| Standing on a round blue stage against a dark backdrop, a smiling performer in a red dinner jacket, white shirt, black bow tie and dark trousers fires a handheld party popper. Bright paper flecks and curled streamers burst upward into a loose cloud above his head. The burst freezes at its peak, with the performer, popper and every piece of confetti suspended together. The camera sweeps from a frontal three-quarter angle toward a lower side view, revealing the layered cloud without advancing its fall. Motion returns; the paper showers down around his shoes as his arms ease downward. | |