The Story of the First Film That Used One Shot Technique
The recent resurgence of the one-shot technique is inevitably evident as it enhances viewer immersion by giving a raw
The recent resurgence of the one-shot technique is inevitably evident as it enhances viewer immersion by giving a raw experience. Despite its challenges, it pushes the boundaries of filmmaking, crafting a unique cinematic feel.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) was the first film that used one shot technique, but it was not as advanced as Birdman. Released 66 years after Rope, Birdman had more advanced tools and equipment that made it look like a one-shot masterpiece, also known as ‘oner’.
While recent films like Birdman and 1917 have popularized the technique, its roots trace back to the early days of cinema. This article explores the story of the first film that used the one-shot technique.
Understanding the one-shot technique
One-shot technique is the flawless camera flow with the characters, so that less need for edits and cutting is felt. It gives a theatrical performance with one uninterrupted shot so that storytelling stays seamlessly intact.
The role of lighting, choreography, camera movement, and actor timing matters the most. With careful planning and actors’ vigorous rehearsals so that they don’t make a mistake once while delivering their dialogues, the single-take technique gives weightage to the film’s narrative for a hypnotic experience if pulled off cleanly.
Birdman wasn’t actually filmed in one shot; rather, it was made to look like one. The director Alejandro G. Inarritu proclaimed that the movie was meant to be like that from day one.
Extra praise should be given to the film Rope, which was an experimental attempt but a pioneer of this classy technique, used rigorously in modern filmmaking. Hitchcock paved the way for the directors of today, and for that, we certainly need to tip our hats.
Plot details of Rope
Rope is based on a play by Patrick Hamilton by the same name. It begins with Brandon and Philip murdering their friend David. They place his body in a chest and then host a dinner party in the same room with the victim’s family and fiancé.
Their former schoolmaster Rupert is also attending the party and begins to suspect what happened. He eventually discovers the truth.
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What techniques were used by Hitchcock in the first film that used one shot technique?
Set in a single location and presented in real-time, Hitchcock made the film with a series of long takes in Rope. The scenes ranged from 2 to 10 minutes in length.
Blocking and staging with minimal editing- to keep us engaged in the story’s suspense, he used these methods to give us first-hand experience of what was happening in the room, without even blinking once.
Framing long takes
- Repositioning the camera and the characters
It helps keep the image fresh and appears as if the pacing is active. Hitchcock kept two characters and one character shots seamless without the audience knowing that the other characters behind the scenes might be moving here and there to relocate themselves for the next shot.
- Changes in one-shot size
The size of the shot was changed according to the needs of the sequence, like the scene started from a far-away shot and then slowly closed in to give the feel of a long take. The two-character shots again merge well with the seven-character shot, all at once.
- Add off-screen audio
It came with the advantage of activating off-screen space, as our eyes are fixated upon the scene, and our mind is tricked into not realizing that the one-shot scene might have finished.
Our eyes are tricked into knowing that it was a one-shot, but it can be stretched to an even longer take based on the scene’s situation. For example, Rupert takes the murder weapon, the rope, out of his pocket while small talk is heard at the back.
Blocking and staging
- Staging up for suspense
The director utilized this technique quite well, as in one instance, he shows several characters in a scene and then moves the same camera to one character, showing what’s happening under the surface. The suspense and mystery on one character’s face tell the entire story, narrating and creating suspense brilliantly.
This is subjective filming as the focus is on one character, and only he knows what’s going on in his mind. This subjective camera ramps up the suspense in the whole one-take scene. For example, in one scene, the lady (Miss Walker) calls David’s name, and the camera moves to Phillip’s face, standing fearful at the far end of the room, and an instant focus of the camera on his hand, showing the breaking of glass, highlighting his panic and stress. No one notices what happened back there, but the director ensured that we do.
Invisible editing
Creating a single-take movie back in 1948 wasn’t possible. Film magazines could only hold 10 minutes of film, while a projector reel could only hold 20 minutes of footage. Two projectors were used to play a film in movie theatres at that time, and switching between them was called a changeover.
Hitchcock knew that maintaining the illusion of one shot would be challenging. Hence, he chose to use hard cuts for the changeovers. They were placed in the most unnoticeable places in one sequence so that one cut over another was barely spotted.
Some of the most common types of edits were the reactions of characters in the same scene. When a scene of three people is ongoing, one character says something, and the camera cuts and shows the face of another person who shows a reaction to what the other person just said.
There are other shrewd, invisible editing tactics, such as the use of a swinging door to create a clever cut each time the door closes. Although it looks like a continuous scene but the cuts are intelligently placed between the swinging of the door.
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Why the one-shot endures
The early film-making technique for one-shot was based on limited technology, no edits, and basic camera steps. With modern revivals and digital advancements, movies like Birdman simulated the technique and won an Oscar.
Still, it is equally commendable that Rope, which has a 93 percent Tomatometer score and an IMDb rating of 7.9, was able to push the medium of cinema forward. The psychological effects and narrative impact were sustained through the antithesis of a trend of taking a hundred shots between five and 15 seconds.
For keeping the real-time tension alive, Hitchcock confessed,
“I undertook Rope as a stunt, that’s the only way I can describe it. I really don’t know how I came to indulge in it.” [Source]
The intensity of challenges like precision, never-ending rehearsals, and meticulous planning cannot be undermined by the greatness of the one-shot technique. From its accidental birth to its incessant use in contemporary films is the actual success story that started from a cinematic past, commencing with Rope.
