Hi,
To see if something works, you need to just do it and see how it feels when the whole scene is put together.
Freeze frames were real popular in U.S. commercials in the mid 90’s. You could not watch a series of commercials (e.g., four 30 second commercials during a “commercial break†without seeing one or two freeze frames (or more) ending a commercial, then fade to black. Freeze frames are great for capturing a peak action moment, dramatic facial expression, stuff like that. Personally, I like freeze frames as a sort of equivalent of visual exclamation points and think they are underused these days.
In my opinion, which believe me applies only to me and does not represent any fundamental principle of editing blah blah blah, in your scene one, this image is not strong enough so that I would give it a freeze frame (unless this is the best shot of my shipmate and I want to stretch out this particular look (bland handsomeness) for the benefit of his fans); in your second scene, the freeze frame would have been stronger if I had captured the peak action in close-up before zooming out; also, the way it rejoins the action is like the kind of “jump cut†that used to be a no-no but today is routine and O.K. A way to beat this rap is with a slightly different camera position when the action continues.
That being said, for personal cinema, one thing to remember: There Are No Rules; You Make The Rules.
Re jump cuts (speaking of jumping around!), there was Before "Breathless" (English translation of title) by French director Godard in the 60’s, and After "Breathless." At the time it came out, this film was hard to watch and seemed sloppy/unprofessional due to its binge of jump cuts. Saw it again about 3 years ago, didn’t even notice the jump cuts (they are now so common) and the film just dragged. Still, if interested at all in film history, Breathless is a major milestone (not the U.S. remake with Gere!!!). Good article in Wikipedia on the field of jump cuts in film editing.
Shoot and edit lots of scenes; only way to get good/great at it….
REGARDS ... TOM 8)
