Slow-motion via frame interpolation or oversampling — no physical high-speed camera required. Post-production time stretch without quality loss.
In the edit, you sometimes need slow motion, but you shot with a normal frame rate in production. This is where dilation comes into play — the subsequent slowing down through intelligent frame generation, not through physical oversampling on set. This is not a cheap trick: modern frame interpolation mathematically calculates intermediate frames, so that original 24fps material can be smoothly upscaled to 60fps or 120fps. The result looks like real slow motion, without you having to shoot at 1,000fps.
The technique works through optical flow or AI-powered algorithms that analyze motion vectors between consecutive frames and synthesize intermediate images. In the editing workflow, this is a blessing: you edit your sequences normally, then mark individual takes or clips and let the software — be it Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or specialized tools like Twixtor — calculate the dilation. With well-shot material and sufficient motion information, this works convincingly. It becomes critical with static backgrounds or very fast transitions — that's where artifacts or "ghosting" effects emerge.
Practically, one must differentiate: moderate dilation (around 20–50%) works reliably and inconspicuously. However, if you want to slow down by a factor of 4 or 5, you either need an originally higher frame rate or accept visible quality losses. Good cinematographers think ahead — those who know that slow motion will be needed later increase the shooting frame rate prophylactically. But for emergencies and creative effects, dilation in post has become a real tool. Some editors consciously use it for dramatic moments or to fix rhythm problems without re-editing.
The quality depends heavily on the algorithm used. High-quality interpolation costs CPU time and produces clean results; cheap variants are visibly jerky. Source quality also counts: 4K material interpolates better than heavily compressed HD. In contrast to real slow motion (see also oversampling), however, you avoid the enormous storage overhead — your timeline remains manageable, and the calculation only happens during export or when needed.