# Subtitled monologue, angle cuts — rebuild sheet

A 26-second address to camera picking a fight with an entire category, cut across two setups with a wordless styled b-roll block in the middle and a written thesis card at the end — 1,139,959 views, 69,531 likes, by nadia.khaledd.

**Why it works.** The opening line names an enemy out loud ("This is a message to all psychics and tarot…"), so the viewer is instantly on one side of a fight and has to stay to see it settled. Then the type does the escalation the camera refuses to — the caption keeps swelling until single words fill the frame in red serif — and the black end card hands over the thesis in writing, so the one line worth screenshotting is the last thing on screen.

## The beats

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 2.10s | Locked medium-close, square-on. Subject behind a dark desk in a black turtleneck, hands steepled, keyboard edge at the bottom of frame, a huge black-and-white aerial photo of Manhattan on the wall behind. Low warm front key; background two stops down. Talking to the lens. | "This is a message to all psychics and tarot" — heavy red sans, centred over her body |
| 6.31s | The identical frame. No reframe, no cut in framing — the only thing that changes is the type. | "COACH" — full-width red serif caps across the top third |
| 10.51s | Identical frame again, eyes closed mid-sentence, hands still steepled. | "PEOPLE" — same treatment |
| 14.72s | Wordless b-roll block, built as three stacked bands in one vertical frame: her eyes in extreme close-up; a ringed hand holding a black spiral notepad marked "HQ." with a pen; black wide-leg trousers and black patent heels on a white floor. | none |
| 18.92s | Second setup — same wardrobe, plain pale wall, no desk, no city print. Wider, three-quarters, seated on a dark studded leather armchair, one hand raised. Graded very dark; only her face is lit. | none |
| 23.13s | Full-frame black card. No footage at all. | "You don't need a stranger to tell you how your story ends." then, in bold italic gold, "You're the one writing the script." |

**What the frames do not show:** there is no audio in this read, so the spoken script is inferred only from the burned-in captions — "COACH" and "PEOPLE" are almost certainly emphasis words lifted out of the running line, but nothing in the stills proves that. The sheet also cannot tell how many cuts sit between the sampled beats, whether the three-band block at 14.72s is a designed grid or a fast transition caught mid-frame, or whether the 18.92s setup is a genuinely different room or the same room shot from another angle (the studs on that armchair match the desk chair in the first three beats). The "HQ." mark on the notepad is legible but unexplained by anything else in frame.

## What carries the value

The argument, and nothing else. No product, no demonstration, no proof, no before-and-after appears at any point — the persuasion is a reassignment ("stop outsourcing your power… you're the one writing the script"), delivered by a person, escalated by typography, and finally written down so it can be screenshotted. Everything else in the video is production value protecting a monologue from feeling like a monologue.

## Shoot it

- **Camera.** One phone on a tripod, square-on at seated eye height, medium-close — head and hands both in frame. Lock it and do not touch it for the whole talking section; the three talking beats are the same frame, which is what makes the type read as movement. Then move the tripod once for a second setup: wider, three-quarters, different wall.
- **Set.** A desk with something on the wall behind that carries status and sits well behind the subject — the source uses a wall-sized black-and-white city photograph. Any large graphic print works; the point is depth and a second plane, not the city.
- **Light.** One soft source in front of the subject, nothing on the background. Let the background fall dark. In the second setup, go darker still — the source is graded so far down that only the face reads.
- **Wardrobe.** Flat black, high neck, no pattern, no logo, minimal jewellery (the source has a gold ring and a thin watch). Same outfit in every setup so the cuts read as one piece.
- **B-roll.** Three quick wordless shots on a plain white floor with the same wardrobe: a macro on the eyes, hands holding a notebook and pen, feet walking. Shoot them separately in ten minutes; stack them or cut them.
- **Talent.** This one needs a person who can hold an argument to camera. There is no product beat to hide behind.

## Or generate it

The hero beat is the opening frame — the address to camera.

```
vertical 9:16, locked square-on medium-close of {SUBJECT} seated behind a dark desk
in a plain black high-neck top, hands steepled in front of them, the edge of a
keyboard just visible at the bottom of frame, a large black-and-white aerial
cityscape photograph filling the wall behind them, low warm key light from the
front with the background falling two stops darker, styled office, shallow depth,
clean camera look, no on-screen text — no product in frame at this beat, the
source has none
```

**Motion:** camera absolutely locked and identical across every talking beat (same seed) — nothing moves but {SUBJECT}'s face and hands.

**Text overlay pattern:**
- Opening beat — `This is a message to all {AUDIENCE}` in heavy red sans, centred over the subject's body.
- Middle beats — the spoken line continues in the same red caption, and on each emphasis beat one word is blown up to full-width red serif caps across the top third: `{KEYWORD}`.
- Closing beat — a full-frame black card: `{plain claim}` in plain type, then `{reassignment line}` in bold italic gold underneath.

Where a brand goes: this format has no product slot. `{PRODUCT}` would have to be introduced as a new beat, most naturally between the b-roll block and the end card, because nothing in the source makes room for it.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZfqyulOB3K/
