US Index

STILLS

Stills are the backbone of the US film industry. There are several different types of stills, such as pre-production stills, production stills, press stills, continuity stills, etc. Stills are normally 8" x 10" glossy photographs in black & white, but they can be other sizes.

There is usually some type of descriptive information included on the press still that explains who is in the photo and what the photo represents. Sometimes the studios will type the description on a separate sheet of paper and staple it to the back side of the still.

Pre-production, production and press stills usually have a studio still number which is normally printed into the still itself which identifies the still.

When National Screen was utilized, they will include the NSS number and studio information on the bottom right.

Since the 1960s, they have been included as part of a press kit which can contain a set of stills. Every presskit is different with a varying number of press stills from 1 (especially in the mini presskit) to over 30.

For more information on stills, here is our article on International Press stills and our article on the Importance of the Still

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1. Identifying Different Types of Production Stills

2. How to Use Production Codes

3. Studio Production Logs