# Timed experiment with presenter panel — rebuild sheet

A 30-second myth-bust that runs as a rigged test: two labelled samples are taken, then the clock is stamped on an unmoving overhead frame at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours while growth accumulates — with the presenter pinned in the bottom-right corner the whole time and never once cut to. 1,135,213 views · 6,937 likes · helena.rodero.

**Why it works** — A rising time stamp over a frame that never moves turns a claim into a trial the viewer is auditing, because the only thing left changing on screen is the sample. Nothing on screen ever argues: the labels just name and count, so the viewer reaches the verdict themselves instead of being handed it.

## The beats

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 2.42s | Full-height mirror in a plain hallway, a man in a beige tee and light shorts with a hand in his hair. Handheld phone. Presenter cut-out already pinned bottom-right — it stays there for every beat after. | Before Shower |
| 7.25s | Top-down on a white surface: two shallow dishes of deep red agar side by side, a black-gloved hand streaking the left one. Locked overhead framing. | Before Shower · After Shower |
| 12.08s | Same locked top-down framing, now filled edge to edge by one dish, a bare hand steadying the rim. Surface still clear. | After 24 Hours |
| 16.92s | Same framing, a hand holding both dishes in frame together — the large one and a smaller one beside it — so the two conditions are re-identified against each other. | After 48 Hours · Before Shower · After Shower |
| 21.75s | Same locked framing on the large dish, fingers at the top-right edge. Fine speckling now visible across the agar. | After 72 Hours |
| 26.58s | Same locked framing, the dish now carrying distinct dark colonies. The presenter's hand comes up to her mouth in the corner panel. | After 96 Hours |

**Not visible in the frames, so not claimed here:** there is no audio in a contact sheet, so whether she narrates over the test — and whether speech subtitles run between the sampled beats — cannot be told. Nor can it be told who shot the mirror clip, or whether the composite drops for a bare presenter close at the very end. The stills also never show a clean side-by-side verdict at the final beat: growth accrues on the plate in the repeated frame, but the last two frames do not show the two conditions against each other. The argument itself lives in the post caption, not on screen — the caption is a written myth-bust about washing frequency, and it is cut off mid-word.

## What carries the value

The ledger. 24 → 48 → 72 → 96 in the same spot over a frame that does not move, with colonies accumulating underneath it. The presenter panel supplies authority and continuity, but does none of the persuading — take her out and the test still lands; take the stamps out and there is nothing left.

## Shoot it

- **Camera.** Phone flat overhead on the table, locked. Tape the phone's position and the sample's position so every stamp beat is the identical frame — that identity is the whole mechanic, and a 2cm drift between beats kills it. No push, no pan, no reframe inside a beat.
- **The panel.** Shoot the presenter separately as one static seated frame, chest up, and composite the cut-out into the bottom-right corner at the same size and position over every beat. She is a face, not a performer — no bit, no gestures to camera. One take, one top, so the corner reads as continuous.
- **Light.** Flat even indoor light with no cast shadow across the sample. Same light at every stamp, or the change will read as a lighting change instead of a result.
- **Wardrobe.** Plain and identical in the panel throughout. Nothing on the tested subject matters — it is off-frame after the setup beat.
- **The setup beats.** The first two beats are outside the repeated frame on purpose: one shot establishes the condition being tested, one shows the samples being taken with both labels on screen. After that the frame never changes again.
- **Text.** Grey box, top centre, same position every time. Condition labels in two contrasting colours sitting on the samples themselves. The text only names and counts — the moment a stamp starts arguing, the format stops working.

## Or generate it

The single most important beat is a stamp beat: the locked overhead on the sample with the corner panel.

```
vertical 9:16 top-down photograph, the frame filled edge to edge by a single
shallow culture dish of deep red agar resting on a plain white surface, a bare
hand entering from the top of frame steadying the rim, even flat indoor light
with no cast shadow, phone-camera look, slight grain, unstyled and unretouched;
a chest-up cut-out of {SUBJECT} in a plain top, seated in a plain room, pasted
into the bottom-right corner at the same scale and position it holds in every
other beat; {PRODUCT} is not in frame at this beat; no on-screen text
```

**Motion** — Camera absolutely locked overhead: no reframe, no push, no pan, with only the steadying hand moving. The presenter cut-out stays in the identical corner at the identical scale, so generate every stamp beat from the same seed frame and change only the state of the sample.

**Text overlay pattern** — Opening beats carry condition labels sitting on the samples themselves, `{condition A}` in red and `{condition B}` in blue. Then one elapsed-time stamp per beat in a grey box in the identical top-centre position:

```
After {n} Hours  →  After {2n} Hours  →  After {3n} Hours  →  After {4n} Hours
```

The condition labels re-fire on whichever beat puts both samples in frame together.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUYxFZ4iN8Z/
