A stop trick (also referred to as "locking off" or a "Jeannie Cut") is a film special effect. It occurs when an object is filmed, then while the camera is off, the object is moved out of sight of the camera, then the camera is turned back on. When the film is watched, it thus seems to the viewer that the object disappears.
Georges Méliès accidentally developed the stop trick while filming street traffic in Paris. The gate mechanism of his camera jammed; the traffic continued moving normally but Méliès's camera stopped filming until he could free the gate mechanism. Later, when he screened the printed footage of the street traffic, he was astonished to see an omnibus suddenly turn into a hearse. What actually happened is that the omnibus moved out of frame after the camera jammed, to be replaced by the hearse before the camera continued filming. Méliès used this technique to do magical tricks. For example, he would film a magician and a girl; the magician would make a gesture and Melies stopped the camera. He told the girl to go out of sight and started the camera again. When viewing the finished film, it looked like the girl disappeared suddenly after the magician's gesture.
This technique is not to be confused with the stop motion technique, in which the entire shot is created frame by frame.
Famous quotes containing the words stop and/or trick:
“What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”
—Ann Landers (b. 1918)
“Its better to be fooled than to be suspiciousMthat the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the work of the devil.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)