Freeze Frame — effect skill for cuts & pacing

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Stop on a single frame for a beat, to introduce a character, land a joke or add a caption.

What it does

Built on Beat Freeze Cut by HeyGen (HyperFrames), Apache-2.0. The write-up and recipes below are varg's.

Motion halts on one frame (often with a flash, a zoom or a name card), then resumes or cuts away.

When: Character intros, "record scratch" moments, highlights in sport, the end of a short.

Watch out: Freezing on a blurred frame; pick a sharp frame with a clear expression.

Timing: 0.5–2 s hold; often a 2-frame white flash on entry

Also called: freeze, hold frame, still frame, frame hold

In FFmpeg

Freeze at 2 s for 1 s and resume (tpad clones the last frame; apad keeps audio in sync):

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]split[v1][v2];[v1]trim=0:2,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,tpad=stop_mode=clone:stop_duration=1[f];\
 [v2]trim=2,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[r];[f][r]concat=n=2:v=1:a=0[v];\
 [0:a]asplit[a1][a2];[a1]atrim=0:2,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS,apad=pad_dur=1[fa];\
 [a2]atrim=2,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[ra];[fa][ra]concat=n=2:v=0:a=1[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" out.mp4

Alternative: loop=loop=29:size=1:start=60,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB repeats frame 60.

In HyperFrames

Insert the held frame as an image clip (extract it first with ffmpeg), then resume the video with data-media-start:

<img class="clip" src="held.png" data-start="2" data-duration="1" data-track-index="0" />

Arbitrary mid-source freezes need that pre-extracted still.

In Remotion

<Sequence freeze={60}> (v4.0.476+) or <Freeze frame={60} active={(f) => f >= 60 && f < 90}>; videos pause while frozen.

In CapCut

Playhead on the frame → Freeze in the toolbar (desktop, inserts a ~3 s still) or Edit → Freeze (mobile); drag its edges to set the hold.

Ready-made components

Where this comes from

Use when

Not for

Install

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/bc8c60f39222/take-freeze-frame.mp4 — freeze between two shots, with the timeline strip of the edit. Footage: Big Buck Bunny (2008), (c) copyright 2008, Blender Foundation | www.bigbuckbunny.org, CC BY 3.0; Charge (2022), Blender Studio | studio.blender.org, CC BY 4.0. (credit: Rendered by varg · Big Buck Bunny (2008) + Charge (2022))

More cuts & pacing skills

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