# Captioned steps, comment gate — rebuild sheet

A 45.6s reel by `hua_jin123`: an elder herbalist in a traditional apothecary room talks a remedy through to camera in running speech subtitles, then holds a leather book to the lens and gates it behind a comment — 69,548 views, 1,055 likes.

**Why it works**
The frame never changes and the speech captions never restate themselves, so every beat is a new clause of one sentence the viewer is already halfway through — there is no clean place to leave. The routine is talked through in enough operational detail to feel like a real remedy and then explicitly cut off ("and I cannot share it here"), which converts the whole runtime into a reason to comment rather than a reason to be sold to.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 3.65s | Fixed shop frame: elder woman in a navy mandarin-collar tunic and round glasses at frame left, a younger woman in green standing behind her right shoulder. Shelves of glass jars of dried herbs, a framed Chinese calligraphy scroll, a small US flag. A large close-up photo of scaly, crusted skin on a shoulder/upper back is composited into the lower-left; her hand points into it. | this is a clogged kidney |
| 10.94s | Same frame, insert gone. She is closer to the lens, index finger raised in a correcting gesture. Potted succulents and ferns on the wooden table in front of her. | not turmeric and definitely not blueberries |
| 18.24s | Same frame. She talks to the lens, fist raised; behind her the assistant pours from a metal pot through a strainer into a clear glass mug — the step is performed live, in shot, while she speaks. | strain it and drink it warm every single morning |
| 25.54s | Same frame, tighter. She holds a clear glass mug of pale herbal tea with floating leaves into the lower third of the lens, spoon in it. Assistant behind, smiling. | and calms years of built up inflammation |
| 32.83s | Same frame. She holds a brown leather-bound book to camera at chest height, gold-stamped "ANCIENT REMEDY BIBLE" partly legible. | and I cannot share it here |
| 40.13s | Book raised higher and closer so the cover fills the lower right and the title is fully readable; her face stays upper left. | and I will send you my ancient remedies Bible |

The post caption carries the gate itself: *"Comment 'Book' and I'll send you my Ancient Remedies Bible right away 📖 · #syntheticperformer #ad"*.

**What the frames do not show — stated plainly**
- The stills are 7.3s apart, so nothing between them is visible. The framing is identical from beat 2 onward, which reads as one locked setup, but cuts inside those gaps can be neither confirmed nor ruled out.
- The full recipe is not visible. Frame 2 says what it is *not*, frame 3 says how to take it. No ingredient or amount is legible anywhere in the six frames.
- A small `genaicontent` watermark sits top-left in every frame, and the caption carries `#syntheticperformer` — the performers in this video are AI-generated, not filmed. Nothing here evidences a real shoot.
- A faint overlay reading "Jin" appears at the left edge of the 32.83s frame. Too small to read fully; what it is cannot be stated.
- Nothing in the frames shows a product for sale. The only object offered is the book.

**What carries the value**
The physical book held to the lens. The routine is talked through until it feels like real inherited knowledge, then sealed inside an object you have to comment to get — and the elder practitioner plus the wall of herb jars are what make that object read as a lineage rather than a lead magnet.

**Shoot it**
- **Camera:** one phone on a tripod, vertical, chest-up on the speaker seated at a table, framed left of centre so the right third stays open for a second person and the lower third stays clear for subtitles. Set it once and never touch it — same distance, same angle, every beat.
- **Cast:** the speaker does all the talking; a second person stands behind their shoulder and performs the physical step (pouring, straining, handing) without ever speaking or being cut to. Never cut away to them.
- **Light:** flat, even, frontal indoor light. No lamps in shot, no shadow drama — it should look like a room, not a set.
- **Wardrobe:** plain single-colour tunics or workwear that reads as a trade, not fashion. Nothing that changes between beats.
- **Room:** one wall of visible, ordered inventory behind them — jars, bottles, tins, drawers — plus one wall object that says lineage. The room does not change and is never re-dressed.
- **Props:** the step happens on camera with real objects on the table. The final object (the book, the tin, the folder) is real and its title is readable when raised.
- **Text:** burn one clause of speech per beat into the lower-centre, same position every time. Open mid-thought. Never restate a line.
- **The gate:** the withholding line lands on camera, the instruction to comment lands only in the post caption.

**Or generate it**

```
vertical 9:16, {SUBJECT} seated at a wooden table in a traditional herbal
apothecary room, facing the lens, holding {PRODUCT} up toward the camera at
chest height with the face of it square to the lens, a second person standing
behind their shoulder in a plain tunic, smiling to camera; wall of shelves
behind holding rows of glass jars of dried herbs, a framed vertical
calligraphy scroll on the back wall, potted succulents and ferns on the table,
warm even indoor light from the front, phone-camera look, slight grain, no
retouching, no on-screen text — identical framing, room and wardrobe to every
other beat
```

**Motion:** camera locked at the same distance and angle for the whole runtime, no push and no reframe; only the speaker's hands and {PRODUCT} move as it is raised toward the lens and held there. Generate every beat from the same seed so the room and both people match exactly.

**Text overlay pattern:** running speech subtitles, one clause per beat, identical lower-centre position, white with a soft shadow, opening mid-thought and never restated —

- `this is {the named problem}`
- `not {the obvious remedy} and definitely not {the second obvious remedy}`
- `{the step} every single morning`
- `and {the mechanism claim}`
- `and I cannot share it here`
- `and I will send you my {PRODUCT}`

…with the gate in the post caption: `Comment '{keyword}' and I'll send you my {PRODUCT} right away`

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