# Home page: hero video brief

A short background loop behind the opening line and the newsletter signup ([brief.md](brief.md), section 1). It sets the feel before anyone reads: **grounded hope, leaning towards dawn** ([feel.md](../../sor-design-system/feel.md)).

## Directions

1. **First light.** Night or blue hour giving way to dawn over mountains or a sea of cloud. Slow, with no sun-flare climax. It echoes Dawn (frame 2) and the stand-in photo in mockup A.
2. **Seeds on the wind.** Dandelion or thistle seeds drifting, grass or wheat moving in early light. Intimate and textured: the seeds metaphor, close up.
3. **Swallows.** Swallows or a loose flock crossing a pale dawn sky. It echoes the logo and the Flight close.

## Must have

- A free licence for commercial use with no attribution required (Pexels, Pixabay, Mixkit, Coverr).
- At least 1080p, and 10 to 30 seconds that can loop without a visible jump.
- Slow, calm motion. A darker or muted area where white text stays readable.
- Natural, slightly muted colour.

## Avoid (wrong vibe)

- Wellness stock: silhouettes with arms raised, yoga, meditation poses, hands cupping light.
- Epic drone sweeps, lens flares, saturated orange "inspirational" sunsets, fast timelapse.
- People looking at the camera, corporate polish, anything that reads as an advert.

## Technical, once chosen

Re-encode the clip to about 3 MB (H.264 MP4, plus WebM), muted, playing inline and looping. Show a still first. Show only the still when a visitor asks for reduced motion or less data.