Are Many Films Made Like This?

Question

In the film Rope (1948) by Hitchcock

It is mostly a continuous shot, with very few cuts and edits, apparently they did 10 minute scenes at a time, where no cuts or anything were used

Also he would point the camera at a persons back to hide the fact they were changing the film when it ran out and apart from occasionally cuts, it is all one shot.

Also the tracking shots, where the camera follows a character, I thought Tarantino used it as a trademark but Hitchcock did it in Rope when John Dall walks through the whole apartment.

Are many films shot like one almost continuous shot with very few edits?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There's one I remember: " Russian Ark (Russian: Русский ковчег, Russkij Kovcheg) is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum on 23 December 2001 using a SINGLE 96-minute Steadicam sequence shot."

ajtheactress · Answer

No.

They film every thing in one take only under very specific conditions.

1. The entire film must be shot on the same location.
2. The actors have to spend hours of rehearsing the entire script to get it perfect before filming starts.  A single blocking or prop flub, filming has to start over.  
3. Totally closed set, with control over the environment so that there is no chance that outside events or noise can affect the film.
4.  A director who is willing and able to devote extra time planning and executing this very complex process.  Quite often they spend weeks working with models to plan every nuance of the shots and the actors before brining in the cameras and actors.

One of my favorite films The Player opens with a 8 minute tracking shot.  As Fred Ward walks thru the back lot talking about how movies are all cut/cut/cuts that the old days of Hollywood had long tracking shots.  Good use of irony in one of the best films about film industry ever made.  Robert Altman is an amazing director.

Bernd · Answer

The Michael Keaton film Birdman had some long sequences in it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2562232/

Cogito · Answer

Very few.
What worked okay back in the 40s and 50s doesn't work well now.  Audiences are more sophisticated and demanding.

Eron_17 · Answer

I saw one about a wedding it was kind of a chick flick / drama but I don't remember what it was called.  Bet you could Google it with "wedding movie continuous shot"

Are Many Films Made Like This?

5 Answers