Quick answer
Starrd's The Notebook (Tigran Gertz Version) template recreates the viral TikTok skit by @tigrangertz, "If The Notebook was in a Construction Company", from three photos. Photo 1 shouts "Why didn't you text me? I waited for you for seven years. Now it's too late." Photo 2 answers "I texted you 365 times. I texted you every day for a year. It wasn't over. It still isn't over." and walks over for the hug, every line lip-synced to the original voices. Then the camera whips across the yard to photo 3, standing on a mini excavator and making the rain with a garden hose. Everyone keeps their own face, hair, glasses and outfit. People only. 3 photos, 30 seconds, ten shots, vertical 9:16, 480p, Seedance 2.5, 250 credits (about $12.50).
Thirty seconds, ten shots, one garden hose. Three photos put you and two friends in Tigran Gertz's construction-site version of The Notebook rain scene:
The Notebook (Tigran Gertz Version)
Two of you replay the 'Why didn't you text me?' rain scene. The third is making the rain with a hose. 3 photos, 30 seconds.
What You Get
- The whole skit in 30 seconds: the fight, the hug and the hose reveal.
- All three parts cast from your photos. Photo 1 shouts, photo 2 answers, photo 3 holds the hose.
- Lip sync on every line, in the original voices, with each mouth closed while the other person talks.
- Your own outfits, soaked for the two in the rain.
- Your own faces. Hair, facial hair, tattoos and glasses carry over into every shot.
- Every cut where the skit cuts. Nine hard cuts, each within two frames of the original.
- The original sound.
What the Video Actually Is
@tigrangertz posted it on TikTok on October 14, 2026, with the on-screen caption "If The Notebook was in a Construction Company". It has passed 9.7 million plays, 1 million likes and 65,000 saves.
Two landscapers in matching work shirts stand in what looks like pouring rain in a fenced backyard and play the rain scene from The Notebook (2004) completely straight, with one word changed: "Why didn't you text me? It wasn't over for me. I waited for you for seven years. Now it's too late." "I texted you 365 times. I texted you every day for a year." "You texted me?" "Yes. It wasn't over. It still isn't over." They crash into a hug. Then the camera pulls back and whips across the yard, where a third worker is standing on a mini excavator, spraying a garden hose into a clear blue sky.
Why it suits AI: it is nine close-ups of two faces, one hug and one wide shot. Three photos cast every part, and because the dialogue cuts back and forth one face at a time, each line can be timed to the frame.
The 30 Seconds
| Time | Shot | Who is on screen |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0s | "Why didn't you text me? Why?!" | Photo 1 |
| 3.2s | Wipes the rain off the face, stricken | Photo 2 |
| 4.7s | "I waited for you for seven years. Now it's too late." | Photo 1 |
| 9.8s | "I texted you 365 times." | Photo 2 |
| 13.1s | A hand over the eyes | Photo 1 |
| 14.9s | "...every day for a year." | Photo 2 |
| 16.8s | "You texted me?" | Photo 1 |
| 18.9s | "It wasn't over." | Photo 2 |
| 19.9s | Hands up, face crumpling | Photo 1 |
| 21.2s | "It still isn't over." A step, a reach, and the hug | Photo 2, then both |
| 25.5s | The camera pulls back to the two of them, full length | Both |
| 27.0s | Whip-pan across the yard to the mini excavator and the garden hose | Photo 3 |
Your Look
Each face and outfit comes from its own photo: the same hair, glasses and tattoos, in the clothes you have on. Photos 1 and 2 are soaked, with wet hair and wet clothes. Photo 3 stays dry and is seen once, small and far away, the way the original shows him.
The roles go by photo order, not by who you are: photo 1 always shouts first, photo 2 always walks over for the hug, photo 3 always holds the hose. Reorder the photos to swap the parts.
The hug is seen full length, so if a photo is cropped at the chest the template finishes the outfit with plain bottoms and shoes in the same style.
Use clear, front-facing photos with the whole face lit for photos 1 and 2. Nine of the ten shots are close-ups from the chest up, so those two faces carry the video. Photo 3 is on screen for about a second and a half, in the distance.
The Fastest Way
The Notebook (Tigran Gertz Version)
Three photos. The fight, the hug, and the friend with the hose. 30 seconds, lip-synced.
Three photos, 250 credits (about $12.50), no prompt. Vertical 9:16, 480p, 30 seconds, with the original sound. People only. Find it in Comedy & Viral.
Build It Yourself
1. Mark the cuts and the lines by frame. The skit has nine cuts in the first 21 seconds, then one continuous take for the hug and the reveal. Write down which face is on screen for every range and when each line starts and stops. Four lines are heard while the other person is on screen, so note whose mouth stays shut for each.
2. Make one reference sheet. A single image with the yard on top, then a front, three-quarter, side and back view of each of the three, keeps the faces and outfits steady across the cuts and gives the full-length hug something to copy.
Image 1, Image 2 and Image 3 are photos of three people. Make a photoreal vertical character reference sheet in four bands separated by thin black lines. Top band: a sunny backyard job site with dark tilled soil and a tall wooden fence, heavy rain pouring on one small patch of it, and beside it a small yellow mini excavator on a dirt mound with a garden hose spraying an arc of water into a blue sky. Second band: the person from Image 1, full length, from the front, three-quarter, side and back, in their own outfit, drenched, standing in heavy rain. Third band: the person from Image 2 the same way, drenched. Bottom band: the person from Image 3 the same way, completely dry. Same faces, hair, glasses and tattoos in every panel. No text.
3. Drive a video model with the clip. Feed the sheet, your three photos and the clip to a model that copies motion from a reference video, say who is on screen in each shot, and give every line its start and stop time. Keep the voices on the clip so the mouths have something to follow. Starrd's Character Swap does the swap on your own clip.
Common Mistakes
The wrong face after a cut. One line ("It wasn't over for me") starts over one person's shot and ends on the other's. A model that hears a voice running across a cut tends to stay on the first face. Mute that fragment in the reference clip's sound, or say exactly who is on screen from the first frame of the next shot.
A mouth moving to the other person's line. Four lines play over the listener's face. Give each mouth its own windows and say it stays shut for the rest.
No rain. A motion reference carries bodies and camera moves, not falling water. Ask for the rain in every shot, and expect to push on it: wet hair and clothes come easily, a visible downpour does not.
Sunglasses that vanish. The original performer wipes a hand across his eyes in the second shot, and a model will take glasses off to copy it. Say the hand wipes around them and that eyewear stays on in every shot.
Everyone in the same clothes. The original two wear matching work shirts. Say each person keeps their own outfit, including in the wide shot of the hug.
Subtitles drawn into the picture. The TikTok has a title card and burned-in captions. Say that no words appear on screen.
Related Reading
- How to Make the Bad Sekki 'Wing Man' AI Video: another three-photo skit, with no dialogue at all
- How to Make 'The Hot Chick' Ice Cream Scene AI Video: a two-photo movie scene, lip-synced
- How to Make the 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' AI Video: a two-photo couple edit in black and white
- How to Make the 'I Love The Smiths' AI Video: the (500) Days of Summer elevator scene
- How to Make the Rush Hour 'Push the Button' AI Video: a movie standoff for up to three friends
- 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
