Optical Effects: Fades and Freezes
When you want to fade in or fade out you must again mark your cutting copy indicating the effect you require. If you want a scene to fade in, mark an elongated letter V with the narrowest part at the start of the fade in and the wide part at the point where the picture is fully faded in. For a fade out simply reverse the symbol: the wide part starts where the fade out begins and, by the point where the two sides of the V meet, the picture will have faded out completely. You do not need to allow for an overlap with fades. The laboratory will simply cue their printing machines to fade in or fade out at the appropriate point. Again, the lengths of a fade are calculated in frames. Normally 8, 16, 24, 32 frames and so on.
Freeze Frames
You may sometimes want to hold one frame of a particular shot and repeat it without continuous movement. This is known as ‘freezing frame’ and it is an optical effect. The quality of freeze frame shots is often far from good. Grain is more pronounced and definition will suffer. It is, of course, essential to choose a frame free of blemishes. How do you order freeze frame dupes?
A freeze frame cannot be printed in the course of printing ordinary copies of a film. You have to arrange for duplicate master materials to be produced. So, if you want to freeze at a particular frame, first mark the frame on the cutting copy. Then look for the nearest edge number and pick one frame on which a definite part of the number appears. Perhaps the number is DZ47954. Make a note of the part of the number nearest the frame you want to freeze. If the figures 54 at the end of the edge number occupy one individual frame, count the number of frames between that frame and the frame you want to freeze. Then write the whole edge number on a sheet of paper putting a small box round the figures 54, You have now pinpointed one specific frame and you can count the number of frames betweeen that frame and the frame you want to freeze. Write that down on the paper too. In between the two numbers you must again write either a plus or a minus sign. If the frame you want to freeze is on the side of the number nearest the head of the roll (the lower edge number) put a minus sign. If it is on the opposite side — nearer the tail of the roll — put a plus sign. You have then pinpointed the exact frame you want to freeze.
1. Marking fades
To make a fade out on your cutting copy (1) draw an elongated letter V with the wide point starting where the fade out should start and the point where the two sides meet where it should end. For a fade in, reverse the process.
2. Pinpointing a freeze frame
By using edge numbers you can pinpoint the frame you want to freeze. Pick the nearest edge numbers; D 247954. Note that the figures 54 appear alone on one frame. Box those figures to identify that one frame. Now count the number of frames between it and the frames you want to freeze. You are moving towards the tail and towards higher numbers, so use a plus sign to point out that the freeze frame is eight frames further on—at D 247954 + 8.