# One Take/One Camera Scenes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279 "2016-04-27T21:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dante\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dante\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante_G)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/1 "2016-04-27T21:26:33Z")
Got to thinking about the _Daredevil_ Netflix series and that truly awesome “one take” hallway fight scene. It was a pretty lengthy scene, which made the fact that it was all one take more impressive. Which brings me to the point … what other film or TV shows have done the whole “one camera/one take” bit? Do you think it would be possible to film an entire movie or TV show episode in one take? Has it been done? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/2 "2016-04-27T21:29:41Z")
Hitchcock’s Rope (trying to post before others can, since it’s the quintessential answer) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/3 "2016-04-27T21:36:44Z")
Marvel’s Agents of Shield had a pretty long battle scene with Chloe Bennet rolling around, jumping over things, shooting, and fighting off a slew of attackers all in one take, recently. > **[Entertainment – UPROXX](https://UPROXX.com/entertainment/)** > > The latest entertainment news, TV discussion, and film coverage from UPROXX. My brother once described a film he saw at an international film festival, where the whole film takes place in the park around a lake, with the cameraman moving from one group of people talking to another, as they wander around the park. But, he said, it was a bit dull because a lot of time had to be spent getting around the park, so you would end up with 2-5 minute chunks where the cameraman was simply walking to the next location. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/4 "2016-04-27T21:36:49Z")
“Children of Men” had some amazing long tracking shots. “Birdman” was one seemingly continuous shot until near the end of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/5 "2016-04-27T21:51:02Z")
There was a pretty cool Better Call Saul scene that went for I think 4 minutes and change that followed a drug smuggler across the border (although they admitted in the podcast it was actually two takes, but I couldn’t see the cut - and they thought most people wouldn’t either) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/6 "2016-04-27T21:53:46Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > “Children of Men” had some amazing long tracking shots. > > “Birdman” was one seemingly continuous shot until near the end of the movie. _Birdman_ was shot exactly like _Rope_. Scenes lasted until the camera passed behind a seemingly black object, which is where the cuts were made. _Russian Ark_ is a famed 96-minute film shot in a single take, choreographing hundreds of people. Absolutely worth seeing. Lots of music videos are done in one take. OK-Go has made a career of it. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/7 "2016-04-27T22:01:15Z")
_Daredevil_ season 2 has a similar scene, maybe better IMHO (episode 3 IIRC). _Oldboy_ (original, not sure about remake) has a scene that’s often compared to _Daredevil_ _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_ did it S10E4 (“Charlie Work”), they said they thought of it before _Birdman_. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/8 "2016-04-27T22:02:19Z")
[_Goodfellas_ has a very impressive,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sr-vxVaY_M)and long[Steadicam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam)shot. A few recent TV shows have done live episodes as a novelty, forgetting that until the 1970s, most soap operas were always done that way. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/9 "2016-04-27T22:08:01Z")
Oh, the sinking of Marion’s car in _Psycho_ was done in one take, because they only had the one car, so they worked pretty hard to get it right. It was actually on a lift, and was being pulled down into the swamp, and it stuck for a moment, which Anthony Perkins genuinely reacts to, because if the lift breaks, the whole scene is crap. But then it started working again, and Perkins reaction looks great, because it’s exactly the kind of startle Norman would have made if the car really had hit a bubble, or something, and stopped for a moment. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/10 "2016-04-27T22:11:02Z")
[Mad About You](http://splitsider.com/2015/03/how-mad-about-you-made-one-of-the-boldest-bottle-episodes-ever/)did a one scene/ one take episode in the nineties. > [@](#): > > When this episode was originally broadcast on NBC, it was even aired uninterrupted, with commercials airing only after the theme song and before the end credits (a move that felt like it was being implemented in Archer’s recent “Vision Quest” foray into the genre, but wasn’t, surely due to the increasing dominance of advertisers now versus then). The 20-minute conversation between Paul and Jamie outside the baby’s room, filmed in one take, is shown straight through. There are absolutely no hidden cuts here like shows often have to resort to when attempting this idea. They did this all as one take, with the entire thing memorized, and if nothing else, that’s an incredible feat that just isn’t seen anymore. Murray the dog is even added briefly as an impressive piece to this Rube Goldberg-like machine that could break at any moment. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/11 "2016-04-27T22:15:53Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > [_Goodfellas_ has a very impressive,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sr-vxVaY_M)and long[Steadicam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam)shot. A few recent TV shows have done live episodes as a novelty, forgetting that until the 1970s, most soap operas were always done that way. That Goodfellas scene was the first thing I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/12 "2016-04-27T22:17:18Z")
The beginning of Robert Altman’s **The Player**. [https://vimeo.com/75881931](https://vimeo.com/75881931) Plus it’s about Hollywood and moviemaking. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/13 "2016-04-27T22:19:21Z")
The ur-text of the long take was the opening scene in Orson Welles’s _[Touch of Evil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AXd1ayxrg)._ No one had ever done anything like that before. It was referred to and expanded on in _[The Player](https://vimeo.com/75881931)_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/14 "2016-04-27T22:19:51Z")
The opening scene in _The Player_ is over 7 minutes long and is one shot (they had to do several takes to get it right, but the end result was just one shot, nothing edited). One of my favorite films, too! ---
**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:** [April 27, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/15 "2016-04-27T22:25:22Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > That Goodfellas scene was the first thing I thought of. I’m not wild about mafia movies-- it’s on the bottom of my list of genres, but I watched _Goodfellas_ to see that scene in context, because it’s so impressive. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/16 "2016-04-27T22:28:17Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Oh, the sinking of Marion’s car in _Psycho_ was done in one take, because they only had the one car, so they worked pretty hard to get it right. It was actually on a lift, and was being pulled down into the swamp, and it stuck for a moment, which Anthony Perkins genuinely reacts to, because if the lift breaks, the whole scene is crap. But then it started working again, and Perkins reaction looks great, because it’s exactly the kind of startle Norman would have made if the car really had hit a bubble, or something, and stopped for a moment. That’s a good story but I doubt it. That would mean that there was one camera pointing at the car going into the water and another camera pointed back towards Perkins rolling at the same time and the footage was cut together with the same timing. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/17 "2016-04-27T23:53:29Z")
**Atonement** has a long [tracking shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_yhuhp880s) of British soldiers stranded at Dunkirk. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/18 "2016-04-28T01:46:55Z")
Season 1 of the HBO series _True Detective_ had a great six-minute tracking shot in the episode where McConaughey’s character is undercover at a drug dealer’s house and shit goes awry and he has to get out of the hood on foot. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/19 "2016-04-28T03:04:52Z")
One of the classics is in Superman, where Superman flies away, and then Clark Kent appears at the door. Another nice one is in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where the nighttime shot of Eddie Valiant’s office turns into morning in Hollywoodland. Understated and very smooth. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279/20 "2016-04-28T03:08:54Z")
The TV show Leverage has a lot of one take scenes, including quite a few where they had the entire scene freeze as the cameraman would move around. And the scenes would have dozens of people in them. It was a trademark of their style of shooting, moving around the frozen people to each character in turn. Could be a really neat effect when they did it for a long scene at a cocktail party or such. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-take-one-camera-scenes/753279.md?page=2)