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Blipvert (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:parallaxblipvert12.jpg|frame|Timestamps come from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMi8fXi5Os this Youtube clip] minus a minute of Beatty. Whether [[It Makes Sense in Context|it makes sense in context]] depends on your definitions of sense and context.]]
 
The term "blipvert" comes from ''[[Max Headroom (TV)|Max Headroom]]'' and referred to highly time-compressed advertisements. More generally, a blipvert is a brief collection of often-random images cut together very quickly. The [[Trope Namer]] made [[Your Head Asplode]].
 
Note that blipverts only refer to ''very high speed'' montages. If it's a few seconds to pause on each, odds are it's just a normal [["Previously On..."]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|End of Evangelion]]'' has a Blipvert, featuring fan mail and actual death threats sent to Hideaki Anno after the infamous last two chapters were broadcast all over Japan. One scene features a reel of all the episode title cards.
** The technique is also used several times throughout the series. Shinji in the bath in the second episode, and most strikingly in the Mindrape sequence, where it's all scribbled words.
** The last half of the opening credits in the main series does this as well, cutting back and forth between scenes from the show, pictures of the major characters and jargon from the show written on stark white-on-black title cards.
* In episode 31 of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', when it shows {{spoiler|Ed's first visit to the "gate"}}, it rapidly shows a series of photographs. One of them is of an Austin-Healey Sprite Mk 1 with the Japanese ''Hagane no Renkinjutsushi'' logo in the license plate holder.
 
== Commercials ==
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* [[Ur Example]]: The 1961 Canadian short film [http://www.nfb.ca/film/Very_Nice_Very_Nice/ Very Nice Very Nice]. The creator had recorded a montage of audio and, in a response to a suggestion made by a colleague, set it a similar sampling of images.
* The original movie trailer for ''[[Doctor Strangelove]]: Or How I Learned To [[Cold War|Stop Worrying]] And [[Riding the Bomb|Love The Bomb]]'', 1964.
** Also, the trailer for ''[[A Clockwork Orange (Filmfilm)|A Clockwork Orange]]''. Apparently, [[Stanley Kubrick]] liked this trope.
* One of the oldest, longest and most sinister blipverts of all ''(excerpts pictured)'' appears in the film ''[[The Parallax View]]''. Its influence from Very Nice Very Nice can be plainly seen (the same image of the audience in 3D glasses is present in the original).
* In ''[[Sunshine (Filmfilm)|Sunshine]]'', when the crew of the Icarus II {{spoiler|boards the Icarus I}}, we get flashes from the group photo of the crew of Icarus I.
* In ''[[Run Lola Run (Film)|Run Lola Run]]'', the theme is the butterfly effect (sensitive dependence on initial conditions). On Lola's three journeys her effect on other people is shown by blipverts, a series of polaroid photos showing the (widely varying) futures of those people.
* Used near the end of the trailer for ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Filmfilm)|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''.
* ''[[Requiem for Aa Dream]]'' and its trademark "hip hop montages" played every time someone uses a psychotropic substance.
** These montages have become famous enough to even be parodied -- ''[[Lucky Star (Anime)|Lucky Star]]'', for example, does one with instant noodles.
* The end of ''[[The 6th Day]]'' starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
* At the end of the 1964 film ''The Time Travelers'' the team returns to their lab in the present day but find that time appears to be frozen around them. Their only option is to escape to the far future, which they do. But their brief presence in the lab has created a [[Stable Time Loop]] which is indicated by the ''entire film'' being reshown in blipvert mode, repeating over and over and getting faster each time...
 
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Max Headroom (TV)|Max Headroom]]'', of course: [[Trope Codifier]] for Subliminal Advertising [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].
* The new ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'' places a blipvert of scenes from the upcoming episode at the end of the main title sequence, an homage to the same device in ''[[Space: 1999]]'' and ''[[Mission Impossible|Mission: Impossible]]''.
** In both cases, highly annoying to those of the [[Spoiler]]-averse persuasion.
** In all fairness, the blipvert sequence is very short and always appears in the same place, so you can know when it's coming up and briefly close your eyes to avoid spoilers.
*** Also, they try to show the scenes out-of-context, and often arrange them to lead the audience in the direction of the mid-episode [[Red Herring]].
* ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' did the same in the title sequence, which may have inspired the ''[[Mission Impossible|Mission: Impossible]]'' and ''[[Space: 1999]]'' versions. (Both ''Thunderbirds'' and ''Space: 1999'' were Gerry Anderson productions)
** Therefore not so much a case of inspiration so much as repeating oneself.
** In any case it's relatively rare for series television. Most series produce a new title sequence once a season at most; these little previews are of course done for every episode and can't be done until after principal photography for the episode is complete. Bruce Geller's insistence on putting these at the head of every episode of M:I was one of the things that "endeared" him to Desilu and CBS.
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' used quick flashes of images in the episode to cut from one scene to another.
** Which they *ahem* shall we say "borrowed" from ''[[Forever Knight (TV)|Forever Knight]]''.
* An episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' which took the form of a news report on the station had a "commercial" for the Psi Corps. During the commercial, the message "The Corps is your friend, trust Psi Corps" was flashed on the screen.
** [[Word of God|Series creator J Michael Straczinski]] mentioned that the FCC has a precise definition of "subliminal advertising" and the director of that episode made sure that the Psi Corp blips were ''one-tenth of a second'' longer than that definition, to create an effect without "actually" brainwashing people. Other countries (such as the UK) have stricter laws, requiring that segment to be cut out entirely for broadcasts in those countries. Ironically, studies have shown that subliminal advertising has no effect at all.
** The end of the [[Grand Finale|last episode]] featured a blipvert of pictures of the entire cast and crew, with the intention that people could pause the playback (or, today, rewind their DVR) and put faces to all the names in the [[Closing Credits|credits]].
* The NBC drama ''[[Kidnapped (TV)]]'' used blipverts to enter ad breaks.
* On the final episode of ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', the [["Previously On..."]] segment was a blipvert featuring every episode of the series.
** Careful frame-by-frame examination actually reveals that one episode from the series isn't represented (I can't remember which). This was likely not intentional.
** ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' also does this in "The Gift".
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** Second season slows it down so viewers can make some sense out of it.
** There's also the "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpIs5drFl9E Chuck's Secret]" commercial aired before the series premiered, which, when slowed down, tells the premise of the show amongst the random imagery and messages.
* ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'' always blips the final image of the current scene just before it starts.
** ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' does a very brief montage of black-and-white images before each commercial break, containing teasers for the upcoming scene.
* ''Bad Influence'', a kids' show about videogames, and ''How2'', a factual kids' series, both from [[The Nineties]] [[ITV]] did "datablasts" during the credits- lots of text recapping the episode, flashed on screen quickly- the idea being that you'd video the program, and flick through the datablast on freeze-frame or slow-motion. In practice it didn't work, because [[VHS]] was too low quality. However, this practice has been [[Vindicated Byby Cable|Vindicated By YouTube]]- so [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSGFG95vEfc here] is a typical example from an episode of ''Bad Influence''.
* In the ''[[Smallville]]'' episode "Blank", a montage of images from each previous episode represents Clark's memories. This is shown twice, played once when Clark loses his memories and again in reverse when he regains them.
* The title sequence for [[The Big Bang Theory]] presents a chronological series of images of the great moments and inventions in human history. Even in the early days, each image appears for a fraction of a second, but the pace really picks up when we get to the Industrial Revolution; progress occurs so quickly that each image appears for only a single frame.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'''s GLaDOS has several screens flashing random images, most to do with cakes.
* ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]'' example: When <s>Masaki's</s> Asakim's mech, the <s>Cybuster</s> Shurouga uses its <s>Akashic Buster</s> Ley Buster attack, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYJocbTtBI8 a series of flashing, blurry drawings result]. These are the source of many [[Epileptic Trees]] regarding Asakim's connection to Masaki (though that was [[Mind Screw|pretty obviously the intention]]. Dude even has the same ''voice'' as Masaki.)
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' had this happen every time a character (from chapter 3 on) picked up the tome of Eternal Darkness.
* Dying in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'' results in a quick montage of images from recent cutscenes to flash before cutting to white noise and the "Continue/Exit" menu.
* In ''[[The Path]]'', there is one for each girl at the end of their scenario. It is used in a very unsettling manner, accompanied with [[Hell Is That Noise|creepy music]] for added effect.
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
* There is one about halfway through [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fc8VDuxKQM this youtube video]
* This [[Youtube Poop (Web Animation)|Youtube Poop]] (by the legendary Stegblob) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL5nBkQbuwI at 1:33 to 1:36]
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* An episode of ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', "Bloo's Brothers", features a blipvert of different variations on Bloo that other kids had imagined. One of them apparantly resembles [[Homestar Runner]].
* Done in ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' when Dory sees the word Sydney on a sewage pipe and suddenly remembers the previous events of the movie, from her first meeting with Marlin up to that point.
* ''[[Chowder]]'' pulls one in "The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin" when Mung lists "the following ingredients" for the dish. This leaves Chowder in a daze.
* ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'' has used this trope in ''Showdown at Cremation Creek: Part 2'' the [["Previously On..."]] is so fast and densely packed with old scenes that is is basically impossible to understand.
* ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'' had one near the end of the episode ''Joshua'', including a card saying "Haven't you anything better to do than to go through this frame by frame?".
* Vakama's visions from ''[[Bionicle]] 2: Legends of Metru Nui'' tended to contain a sequence of flashing images. Some of these were actually foreshadowing later events from the movie. The end credits also had these.
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