Stop Trick

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:

    when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest
    grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
    And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him
    When are you going to stop people killing whales!
    Gregory Corso (b. 1930)

    If thou must love me, let it be for nought
    Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
    “I love her for her smile—her look—her way
    Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
    That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
    A sense of pleasant ease on such a day”—
    Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)