How to zoom in on a video
without keyframes
Why editors zoom
A talking-head video is one shot for minutes. A zoom changes it without a new camera. A punch-in, a cut to a closer frame, hides a jump cut where a sentence was taken out. A slow push-in keeps a still shot alive. A closer frame on one word tells the viewer it matters.
How it is done by hand
In a classic editor, a zoom is two keyframes: the scale at the start, the scale at the end, and the position so the face stays in the middle. A punch-in is a cut, then a new scale on the second half. For a ten-minute video that is dozens of them, each placed and checked.
Zooms in Montage
In Montage you say it. In the Bridgit Mendler film, « punch in on every other cut » gave 58 punch-ins, from 100 % to 116 %, each one on a cut. In « Way too curious », every shot pushes in slowly, and on « everything » and « curious » the frame comes closer.
Montage knows where the cuts are and what is said, so a zoom can land on a word.
After zooming
Each zoom changes by asking: how close, how fast, centered on what. Change one by hand, or ask for less.
Tips
- Zoom on cuts and on words, not at random.
- Keep punch-ins small: 10 to 20 %.
- Do not zoom on every sentence: the zoom means something when it is rare.