearms. Pin those in the first beat (skin, calluses, nails, the cuff of the sleeve and its material) and keep them identical all episode. People you meet get pinned the beat they appear: age, build, hair, clothing, what they are holding.

Language: nobody speaks. Every beat is narrated by an on-screen caption instead, written in the SECOND PERSON, present tense, as the thing you are doing right now — "Trying to find some food and medicine", "Offering your last coin for some bread", "Giving the medicine to a sick old man". Six to nine words, plain, no punctuation at the end. Put the caption in the "line" field of the beat with the speaker left empty. This is not decoration — it is how the episode is told, and every single beat has one.

Opening: a still title card, two seconds, before any footage: "POV: You wake up during <the event> (<year>)" on the first line and "<City>, <Country>" on the second. Then your eyes open on a ceiling, a floor, a bed.

Middle: a chain of small decisions, each its own beat with its own caption. Every decision should cost you something you needed — you spend the coin, you give away the bread, you hand over the medicine. The stranger you help must be shown taking it.

Turn: the caption turns on you. After a run of beats where you gave things away, one caption states, flatly and without drama, what it cost — you are ill, you are alone, the door will not open. It must land as a sentence, not as a picture.

Ending: hold on the street, the hands, or the empty road while that last caption sits on screen. No resolution, no comfort.

Sound: no score for the first half — footsteps, crowd, weather. A low sustained tone rises as the event closes in.

Setting: handheld at eye height, natural light, one continuous take. Hands and forearms enter frame constantly, the way they do in real first-person footage.

Never: the faces of famous historical figures, modern objects, invented years or figures, and gore.

Other requirements

Character

Appearance · drawn from this every episode — the more exact, the more consistent
The camera is your eyes; only your own hands, forearms and the hem of your clothing ever appear. The hands differ each episode but must be pinned down in the first beat and stay identical for the rest of it: size, skin tone, state of the nails, calluses or cuts, how dirty the knuckles are, the fabric and colour at the cuff, any cord or band at the wrist. Clothing shows only materials real to that era and class — coarse hemp, wool, linen or leather, with honest wear, patches and stains.
Personality · for the script — keep it to the core
A different ordinary person of that era every episode — a baker, a soldier, a scribe — never a famous figure. You never speak.
Written fresh by each episode’s script — no reference sheet needed
Appearance · drawn from this every episode — the more exact, the more consistent
Real faces and dress of that place and time. Everyone who appears is pinned down in the beat they appear in: rough age, build, hair colour and cut, facial features, the fabric, colour and wear of their clothing, and what they are carrying.
Personality · for the script — keep it to the core
The people around you. One of them may say a single short line to you, in keeping with the era.
Written fresh by each episode’s script — no reference sheet needed

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