Frozen expressions

[beyond the blue]

Just lately on TV I've seen a lot of instances of peoples facial expressions, like smiles and eyes being frozen yet their hair and the background are still moving. the technique is used mostly when a voice over is introducing a person that they later interview. How is this effect achieved and could it be done in Premiere Pro? This effect would be good for some work I have planned.

 

[droj]

peoples facial expressions, like smiles and eyes being frozen yet their hair and the background are still moving

Sounds cruel to me .... I don't think I'd like to do that to people.

 

[ah5168]

In PP I would create a still of the frame I wanted to use using Frame Hold, copy that to another layer then mask out the bits you want to see from the moving layer below. It's simple if the person isn't moving but if their head is moving you will need to move the still and the mask accordingly.

 

[beyond the blue]

Sounds cruel to me .... I don't think I'd like to do that to people.

It looks good done properly, far better than trying to get someone to hold a fake smile for 20 seconds. In my opinion anyway.

 

[garryknight]

What Andrew said, above. In a good video editor, such as DaVinci Resolve, you can use tracking to keep the face in position if the head moves.