Internet killed the freeze frame.

Chris Santucci

Chris Santucci

Veteran
Sadly, it seems as though the freeze frame has gone the way of the Dodo. Anytime in the recent past I tried to use a freeze frame in an edit, clients always think it's some kind of technical error or mistake. It's gotten to the point where I won't even try to use them anymore. I was recently visiting a large post house that built 3 edits of some footage I shot for a large corporate client and their editor tried to incorporate a bunch of freeze frames in all that work, but was told that it looked like a "buffering error," hahaha.

Is ANYone getting away with freeze frames anymore?
 
I too always thought that freeze frames alone seemed like errors.

It's best to include a slight zoom (most common) or text or some other symbol supporting that this is part of the video.

(In cinema it's usually accompanied by narration.)
 
NorBro said:
I too always thought that freeze frames alone seemed like errors.

It's best to include a slight zoom (most common) or text or some other symbol supporting that this is part of the video.

(In cinema it's usually accompanied by narration.)
Click to expand...

So true.

This is one of my favourite ads that nailed the technique. I ripped it off in so many music vids back in the day...

https://youtu.be/9gvTS_bZisQ
 
NorBro said:
I too always thought that freeze frames alone seemed like errors.

It's best to include a slight zoom (most common) or text or some other symbol supporting that this is part of the video.

(In cinema it's usually accompanied by narration.)
Click to expand...

I seem to recall a lot of freeze frames in Soderbergh movies, maybe the Oceans series, can't remember. Never understood until now why people thought they were a mistake, but yeah, a graphic treatment or zoom would help sell it.
 
Chris Santucci said:
I seem to recall a lot of freeze frames in Soderbergh movies, maybe the Oceans series, can't remember. Never understood until now why people thought they were a mistake, but yeah, a graphic treatment or zoom would help sell it.
Click to expand...

Chances are they did it right if there were...or there was audio to help as mentioned.
 
Also, if it is truly frozen, a lot of automated QC tools will flag it as duplicate frames, which is another reason why a true freeze has died. Human intervention has caused people to put some slight motion into any freeze to get around the QC machines. Through sometimes you can introduce some noise which may be enough motion to get the software to think pixels are still moving.
 
The internet giveth and the internet taketh away...

It’s funny how it has made something that was acceptable now unacceptable, but has largely made what was once unacceptable now acceptable and sort of “preferred”.
 
I have used it in corporate videos where whatever the person is doing gets frozen and text is put op to outline a point. So the new text would take away the buffering error notion. Boring but seemed to work well.
 
Run&Gun said:
The internet giveth and the internet taketh away...

It’s funny how it has made something that was acceptable now unacceptable, but has largely made what was once unacceptable now acceptable and sort of “preferred”.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think of vertical video, and even axial jump cuts which seem have become universally acceptable (probably because they don't look as bad on small screens).

Bassman2003 said:
I have used it in corporate videos where whatever the person is doing gets frozen and text is put op to outline a point. So the new text would take away the buffering error notion. Boring but seemed to work well.
Click to expand...

I notice in films, freeze frames are accompanied by narration, but I'm thinking more about MOS image pieces with just music. I wonder if a transition to a frame hold would be more palatable?
 
That old Beck "Devil's Haircut" music video used freeze frames to great effect, but they were with zooms. I've occasionally gotten away with them, but they need to be motivated by VO, stream of consciousness, zoom or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top