# Pattern interrupt

Story / Hook / Textual hooks (what to say). Checked 2026-10-13.

Breaks the scroll with something the viewer did not expect.

- Use when: Crowded feeds, low-interest categories.
- Phrase: open on an action nobody expects in this setting: the founder drops the product into a bucket of water and keeps talking
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/hook/pattern-interrupt
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/hook/pattern-interrupt.json

## Watch out

- Hooks are judged by the first two seconds of retention on the platform. Test two openings of the same video instead of trusting a formula. (practitioner; The Director Chair hook framework (our 2026 synthesis of @marco.thecreative's TikTok series, OpusClip's hook formulas, a Brandefy article, Meta retention research and a Gemini research report))

## Prompts

### Any chat model

```
Write five opening lines for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. Use the pattern interrupt pattern: breaks the scroll with something the viewer did not expect. Hooks are judged by the first two seconds of retention on the platform. Example: open on an action nobody expects in this setting: the founder drops the product into a bucket of water and keeps talking. Plain spoken language, no hashtags, no emoji. Tell me which one you would post first and why, in one line.
```

## Source

Own words from the Director Chair hook framework (our 2026 synthesis of @marco.thecreative's TikTok series, OpusClip's hook formulas, a Brandefy article, Meta retention research and a Gemini research report)

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.