Stop trick
The stop trick is a simple film trick developed before 1900 .
A shot is recorded, then the camera stops. Something in the picture is now changed, for example an object is removed or added. Then the recording continues. When the film is projected (or the recording is played back), the two settings appear as one, but suddenly an object disappears or appears. So you can use this trick to make objects or people suddenly appear or disappear. The camera must be fixed on a tripod to ensure that the rest of the image is congruent. The light must not be changed either.
The invention of the stopping trick and its modification of stop-motion is commonly attributed to Georges Méliès . However, the beheading of Queen Mary in Alfred Clark's 1895 period film The Execution of Mary Stuart is recognized as the first visual effect. When the executioner had the beheading ax at the top, the camera was stopped, the executioner's actor maintained this posture until the actress was quickly exchanged for a doll ( in the technical jargon "hold scene" ), then the camera ran again, the executioner drops the ax and cuts off the (doll's) head, which falls spectacularly downwards. Due to the unnoticeable cut of the film (raise hatchet, hatch up // hatchet up, cut hatch), the deceptively similar impression arises that the hatchet was only up for a moment and - successfully creepy - the actress has actually just been beheaded. As the “mother” of all trick technology, this take is both compulsory and cult at the same time for budding filmmakers.
The trick was used excessively in the American television series The Enchanting Jeannie , always accompanied by a dubbed, spring-like sound to portray Jeannie's magic.
A further development of the stop trick is the stop-motion film technique, with which entire sequences and even entire films can be produced.