I would never do this for other than my own home videos, This morning I made a video of many clips my wife shot when she and her sister went to New England for a week. I burned the video to DVD with a copy each for us and my sister-in-law. This afternoon I was thinking of the topic of subliminal messages and tried an experiment. I took the video of my wife's trip and put in a one-frame picture of a juicy hamburger. And then played the video clip. You can clearly see the hamburger but then I know it is coming. If I reduced its opacity it might not be so obvious. Has anyone experimented with such things? I use Adobe Premiere Elements 8 for video editing.
I once saw a Youtube video with an old man's face embedded in the background, in about one frame. I don't know how I picked up on it, but I did. None of the other comments referred to it, and the owners of the video never explained to me what it was for. (It was a comedy video, so not sure...)
That was only frame from what I could tell, and it took a lot of tries to get the Youtube player to stop on it!
The opacity was turned down some, from what I remember. Very similar to the faces in The Exorcist.
Now, for yours, first I'd recommend having a friend watch it, and don't let him in on the joke until after he sees it. Ask him to watch 15 seconds before and 15 seconds after and see if it's noticed. Flat out ask him afterwards. Like you said, YOU know it's coming so maybe it's just you. This way you'll know.
Beyond that, try putting it in a spot where the action or some item on the screen blends it and makes it less noticeable. A splashing wave, a quick move of the camera, someone throwing a football--scenes like that provide an opportunity to tuck your burger in there.
The only other suggestion I have is perhaps you can play with the color or levels, etc., and get that burger to blend in a bit more.
Why? What for?
I made the video for my wife and her sister based on a recent trip to Vermont. I slipped in the picture of a hamburger just for fun. I guess to see if she would develop an urge to have a hamburger. Neither one mentioned seeing the burger. Just playing I guess.
I'm about to make one that says "Yes, it is your turn to do the dishes"! I'll even let my kids watch it. :-)
well it is generally banned or restricted in advertizing, movie theatres and such in most places..
we also know using flashing lights to create a strobe effect can cause epileptic seizures in some...
so just becuase we CAN doesn't mean we SHOULD...
this reminds me of the amatuer hypnotist who puts seven men under a hypnotic trance.... then he drops the mic on his toe, and exclaimed "Fook ME!" what happened next, the audience will never forget....
lol!