Slow Motion

Here you can listen to a small selection of music tracks and download them for testing purposes, which are especially suitable for slow motion. They are characterized by a very calm and not disturbing atmosphere and are partly based on well-known slow songs, so called Sound-a-likes.


IMPORTANT: The songs on this page may NOT be used without a license. Please purchase a license according to the intended use! Thank you very much! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. By telephone: +49 6132 43 088 30 or by e-mail: [email protected]



Slow motion is the special effect of cinema and video in which the movements and actions in frame are seen over a longer than normal duration, giving the feeling that time itself is passing more slowly. Although the effect is only noticeable at the time of projection, it can be prepared in the filming or in the treatment of images.



Slow motion in filming



To obtain the effect of slow motion in movie recording, the camera must be operated at a higher than normal cadence (or shooting speed). For example, the default cadence in sound cinema is 24 frames per second (fps) for both shooting and projection. If we shoot an action at 48 fps, when it is displayed on the screen it will last twice as long as the original time. A 72 fps movie would provide 3 times slower motion, and so on. It was this principle, and a mechanism capable of realizing it, that was patented by Austrian physicist August Musger in 1904, making him the inventor of slow motion.



Slow motion in image processing



The effect can also be obtained in the image treatment. In this case, the filming is performed at a normal cadence and then, through an optical (film) or electronic (video) truncation, each filmed image is duplicated or tripled, etc., obtaining a series of images two or three times longer and, therefore, a longer duration.



Of course, "camera slow" has a higher quality than "truncation slow". Imagine an action that lasts a second: for example, an arm that moves from left to right. In normal shooting, the action would be photographed 24 times, and the arm would occupy 24 different positions in one second. In double slow motion shooting, the same action would be photographed 48 times; when projected at normal speed, the action would last 2 seconds, with the arm occupying 48 positions in sequence. If we took the normal footage and trucked it to obtain a double slow motion, we would have to double each of the 24 frames; the projection would also take 2 seconds, but the arm would occupy only 24 positions, giving a sensation (almost imperceptible) of a "failed", intermittent movement.



It is also clear that the bigger the "slow" (triple, quadruple, etc.), the more evident the intermittence of the movement will become.



Objectives of slow motion



The "slow motion" feature is often used in fiction films to create tension or enlarge climactic moments, to modify the normal rhythm of movements and adjust them to the chosen soundtrack, or more recently, to emphasize scenes of violence.



In scientific films, "slow motion" (especially with cadences 10 or 20 times higher than normal) allows very fast phenomena to be observed in detail, such as the fall of a drop of water, the firing of a revolver, or the movement of the muscles of an animal running.



In broadcasts of sporting events, as well as in video games that simulate these events, the "slow motion" feature is used to review very fast throws and clarify whether the tennis ball bounced inside or outside the court, whether or not a volleyball cut touched the opponent's block, whether or not a soccer player was in an offside position when his partner made the pass, etc.