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| The Conversation (1974), shot by Haskell Wexler |
⚫ The Magic Moment
Each scene of a movie has a best frame, a best screenshot.
Some "best" frames, however, are merely the best of an inferior lot and not worth capturing. Look carefully for something exceptional, and if none is worthy, choose a different scene.
The exceptional moment in the scene often appears at first to last for several frames or at least a few frames, but after a careful review of those frames it invariably turns out that one of them is what I call The Magic Moment, the frame where the scene suddenly lights up, where it suddenly develops a personality, where the magic suddenly happens.
The 19th century Frenchman Henri Cartier Bresson, the father of photography as an art form, called his still photography exquivalent The Decisive Moment.
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⚫6 Tips for Capturing The Magic Moment
1. Work with movies you have seen.
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| Jaws (1975) |
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| Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) |
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| It's a Wonderful Life (1946) |
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| Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
If you have seen a movie at least a few times, you probably know where to find your first Magic Moment. You know something of the plot and probably the scenes marked by humor or pathos or suspense. If you have seen it several times, you definitely know. Exploit this knowledge. Go to these places to find a Magic Moment.
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| High Noon (1952) |
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| Pulp Fiction (1994) |
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| The Wizard of Oz (1939) |
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| The Great Escape (1963) |
2. When you can, work with first-rate cinematography.
Our screenshots are snapshots of paused moving film. Bad cinematography might leave you little to work with. Great cinematography can yield more than a hundred very good to great screenshots from a single movie. I captured 125 from The Big Country (1958).
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| The Big Country (1958) shot by Franz Planer, who also shot Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and The Caine Mutiny (1954) |
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| In the Heat of the Night (1967) shot by Haskell Wexler. He won an Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) |
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| Rio Bravo (1959), shot by Russell Harlan. He shot Red River (1948), Witness for the Prosecution(1957), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) |
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| Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) shot by Karl Struss who won an Oscar for this film. |
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| The Maltese Falcon (1941) shot by Arthur Edeson who also shot All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Frankenstein (1931), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and Casablanca (1942). |
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| Some Like It Hot (1959)shot by Charles Lang who also shot A Farewell to Arms (1932), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), and The Magnificent Seven (1960) |
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| Wuthering Heights (1939)shot by Gregg Toland, for which he won an Oscar. He also shot The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and his greatest achievement, Citizen Kane(1941) |
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| The Graduate (1967) shot by Robert Surtees who also shot Ben Hur (1959) and The Sting (1973) |
3. Use Maximum Resolution.
4. Take several screenshots around the one you believe to be The Magic Moment.
Click on the first screenshot below and then look at Rita Moreno's facial expressions in all four in the series. The Magic Moment for me was the third frame.
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5. If you are unsatisfied when finished, try again in a different scene.
6. Look at the Eyes!
Your screenshots will likely include human faces. Closely compare facial expressions in your series. Look at the eyes! Which screenshot in the series has one or more pairs of eyes that grab your attention immediately? If you have captured a Magic Moment, it will be obvious in hindsight. That frame will likely have an arresting look in the eyes of at least one actor.
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Good luck.
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