Single static photograph — captured on set or extracted from finished footage. Used for press releases, posters, promotional materials.
A still is an unposed photograph captured from an ongoing or completed production—either during filming or later extracted from the final material. For many outsiders, it is the only visual evidence of a scene before the film is released. This makes the selection of these images more strategic than it initially appears. You need stills that convey the essence of a scene without revealing too much. This is not snapshot thinking—this is dramaturgy in single frames.
On set, the process runs parallel to the shooting. Your still photographer—or on smaller productions, the director themselves with a digital camera—shoots between takes, when the actors are still in position and the lighting is set. These shots differ fundamentally from the film footage itself: they use higher resolution, different depth-of-field profiles, and the photographer has more freedom in composition. A good still doesn't show the dramatic face—it shows the moment before or after. This is counterintuitive but works better in press communication. A tense expression looks different on a poster than in the film context, where music and editing carry the emotional weight.
In post-production, additional stills are exported directly from the finalized DCP or the edit—frame grabs with maximum quality. Here, you consciously decide which images should represent the story. Color, composition, protagonist's presence: everything is checked. These stills end up on posters, in program booklets, on streaming sites. They are your visual invitation to the cinema. A wrong still can sabotage an entire marketing concept—which is why the director and distributor work closely together here.
Practically: Always shoot stills in RAW or uncompressed format. Save them separately and metadata-tagged—with scene, take number, names of the involved actors. This saves you hours of searching later. And don't forget: a still that is technically perfect but narratively says nothing is worthless for marketing. The best photography is useless if the image doesn't tell the right story.