# In tv and film, why are multiple takes required? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372 "2025-03-10T03:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/41 "2025-03-19T14:53:52Z")
Did anyone hear that plane? Did you pick it up on mic? Let’s just say _the same thin_g again just to make sure. Sorry guys, I think a cloud went over, the light dipped a little. Can we just say _the same thing_ again? Runner: ‘Client in the other room has asked if we can get the dog in the shot?’ ‘Director: Ok, it’s not going to work, but let’s say _the same thing_ just as the dog comes into shot’. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/42 "2025-03-19T15:23:49Z")
That sounds like the sort of job that encourages a stiff drink at quitting time. It was very informative reading those fine posts, but also exhausting. Gahh! Make it _stop!_ ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/43 "2025-03-19T15:25:41Z")
TBF, I dislike doing shoots for precisely this reason. One of the most boring aspects of my job. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/44 "2025-03-19T15:29:21Z")
- A budding actor’s time is cheap - A production company’s profit margin is on the line with it’s output - It took significant cost and effort to get everyone there to film - Let’s do it again, only better this time. No director has ever gotten praise for filming in one take, rather everyone would assume the director isn’t in charge or doesn’t have a clear vision for the production. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/45 "2025-03-19T15:35:14Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Let’s do it again, only better this time. Or, as my favorite commercial director used to say “That was perfect. But once more for the bank.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/46 "2025-03-19T19:18:18Z")
I am told that, due to multiple takes, there is a scene out there somewhere, where the development of the foam in a glass of Guinness pops up and down. Multiple takes. No continuity. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/47 "2025-03-19T19:29:39Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > OTOH after the extended versions of the _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy were locked down Peter Jackson ceremoniously burned all of the unused footage. It amounted to ten times what was on screen. Though those movies were shot on film, I can’t imagine they were also edited that way. Surely they would have scanned everything in to work with digitally, making it impossible (or at least _extremely_ laborious) to separate all the original film footage into “used” and “unused” bits. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/48 "2025-03-20T02:12:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > That sounds like the sort of job that encourages a stiff drink at quitting time For those that may not know, that’s why the last shot of the day is called the martini shot. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/49 "2025-03-20T08:36:58Z")
Multiple takes of course give you options, with the idea being you’d pick one. This thread has reminded me of the weird bit in Grosse Point Blank where they quite clearly decided to use two takes of the same lightly improvised scene one after the other. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WWOnBWxNfYM/maxresdefault.jpg "Grosse Pointe Blank - 10 years") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWOnBWxNfYM) It sort of works because one character is expressing disbelief and shock so going around twice is plausible, but… it’s definitely two takes of the same scene. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/50 "2025-03-20T09:20:31Z")
Brad Pitt is known for eating-- or maybe snacking is a better word-- in many scenes of his films. You find it discussed on a lot on a lot of MBs. I have always wondered if it is a way of signaling to people in the business how often his first of second take is used. While it’s true that there are ways to act-eat food, and to spit out food as soon as the camera is off you, and these are tricks actors use to be able to “eat” for take after take of a dinner scene, Pitt is not snacking for any reason apparent in the film-- it’s a character bit, or something, and some people think he does it it in the first few takes of a scene, before he can’t eat any more, and people he knows who are also in the business will know that one of his first few takes was used, and see how often this was the case. So he’ll have a reputation for “getting kit done,” and not wasting time and film. Additionally, I ran this by my brother, who works in Hollywood, and was a CGI tech for years-- sometimes he was asked to smooth out a transition between two takes, or fix a continuity error digitally. Anyway, he says one reason for multiple takes is to make sure that when the director falls in love with take 3 of scene 4, you have a scene 5 that “works” to follow that particular take of scene 4. Sometimes they start and stop at slightly different points, or different angles, and getting them to match is difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/51 "2025-03-20T10:19:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > While it’s true that there are ways to act-eat food, and to spit out food as soon as the camera is off you, and these are tricks actors use to be able to “eat” for take after take of a dinner scene “NOW you tell me!” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/48TewJlc6BA/hqdefault.jpg "Jack Somack - Spicy Meatball - AlkaSeltzer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TewJlc6BA) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/52 "2025-03-20T10:53:44Z")
Jonathan Frakes (of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, among others) apparently can get by with only a few takes when directing, hence his nickname of "Two Takes Frakes.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372/53 "2025-03-20T23:36:47Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > and these are tricks actors use to be able to “eat” for take after take of a dinner scene, I think it was a Universal tour that told us that mashed potatoes were used in place of ice cream in filmed “ice cream” cones. Studio lights melt real ice cream fast. Even with mashed potatoes, well, eating anything will complicate the takes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-tv-and-film-why-are-multiple-takes-required/1015372.md?page=2)