# Captioned steps, comment gate — rebuild sheet

A 54s ingrown-hair routine: a gross macro of the problem, then one seated selfie frame where five cheap products are named and held to the lens in order. 371,222 views · 7,891 likes · @azizztheartist.

**Why it works** — The macro opens on the worst-looking version of the problem, so the viewer is bought before a single product appears, and the routine that follows withholds nothing: every item is named, its job stated, its frequency stated. Because the frame never changes after the cut, the only event in each beat is which bottle comes up, so the video reads as a list the viewer is waiting to finish rather than a pitch.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 4.34s | Extreme macro on jaw, chin and neck — dense stubble and ingrown hair, dark gritty product smeared over the jawline, two fingers pinching the skin underneath, residue on the fingertips, small tattoos on the hand. One hard side light, no room visible. | watch me pull this frontal out / oh my god |
| 13.01s | Hard cut to a seated front-camera frame: cap over a durag, striped knit vest, gold chain, chest-up at a dark table in a real room — yellow wall, white door, handwritten notes taped up behind, mirror at left, bare ceiling light blowing out the top of frame, cup noodles and bottles on the table. A white toner bottle held up beside his face, label to camera. | you're gonna use this right here to tone your face right here |
| 21.68s | Same frame. He reaches down and picks up a black spray-top bottle; the toner and a blue bottle sit at the bottom of frame. | you're gonna use these two together |
| 30.35s | Same frame. An orange antibacterial hand-soap bottle held up at chest height, label to camera. | you're gonna use this and these two things together |
| 39.02s | Same frame. Two bottles pressed together as one unit — a blue-labelled pump bottle in front of the orange soap — held up beside his face. | and use this once a week again |
| 47.69s | Same frame, slightly lower. He tips a small unlabelled jar of yellow liquid toward the lens; the soap and blue bottle now on the table. | this is something that my auntie made for me |

What the frames do not show, and I am not filling in: whether the macro at 4.34s is the same person as the speaker; whether the seated camera is propped or held; whether there are cuts between the product beats or it is one take; and what happens in the last 6.5 seconds after the final sampled frame. The post caption is "Skin care routine for ingrown hairs📈🦷" plus hashtags — **there is no comment-to-get gate in this instance**, which is the one part of this format's usual close that is missing here.

**What carries the value** — The line-up itself: five cheap, named, already-in-the-house products handed over complete, one lifted to the lens per beat with its job and its frequency said out loud. The macro at the top is what buys the attention; the roll-call is what people save the video for. Nothing is demonstrated on skin after the first beat.

**Shoot it** — Two setups, one phone, under twenty minutes.
- *Beat 1:* front camera, as close to the skin as it will focus, one hard light (a window or a bare bulb) raking across so the texture reads. Get the fingers in frame working the skin. Shoot the untreated problem for real — this beat is the whole reach of the video and it cannot be faked or prettied up.
- *Beats 2–6:* front camera, seated, chest-up, propped or held at the same distance for every beat — the framing must not change between products. Real room, real clutter left in shot (the notes on the wall and the cup noodles are doing work — they say nobody set this up). Overhead room light only; let it blow out at the top. Wardrobe is a normal outfit worn normally, nothing styled.
- *Rule for the beats:* one product per beat, held up beside the face with the label facing camera, and one spoken clause per product saying what it does and how often. Never two products explained in one beat unless they are physically held together as one unit, the way the last pair is.
- *Text:* burn in your own speech as subtitles, same lower-left position, one clause at a time. No labels, no graphics, no headline.

**Or generate it** — the macro hook beat:

```
vertical 9:16 extreme macro photograph of {SUBJECT}'s jaw, chin and upper neck,
dense stubble and ingrown hair across the skin, {PRODUCT} smeared over the
jawline, two of {SUBJECT}'s own fingers pinching the skin under the jaw with
product residue on the fingertips, one hard bright light source from the side,
very shallow depth of field, no room visible behind, phone front-camera look,
slight grain, no retouching of the skin, no on-screen text
```

*Motion:* close handheld macro at the skin's own level, no cut, the fingers pulling the skin taut and dragging {PRODUCT} across it while the camera drifts with the hand.

*Text overlay pattern:* hook beat — `watch me {ACTION} this {THING} out` high-centre with a small second line lower. From the cut onward, running speech subtitles, one clause per beat in the same lower-left spot: `you're gonna use {PRODUCT} to {JOB}` → `you're gonna use {PRODUCT} and {PRODUCT} together` → `and use {PRODUCT} once a {INTERVAL}`.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWE_Iw6k0IQ/
