Analysis Of The Uninterrupted Shot In The Shining
While researching on the different techniques applied on previous notable films created by distinguished filmmakers, I learned that they all similarly applied their understanding of human perception into the creation of their craft. To give a better point of comparison among the films cited in this section, all of the movies presented below share a similar technique: the uninterrupted shot. This method was preferred by this researcher in order to identify the differences in styles that were incorporated by each director in presenting his version of the uninterrupted shot. In the 1980 film ¬of Stanley Kubrick entitled The Shining, a long uninterrupted shot of the young boy Danny was shown as he explored the endless hallways of the
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Overlook Hotel with his kiddie tricycle. This adds to the disquiet that the scene intends to depict as it builds a sense of suspense. The lack of cuts works to instill a sense of dread that the next corner could hold something terrifying, not to mention the feeling that Danny is being followed. The father of Danny has become an insane man and he stalks the halls looking for his wife and young son, Danny. The continuous shot builds on the uneasiness of the audience and it can be stated that this continuous scene shot is one of the most effective cinematic techniques employed in the film by Kubrick. The atmosphere is punctuated by the sound of the big wheel trike as it rolls from bare floors to carpet continuously. The director punctuates the suspense with the loud rolling of the wheels amidst the silence and eerie atmosphere of the hallways and corridors. The 2003 film entitled Oldboy is an adaptation of the South Korean mystery thriller directed by Park Chan-wook. It follows the story of a man who has been locked up in a hotel room for fifteen years without knowing why. When his search for answers leads to a confrontation with a mob along a hallway, the camera takes a profile view of the agonizing one-against-many brawl until finally and painstakingly, the protagonist reaches his goal. The continuous or uninterrupted shot is excellently depicted buy Chan-wook as he made use of appropriate f-stop settings in the long and dark hallway. As such, every action within the frame is clear to the audience. He does not employ the depth-of-field technique because he wants the viewer to fully experience the violent action coming from almost all sides of the protagonist. The lack of background music only adds to the realistic nature of the fight for this particular scene. In the 1997 film entitled Boogie Nights directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the director for the very first shot in the film made a statement-making technique of taking a continuous shot in the first scene. Depicting the nightclub of the 1970s, the three-minute uninterrupted scene worked to introduce the audience to Burt Reynolds’ porn director as he entered the club before following the owner working on the floor and connecting back to Reynolds and his soon-to-be star, Mark Wahlberg. The film followed through with another continuous shot as the camera followed the steps of William H. Macy on New Year’s Eve throughout several rooms of a house where a party was being held. Macy casually asks the people from the party if they have seen his wife. He navigates the house party to find his cheating wife from room to room. The camera follows him all throughout the house, and as soon as he sees his wife in one of the upper bedrooms, he shoots his cheating wife and her lover and finally commits suicide as the party crowd chants the New Year’s countdown at the top of their voices. Anderson truly made use of his understanding of human perception as his uninterrupted shot created a vivid sense of realism as the unsuspecting viewers were caught unaware of the sudden violence that ensued. No background music was used although unlike in the film Oldboy, Anderson preferred to maintain depth-of-field focus on the
William Macy as he traversed the house, in order to guide the attention of the audience.
In the 2005 film entitled The Protector A.K.A. Tom Yum Goong directed by Prachya Pinkaew, a prolonged and continuous action scene fight takes the audience throughout the hotel lobby, along flights of staircases, and through doors and rooms without being able to make a single mistake. In the scene, the protagonist takes on countless stunt actors in search of his stolen baby elephants. The scene is so intense that one cannot help but acknowledge the skill of the cameraman in following the entire continuous shot religiously and without error. The difficulty in such instances would be to struggle to keep up and keep in time with the fast action. What is more impressive is that the cameraman was able to avoid camera shake while doing his job. In the 2006 film entitled Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron, a continuous scene shows an attack by numerous men on foot and on motorcycles against a moving car carrying the protagonist of the story. It was evident that the scene was shot with a specially mounted camera capable of 360-degree movements because there was virtually no camera shake during the entire scene, except when the mob shook the vehicle itself. The ambush, shot in one continuous and tense scene makes the viewer feel as if he or she is inside the vehicle as well, united in fear with the passengers in the car themselves. In the 1992 film entitled Hard Boiled directed by John Woo, the choreographic efforts of the action director have garnered wide acclaim and recognition as one of the best action sequences ever filmed. In it, two cops take two floors of a hospital packed with hoodlums in only one take. Such a scene would involve a lot of gunplay, special effects, and timing, all to take the audience through the hallway, to the elevator, and up to a completely different floor. If there was any cheat, it was only the use of slow motion to help the audience catch their breath. It can be said that only video games can aspire to be this frantic and well organized. What is most impressive is that all of this was accomplished in a single take.
In the 1990 film entitled Goodfellas, this Martin Scorsese film has a continuous shot which is nothing but impressive.
Cinematography guides the audience painstakingly as the cameraman expertly follows Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco into the legendary nightclub from the backdoor all the way to their seats. This scene reportedly took eight takes to successfully make and effectively depicts the level of power and access to a crime world that opens up to the audience. In the classic 1958 film entitled Touch of Evil, Orson Welles expertly shows off his skills in film noir. In a scene, which was made as an uninterrupted shot, the audience follows a car planted with a bomb. It not only introduced the protagonist but it also demonstrated that there was more than one-way to tell a story and create a sense of fluid story telling. The 1948 film entitled Rope is an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. This film can be said to have been a very ambitious undertaking because the entire film was done in real time. This was accomplished by having it made completely from eight- to ten-minute takes with the story centered on two killers having strangled a classmate. The tense thriller focused on them having hid the body in their apartment and having invited friends and family members just to see how good of a job they had
done. The 2002 film entitled Russian Ark, directed by Alexander Sokurov, can be considered as the most impressive uninterrupted technique ever attempted. This is because the entire ninety-six minutes of the film commenced and finished without any cuts whatsoever. It was one continuous take that was exquisitely accomplished. It was crafted with the use of a steadicam navigating thirty-three rooms up the winter palace of the Russian estate called Hermitage Museum. Centered on a ghost drifting through the location, his journey takes the audience to a guided tour through history. In tota, it took three takes to accomplish while being limited by the 100-minute hard drive they were capturing it on. However, the sound was modified after the fact because there were audio flaws, which needed to be edited out such as cursing from the crew.
Overlook Hotel with his kiddie tricycle. This adds to the disquiet that the scene intends to depict as it builds a sense of suspense. The lack of cuts works to instill a sense of dread that the next corner could hold something terrifying, not to mention the feeling that Danny is being followed. The father of Danny has become an insane man and he stalks the halls looking for his wife and young son, Danny. The continuous shot builds on the uneasiness of the audience and it can be stated that this continuous scene shot is one of the most effective cinematic techniques employed in the film by Kubrick. The atmosphere is punctuated by the sound of the big wheel trike as it rolls from bare floors to carpet continuously. The director punctuates the suspense with the loud rolling of the wheels amidst the silence and eerie atmosphere of the hallways and corridors. The 2003 film entitled Oldboy is an adaptation of the South Korean mystery thriller directed by Park Chan-wook. It follows the story of a man who has been locked up in a hotel room for fifteen years without knowing why. When his search for answers leads to a confrontation with a mob along a hallway, the camera takes a profile view of the agonizing one-against-many brawl until finally and painstakingly, the protagonist reaches his goal. The continuous or uninterrupted shot is excellently depicted buy Chan-wook as he made use of appropriate f-stop settings in the long and dark hallway. As such, every action within the frame is clear to the audience. He does not employ the depth-of-field technique because he wants the viewer to fully experience the violent action coming from almost all sides of the protagonist. The lack of background music only adds to the realistic nature of the fight for this particular scene. In the 1997 film entitled Boogie Nights directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the director for the very first shot in the film made a statement-making technique of taking a continuous shot in the first scene. Depicting the nightclub of the 1970s, the three-minute uninterrupted scene worked to introduce the audience to Burt Reynolds’ porn director as he entered the club before following the owner working on the floor and connecting back to Reynolds and his soon-to-be star, Mark Wahlberg. The film followed through with another continuous shot as the camera followed the steps of William H. Macy on New Year’s Eve throughout several rooms of a house where a party was being held. Macy casually asks the people from the party if they have seen his wife. He navigates the house party to find his cheating wife from room to room. The camera follows him all throughout the house, and as soon as he sees his wife in one of the upper bedrooms, he shoots his cheating wife and her lover and finally commits suicide as the party crowd chants the New Year’s countdown at the top of their voices. Anderson truly made use of his understanding of human perception as his uninterrupted shot created a vivid sense of realism as the unsuspecting viewers were caught unaware of the sudden violence that ensued. No background music was used although unlike in the film Oldboy, Anderson preferred to maintain depth-of-field focus on the
William Macy as he traversed the house, in order to guide the attention of the audience.
In the 2005 film entitled The Protector A.K.A. Tom Yum Goong directed by Prachya Pinkaew, a prolonged and continuous action scene fight takes the audience throughout the hotel lobby, along flights of staircases, and through doors and rooms without being able to make a single mistake. In the scene, the protagonist takes on countless stunt actors in search of his stolen baby elephants. The scene is so intense that one cannot help but acknowledge the skill of the cameraman in following the entire continuous shot religiously and without error. The difficulty in such instances would be to struggle to keep up and keep in time with the fast action. What is more impressive is that the cameraman was able to avoid camera shake while doing his job. In the 2006 film entitled Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron, a continuous scene shows an attack by numerous men on foot and on motorcycles against a moving car carrying the protagonist of the story. It was evident that the scene was shot with a specially mounted camera capable of 360-degree movements because there was virtually no camera shake during the entire scene, except when the mob shook the vehicle itself. The ambush, shot in one continuous and tense scene makes the viewer feel as if he or she is inside the vehicle as well, united in fear with the passengers in the car themselves. In the 1992 film entitled Hard Boiled directed by John Woo, the choreographic efforts of the action director have garnered wide acclaim and recognition as one of the best action sequences ever filmed. In it, two cops take two floors of a hospital packed with hoodlums in only one take. Such a scene would involve a lot of gunplay, special effects, and timing, all to take the audience through the hallway, to the elevator, and up to a completely different floor. If there was any cheat, it was only the use of slow motion to help the audience catch their breath. It can be said that only video games can aspire to be this frantic and well organized. What is most impressive is that all of this was accomplished in a single take.
In the 1990 film entitled Goodfellas, this Martin Scorsese film has a continuous shot which is nothing but impressive.
Cinematography guides the audience painstakingly as the cameraman expertly follows Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco into the legendary nightclub from the backdoor all the way to their seats. This scene reportedly took eight takes to successfully make and effectively depicts the level of power and access to a crime world that opens up to the audience. In the classic 1958 film entitled Touch of Evil, Orson Welles expertly shows off his skills in film noir. In a scene, which was made as an uninterrupted shot, the audience follows a car planted with a bomb. It not only introduced the protagonist but it also demonstrated that there was more than one-way to tell a story and create a sense of fluid story telling. The 1948 film entitled Rope is an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. This film can be said to have been a very ambitious undertaking because the entire film was done in real time. This was accomplished by having it made completely from eight- to ten-minute takes with the story centered on two killers having strangled a classmate. The tense thriller focused on them having hid the body in their apartment and having invited friends and family members just to see how good of a job they had
done. The 2002 film entitled Russian Ark, directed by Alexander Sokurov, can be considered as the most impressive uninterrupted technique ever attempted. This is because the entire ninety-six minutes of the film commenced and finished without any cuts whatsoever. It was one continuous take that was exquisitely accomplished. It was crafted with the use of a steadicam navigating thirty-three rooms up the winter palace of the Russian estate called Hermitage Museum. Centered on a ghost drifting through the location, his journey takes the audience to a guided tour through history. In tota, it took three takes to accomplish while being limited by the 100-minute hard drive they were capturing it on. However, the sound was modified after the fact because there were audio flaws, which needed to be edited out such as cursing from the crew.