“We could do a parody with this stepping stool thing,” Senior Jack Johnson said. “It says step on the thing, which is obvious, so we could do something with that.”

Senior Jack Gilinsky’s eyes dart from the floor to his friend, Johnson, as a football game plays in the background.

“I don’t know man, I don’t think this is good enough,” Gilinsky said.

Gilinsky and  Johnson are pressed to post a new Vine. It has been two days since they have posted on their account @jackandjack.

Vine is a social media mobile application that allows users to post six and a half second videos to their followers. @jackandjack have over 344 thousand followers. Their followers could fill up Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium four times. Gilinsky and Johnson have posted over 90 videos. Their video Nerd Vandalism, which went viral on vine, is what gained them many of their current followers.

“It affected the popularity of other Vines on our account because more people were checking our account out and also helped us gain around 50,000 followers in about 5 days,” Gilinsky said. “We’re waiting for our next great idea. We haven’t had any outrageously great ideas like Nerd Vandalism.”

Until the next viral video, Gilinsky and Johnson need to post Vines frequently to maintain their followers.

“I am just trying to think about how to get that idea better,” Gilinsky said.

Gilinsky and Johnson turn their attention back to the football game. A silence sets in as they realize their stepping stool idea is not funny enough to post on their vine. As the game goes to a commercial, Gilinsky starts to pace around the room throwing out ideas.

“We could do something with the low ceiling about raising the roof,” Gilinsky said.

“Nah,” Johnson said.

Gilinsky and Johnson go back and forth.

“What if we did a song parody like, ‘Maybe it’s the way she dunks’, and then reference Brittney Griner,” Johnson said.

“I just don’t know if everyone would think it is funny,” Gilinsky said.

Johnson gets up and starts trying to flip a hat on his head while Gilinsky bounces a ball off the wall, catching it as he watches the football game progress. The game enters the 4th quarter, another person texts his mom to see what his plans are after the game. His mom responds with “coolio”.

“We should do a vine about what the moms think we say after they try to text hip to us,” Johnson said. “It could be like, my mom is so hip and with it, or something like that.”

“Or something like, she’s young, hip and down with the latests trends,” Gilinsky said.

Gilinsky and Johnson start to rehearse the vine, fleshing out every detail in the six and a half seconds. Their initial idea was to show the actual reaction to the text compared to how moms think teens react. As they rehearsed, they realized that they wouldn’t have time to do both.

“We should just do how moms think we react,” Gilinsky said. “Everyone already knows how we really react.”

Details continue to be rehearsed; the diction, the pause between each other’s sentences, how long they hold their high-five, the specific words they need to say.

“Should I say wow or should you?” Gilinsky said.

“You should,” Johnson said.

“Should we say text talk, text lingo, or text abbreviation?” Gilinsky said.

“Text talk,” Johnson said.

“Will we look at the camera after high-fiving?” Gilinsky said.

“No, just end the vine after a second of high-fiving,” Johnson said.

Once the details were decided, it was time to start shooting. The room quiets as Gilinsky and Johnson figure a few quick details. Another person holding the camera counts down. Three, two, one.

Take one: Gilinsky stutters a bit.

Take two: They miss the high-five.

Take three: Gilinsky laughs and then slaps himself to gain composure.

Take four, five, six, seven and eight all failed because of either Johnson or Gilinsky stumbling on their words. Take nine there was a touchdown mid-filming.

“Repetition makes us better, especially the detailed ones,” Gilinsky said.

Take ten had no stutters, no laughing, no touchdowns. Gilinsky goes to review the vine before posting.

“I think we need to redo it, the high-five wasn’t held long enough,” Gilinsky said.

Johnson goes over to look at the video and agrees. They sit back down to film take eleven.

As take eleven ended, Gilinsky and Johnson look at each other knowing that the vine was perfect. They run over to the phone to review the vine. Gilinsky takes over five minutes reviewing everything, the title, the description and the vine.

“Just post it already,” Johnson said.

“I am just re-reading it to make sure it is good,” Gilinsky said.

“Jack it is fine,” Johnson said.

Finally Gilinsky is content with the vine and posts it.

Coming soon, WTV asks Jack and Jack how their newfound fame has affected their lives. Click here to subscribe to this year’s WTV podcast.