This epic trench battle from "1917"
was shot to look like one long take.
And it was a huge challenge for both the cast and crew.
It involved multiple cranes,
speeding trucks, and perfectly timed handoffs.
But this is just one example of a one-take scene,
or a "oner,"
that pushed filmmakers to their limits
and required impressive technical innovations.
Here's how eight movie and TV scenes were shot
to look like one long take.
One-take scenes are naturally suited for intense action,
as you can see in this fight scene in "Atomic Blonde."
Despite shooting in a real building,
the crew still had to alter the set to accommodate the oner.
For example, they built this elevator,
which helped create a natural stitch point,
a way to hide the moment the camera cuts
and keep the continuous illusion going.
They also used another stitching technique
called body crossing, in which a cut is hidden
when a performer blocks the camera,
as seen here with this henchman.
Because the fight was shot to look like one take,
it needed to be shot in chronological order.
So the effects team had to constantly apply
new makeup to Charlize Theron and the other characters
as the fighting continued and injuries increased.
Charlize did her own stunts
for a large part of this sequence.
However, for some of the riskier moves,
the crew subbed in her stunt double, Monique Ganderton.
For example, the director used motion blur
when Charlize had to fall down the stairs
and slam into a wall.
That's actually Monique tumbling down the stairs
before switching back to Charlize hitting the wall.
Unlike "Atomic Blonde," Netflix's "Extraction"
hops from location to location,
as opposed to just one building.
The entire sequence goes on for about 12 minutes
and consists of approximately 36 segments cobbled together.
The nonstop action required director Sam Hargrave
to do some stunts of his own.
For this car chase, he strapped himself
to the hood of another vehicle
and then had to quickly unstrap himself
and place the camera inside the other car.
He then had to replicate the same shot backwards
by leaning out the car once he was inside.
This helped create a natural transition point.
If Sam's position was off even slightly,
they'd have to shoot it all over again.
Then for this shot, where Chris Hemsworth's
stunt double tumbles off an awning,
Sam roped himself into a pulley system
to get up close to the action.
The sequence also fools the eye in many other ways.
For instance, when Ovi runs through this doorway,
he is actually running into a room
in a different building 10 blocks away.
The crew had to change locations
to one where there was more space
to pull off the upcoming action.
And like with "Atomic Blonde," they frequently
swapped out Chris with his stunt double,
Bobby Holland Hanton.
The first shot you see here is Chris' face.
They could then pan to his double without anyone noticing
by shooting the back of his head.
For the Day of the Dead parade scene in "Spectre,"
cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema wanted to start big
and then go small and intimate.
That meant starting wide with parade shots,
then getting in closer to the marchers
before following Bond into a hotel room.
To pull this off, Hoyte used a technocrane.
The crane started high
and then lowered down into the crowd without cutting.
A Steadicam operator then jumped off,
pushed farther into the crowd,
and followed actor Daniel Craig up to the hotel room.
While the street scenes were shot in Mexico,
the hotel room was actually set in the UK.
The crowd scenes featured 1,500 extras.
According to ILM VFX supervisor Mark Bakowski,
since they couldn't get a perfect shot
where every extra looked the right way at the right time,
the VFX team inserted digital masks over their faces.
Sometimes oners are limited by the space they're shot in,
which means the crew needs to be a bit more creative.
In the season two premiere of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,"
cinematographer M. David Mullen had to lead the camera
through a fictional department store,
through a mail slot, and then into the small room
where Midge Maisel works as a switchboard operator.
Unlike other continuous shots,
there were no wide spaces for the camera to pass through --
just five feet of space between these two rows of actresses.
For both cameraperson and performer,
it was about precise timing.
The space was so tight that the actresses had to lean back
so they wouldn't get hit by the camera.
Then, when the camera went through the center of the room,
actresses wheeled around in their chairs
so they wouldn't block the shot.
For "Birdman," it wasn't just one scene,
but the entire movie that needed to look like one long take.
According to director Alejandro González Iñárritu,
some of the takes were up to 20 minutes long.
Because of the amount of movement in the film,
"Birdman" was shot using small
handheld cameras and Steadicams.
These allowed the crew to more easily follow the cast
as they walked through New York's crowded streets.
This also meant the crew couldn't use
typical large light kits.
So, according to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki,
they instead relied on natural
and practical lights in the scene,
like these colorful light bulbs above Michael Keaton
and even the lights emitting from Times Square.
"Birdman" wasn't just a challenge for the crew;
it was also a huge endeavor for the cast.
According to Emma Stone, if she flubbed even a single word,
she'd have to start again from the very top.
Like "Birdman," "1917" was also filmed to look like
one single take over its entire two-hour running time.
But it was even more complicated
due to its epic battle sequences.
Pulling this film off involved
the most careful planning imaginable.
Every set was precisely measured out
and could be no longer than
the length the camera could travel.
Since the crew was constantly on foot,
they relied almost entirely on natural light.
Look at the scene where Schofield
runs through a destroyed city.
It was lit up by flares in the sky.
Because the flares were the main light
for part of the scene, the crew needed to time
exactly how long the flares needed to be in the air.
They figured this out in preproduction,
where they ran a light above a mini model of the set
to see where exactly all the shadows would fall.
Of course, the film also relied on stitch points,
like here, when Blake and Schofield
walk through a black curtain.
But most of its magic was accomplished
using innovations in technology.
For example, Schofield's journey downriver
was captured by a drone.
Meanwhile, lighter and smaller cameras
allowed the crew to move through trenches
and difficult terrain with ease.
Then, to get across no man's land,
cinematographer Roger Deakins and the crew
attached cameras to a cable system above the set.
This shot, where Schofield runs through a destroyed city
and jumps off a ledge and into a river,
was too dangerous to do in real life.
So the part of him running was shot on set,
while the jump was actually shot using CGI
with a swapped background
that allowed for a seamless transition.
Shooting continuous takes means it's hard to call "cut,"
so it's not ideal for making mistakes.
But this moment here, where actor George MacKay
runs alongside the trench and then trips,
was not intentional.
But in the end it felt natural, so it stayed in the movie.
The entire set for this episode of
"The Haunting of Hill House" had to be built
specifically to accommodate a single shot.
Take a look at this elevator.
It was designed to lower the cameraperson
down to the next floor and allow them to capture
the shot of Olivia and Hugh
running down the stairs without a break.
Because the camera goes between Hill House
and the funeral home in the episode,
the two stages were actually built adjacent
to each other and connected by a hallway.
This allowed the camera to follow Hugh as he walked
directly from the funeral home into the house.
Oners are frantic by nature,
and they involve a lot of movement and setup changes.
The "Hill House" set had places throughout
for the crew and their equipment to hide
whenever the camera turned in their direction.
Like with "Birdman" and "1917," "Hill House" also
demonstrated the challenges of lighting a oner.
If an actor missed a cue, they wouldn't be lit properly.
So series creator Mike Flanagan
came up with a unique solution.
When he clapped these two wood blocks together,
the cast member knew what to do.
[blocks clapping]
One-take scenes aren't just used to show
movement from place to place.
They can also be really useful
in showing the passage of time.
This scene from the Showtime series "Kidding"
shows the character Shaina watching
"Mr. Pickles' Puppet Time" on her TV
as her life progresses and improves around her.
The shot captures five years of her life
over the course of one minute and 42 seconds.
Because the camera had to circle constantly
around the room as it changed,
this endeavor was an absolute mad rush
for the cast and crew.
To show the passage of time,
the camera operators circled around the room.
Each area of the room would show
a new development in Shaina's life.
So whenever the camera wasn't focused on them,
the 50 crew members had to swap out furniture
and bring in new props.
Then this wall slid over into the kitchen.
While that was happening, actress Riki Lindhome
had to go through multiple costume changes,
some of which involved using a body double.
What are some of your favorite one-take scenes?
Let us know in the comments.