As good as we are, Murphy's Law can choose the most inopportune times to stop our recording – when a performer collapses, the bouquet is tossed, or the final score is made. That's when working with a photographer becomes invaluable. If you secure the rights, you can use their defining image in your production. As videographers we often rely on freeze frames to cover such moments, but another angle and a well trained eye should always be welcome. Still photography and film certainly have a new level of integration with DSLRs shooting video, and inherently, video involves pictures, so adding stills to video should be natural. The most famous method for using stills in video is the found in historical documentaries via the Ken Burns effect, aptly named for the extensive use of zooming in and adding motion to stills throughout his films. This allows for the direction of viewer attention to specific subjects and can provide a close up instead of an otherwise stagnant shot. Depending on the subject, you may need to exercise the same practice as historical documentaries if no footage is available, as if we produced a biography of Benjamin Franklin during the 1770s. Another common, though less conventional way to use stills is to split up the screen with two, four or a montage of photos. In this case, black space around the photo isn't necessarily bad. More films are using techniques that freeze moving video and add graphics to a still, then return to the regular motion of the video. Combine these with the creative tools found in photo editing programs, and stills can become the highlight of a production. Even titles and behind the scenes extras are excellent areas of production to make use of stills, so take the camera out and get 30 or 120 frames per second, but don't underestimate the power of one frame.
