Camera drift

Camera drift is a slow, linear push or slide applied to an otherwise static shot — typically a scale from 1.0 to about 1.06 over the length of the hold. It is imperceptible as a move but unmistakable as life: the shot breathes instead of freezing. Drift is one of the few correct uses of linear easing, because any acceleration would make the move itself noticeable.

When to use it

Any shot held longer than a beat: a title card sitting for two bars, a screenshot the voiceover needs time on. Drift toward the point of interest and cut before the drift becomes visible as motion.

Common mistakes

Letting a frame sit truly still (two identical frames read as a glitch); drifting with ease-in-out so the 'invisible' move announces itself; drifting so far the composition changes.

How Impractical uses it

Impractical's zero-dead-air rule states that anything on screen longer than one beat must be moving — and drift is the default answer. Its films drift held shots on ease:'none', a deliberate exception to its own linear ban, and its critic treats two identical frames a beat apart as a bug.