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Why are people so impressed by “one shots” in movies?

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Deleted member 21339

Deleted member 21339

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I was listening to Mark Kermode review the new Alfonso Cauron movie Roma

Review here



And what struck me most about his review was the focus on the choreography and blocking of the scenes (the technical aspects) and not whether or not it was actually a good movie or telling a compelling story. Basically other than the "virtuosity" of the staging in the movie one never gets a sense from his review what exactly the movie is about of what. Does it tell a compelling story, what are the themes, how is the acting, does it have anything interesting to say etc? I'm also struck by a lot of the thread topics I've seen recently where people post their favorite "long takes" in movies and I wonder to myself "who cares?" Yes, I am sure there is expertise in pulling these scenes off but are the long takes being done to serve the story or to show off the technical skills of a director?

The one director working right now whose use of long takes really works for me is Spielberg because I feel he typically does it when appropriate and not in a way that takes the focus off the film and puts it on himself. Basically he's not a showman and I feel like I a lot of these "oners" are just that: the director showing off. For the most recent egregious examples see the opening of Outlaw King.

 
Sulik2

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They are very hard to pull off on a technical level so when done well it catches peoples attention and they can make scenes very intense. See Daredevil and True Detective.
 
Benji

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Because its insanely more difficult to pull off well.

You need everything to go right during an extended shot. The framing, the acting, the choreography if theres a fight / battle, etc. Doing cuts allows you way more room for error and mistakes.

1 shot scenes arent always necessary but people latch onto and are so impressed with them when done well because you as a viewer know how impressive it was to pull off
 
Aselith

Aselith

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Outlaw Kong's was great! Really made that world feel living and solid to start out the movie that way.
 
Flame Lord

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I'm not really much of a movie guy, but I think the stuff you're talking about is the kind of thing you'd ask about a book. That's not to say those things aren't important in a movie, but it's a visual medium, so having great visuals can go a long way and make up for what the story lacks. As I said I'm not a movie buff or anything, but I know one shots are supposed to be difficult to pull of so even I get impressed when I see them pulled of well.
 
Seesaw15

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"Why are people so impressed by people doing difficult things successfully?"

Its a real head scratcher.
 
Benji

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Also for a recent example of amazing use of "one shots" watch Episode 6 of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix.

Nearly the entire episode is filmed in only a couple extended shots. Its insane they pulled it off
 
Dust

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Because It's really hard, time consuming and annoying to do a retake?
 
bionic77

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The director has to do all the editing before and during the shot. He or she can't just cobble together the scene in the editing room later on.

That is really hard for the actors and crew to pull off and it takes tremendous vision from the director.

See intro to La La Land and many other examples.
 
KHarvey16

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JB1981 said:
Who cares? Making movies is incredibly hard. We don't praise movies because of how difficult they are to make. We praise them for myriad qualities. Technical aspects are merely a piece.
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What is this "we?" You asked why people think it's impressive and that's why. Your "we" doesn't make any sense. If you're talking about you, say you. Your own personal subjective feelings about what's worth praise are just that: personal subjective feelings. Not everyone shares them and they're all equally valid.
 
HomerSimpson-Man

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Because they look good when done well?

Just what kind of answer are you looking for? It's like asking why editing or framing is a thing to be impressed by. One shots are part of a combined scope of cinematograph, cheorography and editing, which all takes skill, in which this technique is on the upper end of difficulty to pull off.
 
HStallion

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OP it seems like you have a bigger problem with the review for Roma than anything to truly to do with long takes/one shots in films and TV. you basically answered your own question right off the bat in that this form of film making takes an incredible amount of effort to pull off and can really add to the film in a variety of ways.
 
Joe Shlabotnik

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A tracking shot done well serves the scene and narrative perfectly—the famous one in Goodfellas is a dizzying, intoxicating show-off, which is exactly the impression Henry is trying to give to Karen on their date.

See also the opening shot in The Player (my favorite)—it takes a while before you even notice it's a tracking shot.

And I think it's valid to admire them for their technical difficulty, just like stunts, and practical and camera special effect shots. They may be a bit unnecessarily used these days in ways that don't really serve the scene besides looking "cool", though. And the temptation is there to "cheat" with a seamless edit or digital help, too.
 
Z-Beat

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Because getting all of that choreography and line reading right within a single take is hard


Half the time you end up with shit like this
Sq6fz0j.jpg
 
Thurston Last

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The framing and timing of shots should help convey the mood of the scene. It should add to the what the story is saying, not just "because its cool".

Sometimes it is simply all style and no substance, but not always.
 
lunarworks

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JB1981 said:
Who cares? Making movies is incredibly hard. We don't praise movies because of how difficult they are to make. We praise them for myriad qualities. Technical aspects are merely a piece.
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We actually judge everything by how difficult it is to do.

Look at figure skating. It's heavily judged on technical merit. You can wow the judges by pulling off incredibly difficult moves.
 
Burt

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Outlaw King's was... fine. I don't think it was necessary, but it does convey a sense of closeness, lowness, and dirty proximity compared to how we usually picture kings and thrones and royal decrees and shit like that it movies. At least It wasn't masturbatory like the ones in Daredevil S3 or Hill House.

If you can pull it off well, then great, more power to you, but when you start to sacrifice the quality of your acting and action for the sake of, I don't even know... Twitter takes? Hollywood Reporter pieces on just how difficulty it was to produce your sub-optimal wankery? You're in the wrong.
 
Antrax

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For one, it's a visual medium. You gotta talk about how it uses that.

JB1981 said:
Does it tell a compelling story, what are the themes, how is the acting, does it have anything interesting to say etc?
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And second, a lot of this feels... simple? Like, you could answer all of these (and a good chunk of reviews do, if not most of them), but it would read to me like a homework exercise for a student. "The bad guys killed the good guy's family, and so it was a compelling narrative." Like sure, that's a good hook. But to quote the Barenaked Ladies, it's all been done before. The craft is in how you deliver these stories for a visual medium.
 
THEVOID

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Thurston Last said:
The framing and timing of shots should help convey the mood of the scene. It should add to the what the story is saying, not just "because its cool".

Sometimes it is simply all style and no substance, but not always.
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Yep.

Creed is a great example. That one take shot felt intimate and exhilarating.
 
Arttemis

Arttemis

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Oct 28, 2017
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Obviously they're the easiest kind of shot to do, where fewer things are required to come together to execute. It's truly a baffling situation.
 
WaffleTaco

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One shots and Long Takes are my favorite aspects when watching a scene. My interest goes immediately up if I know a property has that.

Benji said:
Also for a recent example of amazing use of "one shots" watch Episode 6 of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix.

Nearly the entire episode is filmed in only a couple extended shots. Its insane they pulled it off
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This has actually convinced me to watch it.
 

Deleted member 2533

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I agree, they're a little overdone somtimes. Sure, they're "hard," but for something so hard, they're done regularly. Plus they also make lots of compromises and rely on effects sometimes to cover things up, or they rely on camera movements totally inconsistent with the rest of the movie/show. It's so hard to lay out dolly tracks so they'll use a steadicam, and it's very noticable if there hasn't been any other steadicam shots.

Like in Daredevil, they rely on what I see refered to as a "Texas switch," where they swap out the main actor after a scene with a stunt-man, and then swap the lead back in. So every DD oner, I am distracted now because the lead is always fighting with his face to the camera, then gets thrown through a wall or over a table, then the stuntman jumps in with his face away from the camera, and I'm waiting for him to get thrown off camera.

Or sometimes a oner will end with some big effect, but they're so worried about botching it that they'll hide some cuts with a quick camera swing and some CG to merge two shots.

It really feels like more often than not it's done just to do it.

True Detective was great though. Maybe that one was done just to do it as well, but at least it was done very well.

Benji said:
Also for a recent example of amazing use of "one shots" watch Episode 6 of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix.


Nearly the entire episode is filmed in only a couple extended shots. Its insane they pulled it off
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I just watched this ep the other day, and while I did notice it, they did a great job by having a few oners just be dialog without a lot of camera movement, and they also had several more actiony sequences throughout, so the whole episode had a consistent tone and style. Plus they never forced a oner anywhere, they used edits sensibly, rather than just force a really long take.

I really liked when the camera would pan around and the characters would swap from their adult to childhood selves, it sounds really cheesy, but it actually works in the context of the episode, and doing it in one take actually reduces the cheesiness I feel, because it would be kinda jarring if it were done with edits especially considering how the show jumps in time.
 
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Deleted member 21339

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Antrax said:
For one, it's a visual medium. You gotta talk about how it uses that.



And second, a lot of this feels... simple? Like, you could answer all of these (and a good chunk of reviews do, if not most of them), but it would read to me like a homework exercise for a student. "The bad guys killed the good guy's family, and so it was a compelling narrative." Like sure, that's a good hook. But to quote the Barenaked Ladies, it's all been done before. The craft is in how you deliver these stories for a visual medium.
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He never once mentions how the craft enhanced the story. In fact, he mentions that he needed to see the movie again because the craft is all he focused on rather than the story itself.
 
-JD-

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The only time I felt that its use was detrimental to the quality of other aspects of a film/show was in The Haunting of Hill House. The line delivery felt off, and it's easy enough to compare that long take episode to pretty much any other episode and see a difference in the performances.
 
excelsiorlef

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Htichcock's Rope is a beautiful example of how the long take serves the film.

It's an intense murder mystery in real time, in one locale, he presents the entire film in a series of long takes, cutting only to cover for technological limitations of the time that involved reel changes both while shooting and in theatres.


The end result is that the audience lives with these characters in the space, it heightens the tension as we are never given a break, nor are we asked to break our immersion with the narrative as the artifices of film, the artificialness of film, that is highlighted by even your most basic shot reverse shot editing camera and editing set up, are not present. Instead the audience exists almost as a witness to the night in question and the camera through long takes become our eyes and body within the space.

Can't do that with cuts and camera angles.
 

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Thurston Last said:
The framing and timing of shots should help convey the mood of the scene. It should add to the what the story is saying, not just "because its cool".

Sometimes it is simply all style and no substance, but not always.
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Yeah.

I think it's reasonable to want reviews to focus more on what a long take adds in the context of the film rather than how difficult said shot was to create. I think the question posed by the OP ("who cares") wasn't the best way to bring that up, though, if that's what they're getting at.
 
Merv

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HeartlessNobody2134 said:
Plenty of people, I'm guessing that's why you made the thread.
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Truth

JB1981 said:
I think I can. Movies are an art form. Art has to be about something. And the craft behind a movie should serve what it's about. We don't judge craft for the sake of craft.
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There are many ways to appreciate film. Some people praise the technical aspects and or the film makers ability to pull off difficult shots, how well they frame, light or shoot a scene in general. There are plenty of other people that review movies solely based on content. In fact I would say a vast majority review based on this.
 
Joe Shlabotnik

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Dr.Acula said:
I agree, they're a little overdone somtimes. Sure, they're "hard," but for something so hard, they're done regularly. Plus they also make lots of compromises and rely on effects sometimes to cover things up, or they rely on camera movements totally inconsistent with the rest of the movie/show. It's so hard to lay out dolly tracks so they'll use a steadicam, and it's very noticable if there hasn't been any other steadicam shots.
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Yeah, the switch into floaty steadicam is often why they feel conspicuous. The ones that use dollies usually feel more subtle or natural.
 
Messofanego

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JB1981 said:
Who cares? Making movies is incredibly hard. We don't praise movies because of how difficult they are to make. We praise them for myriad qualities. Technical aspects are merely a piece.
Click to expand...
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You never praise a movie for its cinematography or visuals? The things that make it a film?

The film this year that used long shots most effectively with its story was Gaspar Noe's Climax. Really sold how unsettling and confusing it would be to be in a drug-addled space where things go to chaos. The film goes upside down for a good few minutes. Brilliant.
 
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