A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph.
"Freeze frame" is also a drama medium term used in which, during a live performance, the actors/actresses will freeze at a particular, pre-meditated time, to enhance a particular scene, or to show an important moment in the play/production like a celebration. The image can then be further enhanced by spoken word, in which each character tells their personal thoughts regarding the situation, giving the audience further insight into the meaning, plot or hidden story of the play/production/scene. This is known as thought tracking, another Drama Medium.
A very memorable freeze frame is the end of François Truffaut's The 400 Blows, a New Wave film from 1959. Director George Roy Hill frequently made use of the technique when depicting the death of a character, as in The World According to Garp (1982) and in the memorable ending to the classic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Hong Kong director John Woo also makes extensive use of freeze frames shots, usually to gain a better focus on to a character's facial expression or emotion at a critical scene. An early use of the freeze frame in classic Hollywood cinema was Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life where the first appearance of the adult George Bailey (played by James Stewart) on-screen is shown as a freeze frame. This technique is used quite a lot in the film Pieces of April. The director uses this to capture special moments that are very significant.
The TV show, NCIS is one such show that uses the freeze-frame slid in addition to its phoofs- (the three-second black and white previews that are usually seen at the start of a new section of an episode). This originally began with the Season 3 premiere episode, "Kill Ari Part 1" and has continued on this day.
Famous quotes containing the words freeze, frame and/or shot:
“Ice doesn’t freeze three feet thick over night.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The warped, distorted frame we have put around every Negro child from birth is around every white child also. Each is on a different side of the frame but each is pinioned there. And ... what cruelly shapes and cripples the personality of one is as cruelly shaping and crippling the personality of the other.”
—Lillian Smith (1897–1966)
“But the dirty little coward that shot Mister Howard,
He laid poor Jesse in his grave.”
—Unknown. Jesse James (l. Chorus)