# Opening-line self-demo — rebuild sheet

A 25-second at-home device routine: one text line at the open, then five wordless beats of a woman using a handheld skincare device on her own face from a single fixed phone. 9,599,327 views, posted by tenisha.ward. (Like count wasn't captured — the record shows -1, so treat likes as unknown.)

**Why it works**
The line "New device unlocked 👀" does its whole job in the first two seconds — it frames what you're about to watch as someone's private discovery, not a pitch — and then disappears, so nothing competes with the screen for the remaining 23 seconds. From there the persuasion is entirely physical: the camera never moves, so the change in her skin between the cream-dotted beat and the wet, reflective beat reads as a result rather than a claim.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 2.03s | Fixed medium-close, seated arm's length from the phone in a pale grey room, white shelving behind. Both hands hold a pink cylindrical device up at chin height and twist the chrome head off the top. | New device unlocked 👀 |
| 6.08s | Same frame. Device held upright beside her face; white cream dotted on forehead, nose and cheek. Eyes down on the device. | — |
| 10.14s | She's closer to the lens. A white ribbed single-use face towel held flat over her whole face, both hands pressing it in. Face fully hidden. | — |
| 14.2s | Tight on the pink device held upright in one ringed hand, wet and glossy; the other hand works over the head. Her face is out of frame above. | — |
| 18.25s | Tighter on her face. The chrome head pressed to her cheek at the jaw, gliding up. Skin visibly wet and reflective. | — |
| 22.31s | Face square to camera, both hands patting flat on her cheeks, skin glossy, small closed-mouth smile. | — |

Where the frames don't tell us: there's no audio in this read, so whether she talks over it is unknown — plan for both. The six stills are 4 seconds apart, so a text line could appear and vanish between them; what's certain is that the opening line is gone at 6.08, 10.14, 18.25 and 22.31. The product's brand and what the cream at 6.08 is are not legible in any frame. Whether beat 4 is a cut or her leaning into the same lens can't be told from stills — the room behind is identical either way.

**What carries the value**
Her own face. The same fixed frame shows product dotted on dry skin at 6s and wet, light-catching skin at 18s, with the device as the only thing that touched it in between. No claim is made on screen — the skin is the argument, which is why the ending lands on her face and hands, not on the product.

**Shoot it**
- **Camera:** one phone, vertical, propped at chest height about an arm's length away. It does not move once — no pans, no handheld, no reframing. The subject moves toward and away from it to change the shot size. That fixed background is what makes the skin change legible, so lock it down properly.
- **Light:** soft daylight straight at the face — the frames show a window in front of her, flat and even, no hard shadow on the grey wall. Skin must read wet; don't kill the highlights.
- **Wardrobe and grooming:** plain dark crew-neck tee, no logo. Hair pulled flat and tight back off the whole face so nothing crosses the skin. No makeup at the start. Gold rings and a thin bracelet on the working hand — jewellery is the only styling in the shot.
- **Room:** a real home, not a set. A shelving unit with small objects sits soft behind her; the rest is bare pale wall.
- **Structure:** open on the device being opened or assembled in-hand, product onto the face, the towel beat, a tight beat on the device itself, the device on the face, then finish on hands patting the face. Six beats, roughly four seconds each, no dialogue required.
- **Non-negotiable:** you need a real face and a real visible result. This cannot be shot hands-only, and the last two beats are only as good as the skin actually looks.

**Or generate it**

The beat that matters is 18.25s — the device on the cheek with the skin already wet.

```
vertical 9:16 phone-camera photograph, {SUBJECT} seated facing the lens at arm's
length in a real domestic room, plain dark grey crew-neck t-shirt, hair pulled
flat and tight back off the face, no makeup, one hand holding {PRODUCT} with its
head pressed against the cheek at the jawline, gold rings and a thin gold
bracelet on that hand, pale grey wall with a white shelving unit of small objects
softly out of focus behind, soft even daylight from the front, skin left
wet-looking and unretouched with visible texture and highlights, slight sensor
grain, no on-screen text
```

**Motion:** camera locked off at chest height and never moves; only the hand and {PRODUCT} travel slowly up the cheek toward the ear while the subject holds still.

**Text overlay:** one line only, on the first beat and then gone — light serif white text, upper-left third, no box or background: `New {object} unlocked {emoji}`

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZadE42x_Fg/
