I was watching an actor’s demo reel recently, and the way they had cut it, the first frame had him making an odd face. Once the video had loaded and was streaming, the scene unfolded and the actor looked great.
Problem was, we were on a very slow connection, so the video took a long time to buffer. While we waited… we stared at this guy’s mug, his face twisted into an awkward pose. I’ll have a hard time remembering what that guy naturally looks like, now that his weird expression is burned into my brain.
So if you’re creating videos, pay special attention to the first frame. It may become the most memorable one.
