Did anyone hear that plane? Did you pick it up on mic? Let’s just say the same thing 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’.
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!
TBF, I dislike doing shoots for precisely this reason. One of the most boring aspects of my job.
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.
Or, as my favorite commercial director used to say “That was perfect. But once more for the bank.”
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.
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.
For those that may not know, that’s why the last shot of the day is called the martini shot.
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.
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.
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.
“NOW you tell me!”
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.”
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.