Writing with a Camera: A Take on Long Take Tracking Shots

Next week, Doc Salvatron and I will be collaborating on back-to-back posts about The Red Balloon, the classic short film by Albert Lamorisse, and the feature film it inspired, Flight of the Red Balloon, by Hsiao-hsien Hou.

This week, inspired by the style of Hsiao-hsien Hou and by a film I watched called Nine Lives, I’m going to talk a little about long take shots in film.

If images and sounds are the words a filmmaker uses to write, then long takes are like run-on sentences — not always grammatically correct, but sometimes the best way to invoke the depth and feeling of a moment. In film, they are the closest thing to a live performance. To pull them off requires great skill, timing and coordination between the director, cast and crew, all working together for an inspired moment of creativity. The best long take tracking shots are both visually dazzling and technically innovative, like a grand magic trick. But most importantly, they serve to tell the story. Here are just a few of the strongest examples:

Touch of Evil (1958) — directed by Orson Welles

The grandaddy of them all. This sweeping crane shot at once introduces the setting, the main characters, and the key dramatic conflict, all in the span of a ticking time bomb.

Goodfellas (1990) – directed by Martin Scorsese

This kind of shot is now the standard on television shows today, but Martin Scorsese invented the aesthetic. When he was denied permission to go through the front entrance at the Copacabana, he took a Steadicam and went in the back way instead. What’s remarkable is how they dealt with the lighting challenges of shooting down long corridors and in tight spaces throughout.

Oldboy (2003) – directed by Chan Wook Park

(Note: This long take shot happens about 30 seconds into the video.)

There’s not really much to the actual shot here — the camera simply tracks back and forth to catch the action — but in an era where most fight scenes are made in the editing room, this one was made in the camera.

The Passenger (1975) – directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Here is the rare occasion when a long take tracking shot ends the film. David Locke (Jack Nicholson) lies down on his bed. From there, the camera slowly takes us outside his window, then turns around to reveal he has been murdered. In this way, it sort of goes against the showy nature of the long take technique — using offscreen sound and shot length to heighten tension. Antonioni, no doubt, has been one of the influences for HHH, and his own long take style.

Nine Lives (2005) – directed by Rodrigo Garcia

In Nine Lives, Rodrigo Garcia tells the stories of nine different women — the story of each one filmed in one long take. In this scene, Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) ping-pongs between her parents (Sissy Spacek and Ian McShane) who, while not communicating directly with each other, ask Samantha incessantly about each other. The choice to shoot in one take here makes sense, because it allows the natural tension in the scene to be revealed through the actors.

An effective long take tracking shot can be a calling card for a director. For that reason, directors today often employ them to demonstrate their filmmaking prowess and style — sort of like stepping in front of the camera and waving to the audience. With advances in technology, long takes can be faked in post-production, by cleverly concealing cuts between shots and errors in shots. While this takes away from the production aspect of creating a great single shot, these techniques still continue the spirit of the long take tradition. Long take tracking shots can be seen regularly in the work of Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Thomas Anderson, Michel Gondry, and Joe Wright, who all continue the technical and creative wizardry put forth by Welles and Scorsese.

What are your favorite long take tracking shots?

Are there examples of something like long take tracking shots in other art forms?

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Writing with a Camera: A Take on Long Take Tracking Shots

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