Pictures they make these days are all MTV, cut cut cut cut.
The opening shot of Wallace's Touch of Evil was six and a half minutes long!
- Six and a half minutes, Walter?
a three or four he way he set up the whole picture that one tracking shot
my father was the key Griffin ish hey
And what about Absolute Beginners? That was an extraordinary shot!
What the hell was that, I never heard of it.
Welcome to Now You See It. Aren't long takes awesome?
I'm talking about the huge ones, the masterpieces
where all the technical camerawork, special effects and carefully choreographed movement
pushes the boundaries of cinema as an art form and leaves us thinking: holy shit.
If you want to read more about how awesome they are, I recommend these three articles
or even these ten. How about 25?
What I'm saying is we're all well aware of how long takes work.
They dazzle, they entertain, they push film to its limits;
but I want to make a quick video essay
that explores one way long takes might be limited in their storytelling ablities.
To start, let's hear from someone familiar who doesn't like long takes.
HITCHCOCK: I don't know why I really dulged in the stunt, I can only call it a stunt, in Rope.
Rope was Hitchcock's attempt at a
movie taking place in real time in one long take.
Originally a play, Hitchcock
kept every action and reaction in the frame and let the camera roll.
Cameras at the time could only film 20 minutes per reel,
so he had to hide cuts inbetween scenes when he needed to.
The result is something Hitchcock didn't think was all that great.
He comments on what it was missing in a French interview with Truffaut,
which explains the French translator in the background.
When I look back, of course,
it's quite nonsensical, really, because
I was breaking all my own tradition on reusing film
and the cutting of film to tell a story.
Oh a lot of people think the
cutting is will say montage or assembly
he's taking a man from one place to
another and jumping into a close-up of
him which Griffith invented is true but
to me goes much deeper so that's what
long takes can miss editing in many ways
Hitchcock was simply filming a play but
even with something originally a play
you can use editing to tell a story and
Hitchcock thinks editing is a strong
storytelling device that was missing
with his movie how could rope have used
editing to tell its story 12 Angry Men
originally a teleplay and then a stage
play also has a limited set and heavy
dialogue but the editing tells us
everything unlike rope which has no
editing the beginning shots are wide and
comfortable there's actually a
six-minute long take in the beginning
where conversation is light and everyone
at ease in the early scenes most of the
dialogue features multiple people that
takes our relatively long and shots of
single people aren't too close as the
movie progresses intense scenes have
super close ups of characters and the
edits are much quicker by allowing the
camera to cut quickly from close up to
close up editing showcases the intensity
of the scene
what do you want I say is guilty not to
mention the eerie overhead lighting the
performances and the rain in the
background the cuts are very important
here to quickly and efficiently move
from the action to the reaction as
opposed to a long take where the camera
has to either whip around or we see
action and reaction at the same time
which gives them both equal weight to
the viewer but that's not to say
filmmakers can't direct our eyes without
using cuts on the contrary directors
guide our eyes with the right lighting
camera movement and frame composition
the University of Edinburgh developed a
visual tools that track I movement so
they can show people a movie clip and
track what they look at in this scene in
there will be blood the person talking
is important to the viewer according to
where they're looking but I movement
also shifts when someone moves to smoke
a cigarette or starts leaving the frame
there's lots of ways to direct the I
like what's in focus where everybody is
looking lights and geometry you may not
notice it consciously but directors are
telling you where to look especially in
flashy long takes the long battle scene
in the revenant is chaos but it's
directed chaos you look from one person
to another or at that specific arrow
whizzing past the camera but according
to Hitchcock a long take just can't beat
the intensity speed and storytelling
power of an effective cut cottingley
implies severing something it really
should be called assembly when clips are
assembled together through editing they
create a new story for the viewer if you
cut from one clip to another your mind
associates the clips with each other and
creates the idea of course the classic
example is the psycho shower scene but
it works in a variety of movies in The
Godfather Coppola cuts from the
spiritual cleansing of Michael's son
through baptism to the violent cleansing
of mafia leaders one cleanses with holy
water the other with blood
and all this works you could write a
book on what this editing choice means
in the context of the film but one thing
is very clear the editing is what
establishes this symbolic connection and
a long take just doesn't have the
ability to thematically associate to
different ideas in a way as effective as
these edits montage means the Assembly
of pieces of film which moved in rapid
succession before the I create an idea I
love long takes anybody can appreciate
them for how beautiful they are but they
are limited in their storytelling power
they give us more choices in what to
look at compared to cutting from face to
face or object to object this has its
advantages with more to look at we can
be more overwhelmed more taken it back
more amazed but a cut forcing us to look
at one thing that can be intense has the
kind of emphasis a big shot doesn't have
so sometimes an edit works sometimes
along take works it just depends on how
you look at it what's the difference how
long it takes suppose we do it in five
minutes so what let's take an hour ball
game doesn't start till eight o'clock if
you wish this video was longer you're in
luck because all time movies has a great
video that focuses on how directors pull
off these intricate long takes and
sometimes long takes are hidden in plain
sight watch Tony's house video on the
Spielberg one or to learn more about
that both these videos are in the
description thanks for watching