Life is nothing if not filled with surprises, and in our social media period every so often we inadvertently seize certainly one of them as they occur. That occurred to a girl on TikTok not too long ago, and it yielded some stunning outcomes that persons are discovering deeply relatable.
A girl unintentionally filmed herself getting laid off whereas capturing a Wes Anderson-inspired TikTok video.
Although layoffs can typically be predicted, getting laid off is sort of at all times a shock. However hardly ever can we get thrown for a loop fairly like TikToker @sohltrain did when she not too long ago bought let go from her job at Amazon.
The video was a part of a Wes Anderson TikTok pattern by which individuals movie a day of their life within the fashion of the filmmaker.
Wes Anderson, the Oscar-nominated author and director behind iconic movies like “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Darjeeling Restricted” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” is understood for his distinctive visible fashion of unpolluted strains, symmetry, and kooky use of coloration. Like many auteurs, he almost at all times works with the identical composer, Alexandre Desplat, who received an Oscar for his “Grand Budapest Lodge” rating in 2015.
The Wes Anderson TikTok pattern takes the long-running “day-in-the-life” pattern on the app, by which individuals movie snippets of their common day to disclose a bit extra about their lives, and crosses it with Anderson’s and Desplat’s distinctive kinds.
The pattern started when British TikToker @hollyhunter101 filmed a day in her life in Southend-On-Sea, UK, in Wes Anderson’s fashion and scored to “Obituary” from Desplat’s soundtrack to Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.”
The pattern has since sparked gazillions of viral copycats as individuals observe the customarily hilarious and shifting outcomes of TikTokers replicating Anderson’s mix of humor and melancholy in their very own lives. And lots of really feel @sohltrain’s video nails the pattern like no different.
Whereas she was filming herself checking her e-mail for her Wes Anderson TikTok pattern video, she bought a discover that she was being laid off.
Jen, @sohltrain’s actual identify, started her video like so many others of the Wes Anderson TikTok pattern. Clear, symmetrical photographs of Jen waking up in mattress, making her morning espresso, brushing her tooth and sitting right down to work all time completely with Desplat’s “Obituary” rating.
But it surely’s when she opens her e-mail that her video takes a tough flip. As she signifies in onscreen textual content, she caught herself “real-time opening the e-mail”—unexpectedly, her hand goes to her mouth in shock as she reads the e-mail no one desires to get about her layoff from Amazon.
Most of us would have shut the digital camera off and had a meltdown, however Jen, in true Andersonian kind, determined to make whimsical, heartfelt artwork out of tragedy anyway. She filmed a clip of her “psychological well being stroll” along with her companion, after which a clip of her strolling her canine with the onscreen textual content, “onward to higher issues.”
It is an ideal distinction to the best way the video opens, with a superbly symmetrical shot of her woefully knocking her head in opposition to a wall with the onscreen textual content, “I used to be attempting to movie a cute Wes Anderson-style [work from home video] and unintentionally filmed myself getting laid off??!”
Individuals thought the video was deeply shifting and completely nailed each the West Anderson TikTok pattern and the occasions we’re residing in.
“I debated if I ought to even publish this,” Jen wrote in her caption, “however in case you bought laid off too simply know you’re not alone.” Individuals have been undoubtedly glad she determined to publish it anyway.
“That is truly the right Wes Anderson aesthetic (so sorry for the layoff!! proper there with ya),” one man commented, whereas one other wrote, “That is truly the MOST correct Wes Anderson video I’ve seen, utter aesthetic tragedy.” Jen quipped in response, “Feeling like an utter aesthetic prepare wreck immediately.”
Many others applauded her for a way she was in a position to flip a horrible state of affairs into one thing lovely and shifting. “You turned your unhappy day right into a relatable piece of artwork, I can inform you’re gonna be okay and do nice issues!” one girl wrote.”You thought you have been doing a pattern however you made a brief movie!” one other commenter posted. “I had feelings!”
One girl identified how Jen’s video encapsulates many Millennials’ lives proper now. “That is millennial-core proper now, Wes Anderson and everybody getting laid off.”
Getting laid off is a horrible expertise—as life and profession coach María Tomás-Keegan instructed us in 2018, shedding a job might be simply as mentally and emotionally taxing as “dying, divorce, or a severe sickness” and may result in the identical points, like melancholy, that these experiences typically do.
Jen’s choice to redirect such a horrible day into one thing lovely and splendidly human was a stroke of brilliance—one that may certainly assist others in these troublesome occasions. And it simply would possibly repay for her, too. As a commenter wrote, “So sorry about your job, however on the intense aspect, with the creativity you’ve proven on this good video, I’m certain a greater job will come to you quickly.” Here is hoping. We’re all pulling for you, Jen.
John Sundholm is a information and leisure author and TikToker who covers popular culture, social media and human curiosity matters
