Arret

Arret is a French word meaning ‘halt’ or ‘stop’. In filmmaking, it refers to a foundational in-camera special effect, more commonly known as the stop trick or substitution splice. This technique involves shooting a scene, stopping the camera completely, changing something in the scene, and then resuming filming. When the film is played back, the change appears to happen instantaneously and magically. Arret was one of the earliest special effects in cinema history. It gave filmmakers the power to manipulate reality for the first time.

The Magic of Georges Méliès

While not the first to use this method, French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès perfected and popularized the Arret technique. He discovered it by accident in 1896. His camera reportedly jammed while filming a street scene. After fixing the jam and developing the film, he saw a bus suddenly transform into a hearse. This happy accident unlocked a world of creative potential. Méliès quickly adapted the technique for his narrative films. He used it to create fantastical illusions that had never been seen before. His work turned cinema from a simple recording device into a medium for magic and storytelling.

How the Arret Technique Works

The process behind the stop trick is simple in concept but requires careful execution. Filmmakers must follow several key steps to achieve a seamless effect.

1. Lock the Camera: The camera must remain perfectly still. Any movement, however slight, will ruin the illusion. A sturdy tripod is absolutely essential for this technique.
2. Film the Initial Action: The filmmaker records the first part of the scene as normal.
3. Stop the Camera (Arret): The camera is stopped at the precise moment the magical change is supposed to occur. All actors and moving elements in the frame must freeze in their positions.
4. Make the Change: With the camera off, an object or person is added to or removed from the scene. An actor might also be replaced by a different actor or a prop (like a skeleton).
5. Restart the Camera: The filmmaker restarts the camera, continuing the scene from the exact same point. The actors resume their performance.
6. Edit the Splice: In the days of celluloid, this final step was crucial. The stopping and starting of the camera would cause a few frames to be overexposed. An editor had to carefully cut out these flawed frames. They would then splice the two pieces of film together. This created a single, seamless shot where the trick appeared invisible.

Creative Applications and Impact

The Arret technique opened the door for countless visual gags and transformations. Its most common uses included making characters or objects magically appear, disappear, or instantly transform into something else. Méliès used it extensively in films like The Vanishing Lady (1896) to replicate stage magic on screen. He also used it to create the whimsical, otherworldly effects in his masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon (1902). This simple trick laid the groundwork for the entire field of visual effects. It demonstrated that film could be manipulated to create impossible realities. It taught early filmmakers that the basic unit of film was not the scene, but the individual shot, which could be altered and combined to create new meaning and illusions.