Eliminating shaky frame holds

In a previous blog I mentioned I'd talk about getting good frame holds, so I'd better be true to my word. See my blog about getting good slow motion in Premiere for details on why frame holds can be shaky - I won't duplicate that here.

Shaky frame holds can be a sure sign of amateur work, but it's very easy to fix. The basic rule is this: ALWAYS deinterlace your frame hold clip (field options on the clip). It's now a still shot, so you don't need interlacing, and it can cause shakiness in any area of the frame where details differs from field to field (which is why someone's hand may be shaky in the frame hold when the rest is perfectly still). Some people prefer to simply export the frame and put the still .bmp or .tif on the timeline - that works too.

One other guideline - do not stretch out a frame hold clip by using speed - move the end point instead. Slowing it down too much (even though it's only one frame) can cause Premiere to do wierd things. If you're already at the end of your clip and need it to frame hold for more time, then repeat it - don't stretch the time. If you can't repeat it because you want a consistent zoom/pan across the entire frame hold, then put the individual clips in a separate sequence and then nest the sequence and zoom in on the sequence (which will be one "clip").

One other note - with CS3's time remapping feature, you can now gradually slow the footage down to a still, something I've longed to be able to do inside of Premiere for quite some time. Very cool. The deinterlacing rule still applies on the still frame.