# Character sketch — rebuild sheet

A costumed character — a full capybara head over a plain numbered basketball jersey — plays a real pickup game on a real city court, straight-faced, with unpaid players and a sideline crowd around him. 20.18s, 1,417,402 views, 110,799 likes, by capypapiofficial.

**Why it works**

The costume states the entire premise in frame one, so no setup, no hook line and no explanation is needed — the viewer is in the joke before a second has passed. Everything after that is the character doing the real thing competently, in a real place, with nobody in frame acknowledging how absurd it is; the straight face of the world around him is what makes it funny, and the caption lands the boast the footage has already proved.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 1.61s | Court-level handheld from the sideline: the character — capybara head, black sleeveless jersey, black shorts, white socks, black sneakers — dribbles low across the painted asphalt while a defender in black leans in. Fence, trees and a few onlookers behind. | none |
| 4.84s | Wider, further down the court: a player in a numbered jersey is airborne at the rim with the ball, another player in black in the foreground, red-brick apartment blocks behind. *The frames do not resolve whether the airborne player is the character or an opponent.* | none |
| 8.07s | Camera has moved to the baseline under the basket — rim, net and backboard fill the top of frame, a player's back in a black tee fills the foreground, the court and a loose ball beyond him. | none |
| 11.3s | Tight on the character mid-court, number 67 readable, mouth open in a shout. Two players either side, a row of spectators along the fence behind. Closest framing in the video. | none |
| 14.53s | Medium-wide: the character walking away to the left, 67 on his back, an opponent facing him, crowd still on the fence. *What happened between the close-up and this beat is not in the sampled frames.* | none |
| 17.76s | Wide from behind the baseline: the whole court, hoop at right, players and onlookers scattered, apartment towers and blue sky. The camera pulls out of the bit. | none |

No on-screen text appears in any of the six sampled frames. Text could exist between samples — the frames cannot rule that out — but nothing is pinned across them, and the post caption is doing the talking.

**What carries the value**

The costume worn dead straight in a real place. An animal head doing genuine, unfaked basketball against real opponents in front of a real sideline crowd — the skill has to be real, or there is nothing to watch.

**Shoot it**

- **Camera:** phone, vertical, handheld, held at the players' own height — never a tripod. Four positions across the runtime: sideline follow, a wide from down the court, a baseline angle under the hoop shooting back out, and one tight beat on the character. End on a wide that leaves the court.
- **Location:** a real public court with real people on it and bystanders on the fence. The crowd is not extras — do not stage it; that is the whole credential.
- **Light:** hard midday sun, no fill, no grade. Ugly daylight is correct.
- **Wardrobe:** full costume head, plain unbranded jersey and shorts, a big readable number. Nothing else styled. The head never comes off and the character never acknowledges the camera.
- **Performance:** the character has to actually play. Whoever is in the suit needs the real skill — this beat cannot be faked in the edit. Everyone else plays it completely straight.
- **Text:** none on screen. The boast goes in the post caption.

**Or generate it**

The single most important beat is 11.3s — the tight hold on the character mid-court with the crowd behind.

```
vertical 9:16 handheld photograph, court-level, {SUBJECT} in a full oversized
animal-head costume and a plain black sleeveless basketball jersey with a large
white number, black shorts, white crew socks and black sneakers, standing
mid-court on a painted outdoor city asphalt court, {PRODUCT} carried in the
frame with them, two other players in plain black either side, a row of
onlookers standing along a chain-link fence behind, tall red-brick apartment
blocks and summer trees beyond the fence, hard midday sun, phone-camera look,
slight grain, unstyled, no on-screen text
```

**Motion:** handheld at the players' own height, drifting in on the character as the beat lands and holding on him — no cutaway, no zoom, the crowd left in frame.

**Text overlay:** none on screen at any beat. The post caption carries the whole line: `Nobody can guard {CHARACTER NAME} {EMOJI}`

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