We recently came across an interesting discussion on the Blackmagic Design forum about a clip with a particularly stubborn flicker problem.
Our Flicker Free plugin fixes a wide variety of flicker issues, and it’s usually the first thing we’d recommend. But every now and then someone discovers an unusual workaround that’s worth adding to the toolbox. This one was clever enough that we thought it was worth sharing.
The flicker posted in the group was occurring in a repeating three-frame pattern. Instead of trying to remove the flicker directly, the editor used retiming to effectively collapse the flicker cycle. The workflow was pretty simple:
1. Speed up the clip to 300% (which cuts the duration down to roughly 33%). This essentially “stacks” the three-frame flicker pattern into a single frame sequence.
2. Render it out (or nest/compound the clip) so the editing software treats it as a fresh, single piece of media.
3. Slow that new clip back down to 33.3% speed using Optical Flow to stretch it back to its original length.
Because the flicker repeated every three frames, speeding up the clip effectively combined those flickering frames into a single frame sequence. The Optical Flow retime then generated new intermediate frames to bring the clip back to its original duration. In this particular case, the flicker was greatly reduced!
Of course, there’s a catch.
The retiming affects the entire image, not just the flickering area. While the technique improved the flickering light source, it also altered the appearance of the person in the shot.
The editor’s solution was to mask the affected light area from the retimed version and composite it back over the original footage. This allowed the light to benefit from the flicker reduction while preserving the natural motion and detail of the subject.
That’s what makes this approach interesting. It’s not really a single technique—it’s a combination of retiming, Optical Flow, masking, and compositing, each being used where it works best.
Will it work on every flickering clip? Definitely not.
The flicker needs to occur at a predictable interval. Optical Flow can introduce artifacts. Fast-moving subjects can create problems. And some shots may require significant compositing work to get a clean result. But for certain types of periodic flicker, especially when the problem is isolated to a specific area of the frame, this can be a surprisingly effective workaround.
We still recommend trying Flicker Free first. Download the demo version from our website ! Dedicated flicker-removal tools are designed specifically for these problems and will generally produce better results with less effort.
But we love seeing creative solutions from editors and colorists, and sometimes a difficult shot requires a little experimentation, and every useful trick is worth keeping in your back pocket.
