Grandpa Said He'd Handle Dinner: a fish bigger than you, a cleaver and a straight face

How to make a Grandpa Said He'd Handle Dinner video yourself

You do not need this page to make one. This is how the video is put together, with the prompts for every shot, so you can build it with any picture model and image-to-video model you like.

1. Step 1

   Draw the opening from your photo, cleaver already up

   Use a picture model that takes a reference photo and draw the opening still from the waist up, from just across the counter: the person behind a kitchen island, the huge fish along the bottom of the picture, one hand flat on it and the cleaver raised high. Describe the kitchen and the fish in full, and say nothing in the kitchen has a logo or writing on it.

2. Step 2

   Draw the other three from the first one

   For the close shot over the fish, the wide shot of the whole island and the look into the lens, give the picture model the photo and the opening still as a second reference, and ask it to keep the clothes, the kitchen and the fish from that still but draw the framing you describe: from the chest up, then wide from the hips up, then from the chest up again.

3. Step 3

   Animate each still and cut them together

   Give each still to an image-to-video model and spell out the chopping: how fast, how many, and that the fish stays in one piece. Trim the first shot to 4.5 seconds, the close one to 3.5, the wide one to 4.5 and the look into the lens to 3.5, lay them end to end at 9:16 with hard cuts, and add the sound and the POV line on TikTok.

The shots, second by second

The prompts, shot by shot

Each shot is made in two steps. Give its still prompt to a picture model with your photo as the reference, then give the picture it draws to an image-to-video model with the motion prompt. Add these endings to every prompt: they set the look and keep the faces the same from shot to shot.

1. 0–4.5sThe fish

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A medium shot from the waist up, from just across the counter: the person in the reference photo stands behind a kitchen island, wearing exactly the clothes they wear in the photo, every layer of them, down to the collar, their head and shoulders filling the top half of the frame, face large and in full view. Across the bottom of the picture, an enormous whole raw fish, longer than a grown person is tall, with clean shiny silver scales, lies on its side on the white counter in front of them, so long that its head and tail run past both sides of the picture. One hand is pressed flat on the fish's side, and the other holds a big rectangular kitchen cleaver raised high above their head, about to come down. Behind them is a bright modern home kitchen in the evening: light wood cabinets, two pendant lamps over a white stone kitchen island, a few dark wooden bar stools and a plain white door at the back. Nothing has a logo, label or writing on it. They look down at the fish with a fierce, dead-serious look of concentration, jaw set. They do not smile.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   Immediately they bring the cleaver down hard on the fish and keep chopping, fast and furious, about two chops a second, the cleaver swinging back up above their head and slamming down again every time, their other hand holding the fish flat. Each chop lands on a different spot and leaves a clean notch in the scales; the fish stays in one piece on the counter. Their face stays fierce and dead serious. They do not smile. The camera stays still. It stays the same evening kitchen under the same warm lamp light throughout.

2. 4.5–8sFaster

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A close shot from the chest up: their head, shoulders and both hands fill the frame, leaning in over the counter. The person in the reference photo, wearing exactly the clothes they wear in the photo and in the other frame, every layer of them, down to the collar, stands in the same kitchen as in the other frame, with nothing written on anything; the same enormous silver fish as in the other frame lies across the white counter in front of them, its silver scales along the bottom of the picture. They hold a big rectangular kitchen cleaver up beside their head, about to chop, the other hand flat on the fish. Face in full view, with a fierce, dead-serious look of concentration, jaw set. They do not smile.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   Immediately they chop down on the fish again and again, faster and faster, short hard strokes, about three a second, eyes locked on the fish. Each chop lands on a different spot and leaves a clean notch in the scales; the fish stays in one piece on the counter. They do not smile. The camera stays still. It stays the same evening kitchen under the same warm lamp light throughout.

3. 8–12.5sThe whole fish

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A wide shot of the whole kitchen island from just across it: the person in the reference photo stands behind the middle of the island, seen from the hips up, wearing exactly the clothes they wear in the photo and in the other frame, every layer of them, down to the collar, in the same kitchen as in the other frame, with nothing written on anything. The same enormous silver fish as in the other frame lies across the white counter in front of them, the whole fish in view from head to tail and longer than the island top: its head sticks out past one end of the island and its tail droops over the other end. They grip a big rectangular kitchen cleaver with both hands high above their head, facing the camera, face in full view under the lamps, with a fierce, dead-serious look of concentration, jaw set. They do not smile.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   Immediately they bring the cleaver down with both hands and all their weight onto the middle of the fish, lift it high over their head and bring it down again, four big chops, the counter shaking under each one. Each chop lands on a different spot and leaves a clean notch in the scales; the fish stays in one piece on the counter. Their face stays fierce and dead serious. They do not smile. The camera stays still. It stays the same evening kitchen under the same warm lamp light throughout.

4. 12.5–16sDinner, handled

   Still prompt

   Copy

   A close shot from the chest up: their head and shoulders fill the frame. The person in the reference photo, wearing exactly the clothes they wear in the photo and in the other frame, every layer of them, down to the collar, stands behind the counter in the same kitchen as in the other frame, with nothing written on anything; the same enormous silver fish as in the other frame lies across the white counter in front of them, along the bottom of the picture. They have stopped chopping and stand up straight, a big rectangular kitchen cleaver resting flat on one shoulder, looking straight into the lens with a proud, dead-serious look, mouth closed. They do not smile.

   Motion prompt

   Copy

   They hold still, a little out of breath, looking straight into the lens, then give one slow, proud nod, as if dinner is handled. Mouth closed. They do not smile. The camera stays still. It stays the same evening kitchen under the same warm lamp light throughout.

Where it goes wrong

• Say where the ends of the fish go

  Told only that the fish is longer than the island, a picture model shrinks it to fit and lays a big but ordinary salmon neatly along the top, which is what one of our test stills did. Say its head sticks out past one end of the island and its tail droops over the other, and in the closer shots that it runs past both sides of the picture.

• Start with the cleaver already up

  A still with the cleaver resting on the board makes a clip that spends its first second deciding what to do. Draw it raised high, about to come down, and start every motion with "Immediately", so the chopping begins on the first frame and the cut lands on it.

• Keep the fish in one piece

  Tell a video model only to chop and it may cut the fish in two, and then the next shot has it whole again. Say each chop lands on a different spot and leaves a clean notch in the scales, and that the fish stays in one piece on the counter, in every motion.

• Call it a kitchen cleaver

  Describe it as what it is, a big rectangular kitchen cleaver over a fish on a kitchen counter. Words that make a raised blade sound like a threat are the ones content filters refuse, and a refused still means no video at all.

• Keep the straight face

  Left alone, a model makes people smile, and the joke is that they take this fish completely seriously. Say "They do not smile" in every still and every motion, with a fierce look of concentration and the jaw set.

• Only people who said yes

  Use your own photo or one of someone who agreed, grandpas included. Do not use celebrities, the character from the original clip, or anyone who has not agreed to be in the video: a realistic video of a real person in a kitchen they were never in, made without their consent, can hurt them, and platforms take it down.

• Label it as AI-generated

  Switch on TikTok's AI-generated content label before you post. A grandpa really taking on a giant fish is the kind of thing people believe, and viewers trust a post that says it is AI.