Screenwriting : One Take by Kiril Maksimoski

Yes. We actually have a script called 'A Domestic Incident' that is intended to be one long take but it has deliberate cheats. The log-line is "A police officer is dispatched for a welfare check to assist a young girl who can't find her parents and uncovers evidence of the nights of horror they experienced before vanishing. Then he realizes he may not be alone in the house." The cheats are looking at the home surveillance, looking at phones, computers, etc in the style of Rope. It does not have one slug line. The first slug line is EXT. HOME - NIGHT with a shot of the young girl calling 911 from the porch and then as they move through the house INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT et al pave the way for the film itself. The movie takes place in a single location so the slug lines indicate where the officer and the girl are around the home. One version we wrote is "real time". Another is harder to tell because of what is uncovered in the cut scenes. I say "cut scenes" but the idea is that the cop is watching them for the first time with the audience. We have shot long carousel scenes a lot over the years but something about them always comes off feeling a little "stage play" like no matter how careful we've been.

John & Jamie many "mainstreamers" will say that - D'oh, why didn't you do a stage play instead...do not hear them if your mind is set to one taker.

Bjorn Black I hope you've coped with producer's decision (inside). One take feature is possible, believe me- so it must be possible to write it too.

Can a digital camera like an Arri Alexa have the data space to store 80-120 minutes one take? I think modern 35mm film cameras spool about 10-15 minutes of film.

Dan, thanks on shading some technical reality into our day-dreams of writing. However I've seen an actual (modern day) feature film done in just one take. How was it filmed? Don't ask, but I believe it wasn't made on Camera 300...

Dan MaxXx It would depend on the recorder. You can combine an Alexa with a Codex capture drive which hold a few tb but the resolution and bit rate etc would determine how much data you could capture in a single go.

As far as I know, the only 'single take' feature movie in existence is Russian Arc. And it took them several 'attempts' to complete it. Is that a 'single' take? Every other single take from "Rope" to "1917' utilize cheats for magazine reloads or staging. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Of course - recording a multicam live production is technically a 'single take'. Any stage play can be recorded in one take. So it might help to know what YOUR definition is.

Richard P. Alvarez expand your horizons a bit ;)....https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2113768/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_45

I have an external recorder that has two 2tb solid state drives - I've never run out of space. The typical DSLRs shut down as the card heats up - usually 15 min +/-.

Thanks Kiril. It looks like it's recorded from a 'webcam'? So basically a static camera that events happen in front of it? The events unfold in 'real time'? IE in the following two hours - no 'cut's in time?

This is the same as staging a play - with a single camera standing in for the audience.

I guess my question to you is - what do you mean by 'single take'? The action all plays out in real time? (There are no cuts/jumps in time such as you would get perhaps in a stage play - or the way they had the character blackout in 1917) Or is it that all action is seen from one continuous point of view? (Russian arc on a steady cam moving through 'time'/history as it moves through the building. The actors and staging changing around it) Or is it 'anything that happens on one 'capture' in one continuous performace - regardless of whether or not that 'capture' utilizes a switching device between multiple cameras? (Recording a performance 'live' with multicam switching to capture)

Absolutely correct Richard. Still it's a film, and those circumstances can be attributed to a poor script. Imagine someone with rich fantasy taking on this challenge? Would be game changer in a vain of Buried, Blair Witch or even Searching. Wouldn't you agree?

Hi Kiril,

There are some films that appear to be one straight take, and move around quite a bit - but they have edits, of course. Even in writing them, I'd still use slug lines -unless I was writing an entire film that takes place in one static location, which I probably wouldn't ever be writing.

Birdman, if I recall correctly, tried to appear as one straight take. So did Hardcore Henry. There was a version of Macbeth that did the same. I think someone had already mentioned Rope. Timecode, if I recall correctly, was another one. One amazing film, and performance, was Secret Honor. Phillip Baker Hall played a disgraced, angry and manic Richard M. Nixon in the midst of an epic meltdown. I'm pretty sure the whole film was one scene in his office, if I recall correctly.

It's tricky, no doubt, but not impossible.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Kiril, and stay safe!

Thanks Nick. I've been tempted couple of times, but no idea I had so far fits an actual feature one taker. Though, I did directed a one take short mockumentary back in 2008. It was according to script written by Slovenian writer Miha Mazzini, however it was just a monologue, no action so I guess it too doesn't live up to the challenge.

I agree it's not impossible, Bill. Just as Nick above said I guess it's too much of a pain in the ass for mainstream produces and directors to take on something like that. But If the right script comes along...who knows?

I'm just a writer, I don't decide how to shoot it.

Since it's Alfred Hitchcock's birthday: ROPE was written as a stage play, so there were no shots at all. The film has all of the usual shots required to tell the story visually - but the camera moves from shot to shot without cuts. Slightly overhead long shot to low angle close up to medium shot to reverse shot? No cuts. Kitchen to Dining Room to Living Room? No cuts. But I can't imagine that the script would need to be any different - just the way it was shot.

Great Jackie! Hope it does well on the challenge.

I've had one script optioned through InkTip but it's still un-produced.

The Real Story Behind 1917

Not quite the answer you want: I know "Phone Booth" was a play, and then became a script set in one location, could've been a one take wonder before all ... shot in 12 days total.

Here are a few one take scenes.

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a26323820/best-one-shot-movie-scenes/

Lindbergh E Hollingsworth yea, someone should've come up with idea to mount a camera on a drone and film all possible angles and all characters without any transition involved...would be too experimental for mainstream product, however...

Jim Jarmusch did one takes for “Stranger than Paradise.” No cutaways, locked camera on tripod. Either you love this filmmaking style or you don’t.

https://youtu.be/99WaZ6Hbge4

https://www.scriptslug.com/assets/uploads/scripts/stranger-than-paradise...