Long take

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A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished through the use of a dolly or Steadicam. Some films, like Rope, Russian Ark, Before Sunset, Elephant, and Irréversible are composed entirely of long takes, while others like Goodfellas, Boogie Nights, Touch of Evil, The Player are well-known for a specific long take or two within otherwise more conventionally edited films.

The term "long take" is used because it avoids the ambiguous meanings of "long shot", which can refer to the framing of a shot, and "long cut", which can refer to either a whole version of a film or the general editing pacing of the film. However, these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably with "long take".

[edit] Film and television productions with long takes

• 11 Minutes Ago - Shot in eight 11 minute takes
• 2001: A Space Odyssey most of the film is shot with unusually long takes
• Angel - episodes directed by Joss Whedon often feature long takes, for example near the beginning of episode 5.1)
• Bande à part (the famous Madison dance shot)
• Before Sunset
• The Bonfire of the Vanities - the opening scene feautures a long take with a moving camera
• Boogie Nights - from the outside to the inside of the disco, approximately 3 minutes.
• Breaking News - the opening shot is approximately 7 mins long
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - episodes directed by Joss Whedon often feature long takes; the musical episode features a long tracking shot with dancing passers-by
• Chelsea Girls
• Children of Men
• Citizen Kane - the flashback depicting Kane's childhood features a long take with deep focus
• City of Hope
• Clerks - The conversation between Dante Hicks and Caitlin Bree at the RST Video is a long take of over five minutes; it was taken on the first night of filming
• Code Unknown
• Cul-de-Sac
• Damnation
• Elephant
• Empire
• Firefly - episodes directed by Joss Whedon often feature long takes
• Funny Games
• Gerry
• Gertrud
• Goodbye, Dragon Inn
• Goodfellas - a long take as Ray Liotta's character enters a nightclub
• Hard Boiled - a 2-minute action sequence including gun battles and a journey in an elevator
• A History of Violence - the first scene is a long take
• Husbands and Wives
• I Am Cuba
• Irréversible
• Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
• Kadosh
• La Captive
• Last Days
• The Life of Oharu
• Magnolia
• The Magnificent Ambersons - in Orson Welles's film many sequences are shot in long takes, perhaps the longest being Aunt Fanny's breakdown, where Tim Holt urges Agnes Morehead to pull it together as he leads her though the Amberson mansion by her shoulders
• Menace II Society
• The Mirror
• Oldboy - an action scene several minutes long involving many participants is filmed in a single take
• Platform
• The Player - the opening shot is 8 minutes long and moves through a Hollywood studio; one character, Walter, talks with two other characters about famous "long shots" in film history, mentioning Orson Welles' six and a half minute take in Touch of Evil and a shot in The Sheltering Sky
• Primer
• The Passenger
• Rear Window
• Rope - consists of only 10 takes, the edits between half of which are hidden, sometimes making two or three takes look continuous to the untrained eye
• Russian Ark - a 2-hour film consisting of one single long take, made possible with the use of digital cameras
• Satantango
• "Scarface (1932)" - the opening shot
• Serenity - The shot near the beginning of the movie introducing the audience to the main characters over the main titles seems to last roughly four and a half minutes, but is actually broken into two; the break is disguised by a whip pan when Nathan Fillion's character goes up the stairs
• Sleep
• Snake Eyes - the shot at the beginning is seemingly 15 minutes long, although it contains several edits disguised by whip pans
• Songs from the Second Floor
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - the opening shot is a 76 second long take of the Battle of Coruscant; it is over two and a half minutes if one includes the film's opening crawl.
• Sunrise - a long take follows the Woman from the City as she walks into the moonlit field to meet with the Husband
• Taste of Cherry - filmed almost entirely in long takes
• Tenebrae
• The Third Man - the final sequence involves a long take as Alida Valli's character walks up a road toward Joseph Cotten's
• Through the Olive Trees
• Timecode - four 90-minute long takes were filmed simultaneously and are presented on screen as such, using a split-screen effect
• Touch of Evil - the opening features a six and a half minute long take with a moving camera
• Ulysses' Gaze
• Under Capricorn
• War of the Worlds - the car shot during the family's escape is 2½ minutes long, and the camera travels in, out and around the vehicle (assisted by visual effects)
• Wavelength - a 45-minute long take of a slow zoom in toward a picture on a wall
• Week End - a 10-minute tracking shot along a traffic jam
• The West Wing
• The X-Files, episode "Triangle" - filmed in four takes, each eleven minutes long
• Yi-Yi

[edit] Directors known for long takes

• Chantal Akerman
• Woody Allen
• Robert Altman
• Paul Thomas Anderson
• Theo Angelopoulos
• Michelangelo Antonioni
• Alfonso Cuaron
• Brian De Palma
• Federico Fellini
• Michel Gondry
• Hou Hsiao-Hsien
• Miklós Jancsó
• Abbas Kiarostami
• Stanley Kubrick
• Kenji Mizoguchi
• Martin Scorsese
• Quentin Tarantino
• Andrei Tarkovsky
• Béla Tarr
• Tsai Ming-liang
• Gus Van Sant
• Andy Warhol
• Orson Welles
• Joss Whedon
• Robert Zemeckis