Quick answer
Starrd's Is This How You Cut It? template recreates the 'POV: it's your first time cooking' clip posted on TikTok by @s.nemz on November 10, 2026, from one photo. You stand behind a white kitchen island with a huge whole raw tuna on it, press one hand flat on the fish and, with a completely straight face, whirl a big butcher's cleaver wildly over your head and slam it down right beside your own fingers, three times. It is one unbroken 9-second take in the original kitchen, with the original sound, every swing and chop on the same frames as the original. You keep your own face, hair and outfit, and the burned-in caption is left off. Works with pets too. 1 photo, 9 seconds, vertical 9:16, 480p, Seedance 2.5, 150 credits (about $7.50).
Nine seconds, one fish, three chops too close for comfort. One photo puts you, or your pet, behind the island in the first-time-cooking clip from @s.nemz:
Is This How You Cut It?
One hand on a giant tuna, a cleaver whirling overhead, three chops beside your fingers. 1 photo, 9 seconds.
What You Get
- The whole clip in 9 seconds: three overhead windmills and three chops, each on the original's frame.
- One unbroken take in the original kitchen, with the giant whole tuna on the white island.
- Your own face and outfit. Hair, facial hair, glasses and every layer you wear carry over for the whole take.
- A dead-straight face. The joke only works if the cook never cracks, so the template keeps it serious.
- No caption. The original's burned-in "POV" text is left off.
- The original sound.
- Pets welcome: a dog or cat stands upright with real paws.
What the Video Actually Is
@s.nemz posted it on TikTok on November 10, 2026, captioned "Is this how you cut it?", with "POV: its your first time cooking" across the top. It passed 1.1 million plays and 53,000 likes within a day.
He stands in a modern apartment kitchen at night, behind a long white island with an enormous whole raw tuna lying across it. One hand stays pressed flat on the fish, fingers spread. With the other he lifts a big cleaver and whirls it over his head in wild circles, then slams it down a hand's width from his own fingers. He stops, stares at the fish, lines up his fingers again, and does it twice more. His face never changes.
Why it suits AI: it is one fixed shot of one person, one prop and one fish, with no dialogue. One photo casts the cook, and every swing can be copied move for move.
The 9 Seconds
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0.0s | One hand flat on the tuna, cleaver held low |
| 0.4s | The cleaver whirls over the head in big circles |
| 1.4s | Chop 1, right beside the fingers |
| 1.6s | The cleaver swings back low beside the hip |
| 2.4s | Dead stop: staring at the fish, lining up the fingers |
| 4.0s | The cleaver goes back up and whirls overhead |
| 4.75s | Chop 2 |
| 5.75s | Leaning in, lining the blade up low beside the fish |
| 7.75s | A flick of the wrist, wide arcs overhead |
| 8.4s | Chop 3, closest yet |
| 8.6s | Straight back up for another |
Your Look
Your face and outfit come from your photo: the same hair, facial hair and glasses, in the clothes you have on, jacket and all. If your photo is cropped at the chest, the template finishes the outfit with plain bottoms and shoes in the same style.
Use a clear, front-facing photo with the whole face lit. You stand fairly far back behind the island, so a sharp face and a recognisable outfit do more than a close-up.
The Fastest Way
Is This How You Cut It?
One photo. A giant tuna, a whirling cleaver and three chops beside your fingers. 9 seconds, one take.
One photo, 150 credits (about $7.50), no prompt. Vertical 9:16, 480p, 9 seconds, with the original sound. Works with pets. Find it in Comedy & Viral.
Build It Yourself
1. Time every swing. There are no cuts, so the work is in when the cleaver goes up and when it comes down: chops at about 1.4, 4.75 and 8.4 seconds, with still stretches in between.
2. Make one reference sheet. A single image with the empty kitchen and the tuna on top, then a front, three-quarter, side and back view of the cook, keeps the face and outfit steady for the whole take.
Image 1 is a photo of one person. Make a photoreal vertical character reference sheet in two bands separated by thin black lines. Top band: a modern apartment kitchen at night with light wood upper cabinets, black lower cabinets and a round white pendant lamp, and a long white island in the foreground with a huge whole raw tuna lying across it, with nobody in it. Bottom band: the person from Image 1, full length, from the front, three-quarter, side and back, in their own outfit, arms at their sides, nothing in their hands. The kitchen softly out of focus behind them. No text.
3. Drive a video model with the clip. Feed the sheet, your photo and the clip to a model that copies motion from a reference video, and give each swing and chop its time. Starrd's Character Swap does the swap on your own clip.
Common Mistakes
The caption coming back. A burned-in caption survives even in a depth map as a faint relief, and the model redraws it as garbled text. Remove it from the reference before you render.
A cut-up fish. Say the tuna stays whole. Otherwise the model starts slicing it open.
The cook smiling. The joke is the straight face. Say the face stays serious and never looks at the camera.
A jacket turning into a sweater. Fast arm swings make outer layers drift. Name every layer and say it stays on in every frame.
Blood. Say every chop lands beside the hand and nobody gets hurt.
Related Reading
- How to Make the Nazeer Bakra Goat AI Video: another one-photo, one-take viral clip that works with pets
- How to Make the 'Bombaclat Wallahi' AI Video: a one-photo food-truck skit
- How to Make the Careless Whisper Car AI Video: a silent one-take skit with one prop
- How to Put Yourself in Any Video With AI: character swap on your own clip
- Viral AI Video Trends 2026: every trend we've turned into a template this year
