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Motion in Stillness

Motion in Stillness

Index
03
Client
Halcyon Media

A short film assembled almost entirely from locked-off frames, where the only movement belongs to the subject. Stillness becomes the thing that makes motion legible.

Every setup was shot on a fixed head at 96fps and held far longer than is comfortable. Cutting it meant resisting the instinct to move the camera whenever a shot got quiet — the piece only works because nothing rescues the viewer from the frame.

Working Process

Building the Edit

With no camera movement available as a tool, the entire rhythm of the film had to be found in duration and order.

Role
Director / Editor
Duration
5 Weeks
01

Frame Studies

Two weeks of test frames, held for ninety seconds each, to find which compositions survived being looked at for that long.

02

Choreography

Movement was blocked to the edges of the frame, so the subject enters and leaves rather than performing at the centre.

03

High-Speed Capture

Everything shot at 96fps on a fixed head. No handheld, no dolly, no reframing mid-take.

04

Duration Pass

The edit was cut three times at different average shot lengths before settling on the slowest version.

From the collaboration

Ava Thompson

Brand Manager, PureHarvest Organics

“We expected a film. What we got was closer to a series of photographs that happen to breathe. It has outlasted every other asset from that campaign.”