Film still
A film still, sometimes called a publicity still, is a photograph taken on the set of a movie or television program during production, primarily used for promotional purposes.
Types of stills
Shots can be taken as part of the filming, separately posed, or taken from the reel or recording.
Part of filming
Generally, a still photographer is present on the set, shooting alongside principal photography, using "Sound Blimp" to silence the noise of the SLR's shutter so that they do not interfere with the shooting.
Posed
Some shots are posed and taken separately from the shooting of the movie proper, and this was done particularly in the early stages of film – one of the most famous images in film,[1] Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel, singing on a barrel, was a posed still.[citation needed]
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 Original Still [2] |
This can be done to recreate shots from the movie, or create compositions that do not appear in the movie itself, but are part of the movie's world, featuring the dressed actors and set.
Captures
Alternatively, a print can also be made from a frame of a production reel. This is less desirable, as the quality is inferior: the smaller negatives of cine film produce grainier images than do larger stills negatives, and the slow shutter speed used in motion-picture photography (typically 1/48th of a second) produces still images that are more prone to blur.
For stills from an animated cartoon, the original animation cel may be photographed or, in the case of a computer animation, the frame may be re-rendered.
Where the source material is no longer available, an image may be captured from a recording.