One-shot film

"One Take" redirects here. For other uses, see One Take (disambiguation).

A one-shot film (also one-take film, single-take film, continuous shot feature film) is a full-length movie filmed in one long take by a single camera, or manufactured to give the impression it was.^[1]

Use and theory

In a 2019 article, discussing the award-winning film 1917 (2019), Eric Grode of The New York Times wrote that very long takes were becoming popular in more mainstream films "as a sobering reminder of temporality, a virtuosic calling card, a self-issued challenge or all of the above", also citing the Academy Award-winner from several years prior, Birdman (2014).^[2]

History

Grode notes that before such films as 1917 and Birdman, the idea of experimenting with long uninterrupted takes had a history of over 80 years, with Alfred Hitchcock being a pioneer. Aside from early experiments like Young and Innocent and Notorious, the most famous early example of a film that extensively uses long takes is the 1948 Rope, which was shot in mainly seven-to-ten–minute continuous takes (the physical limit of film stock at the time) that appear as four long takes of around 15 to 20 minutes each, close to the maximum length allowed by the cinema projectors of the time.^[3] Reportedly, James Stewart, star of Rope, did not like the long takes and apparently muttered on set that the cameras were more important than the actors.^[2] Hitchcock intended to shoot the film as if it were a play, and timed five of the ten segments to allow for hidden edits behind furniture; elaborate camera and actor choreography was used. He wrote Rope this way because he felt "if time passed between cuts, the suspense of whether the body was still in the trunk would be lost".^[4]

Grode also examines the 1958 film Touch of Evil as an example, though only its three-minute opening sequence is shot in real time. However, the use of a real time ticking bomb through the single shot is seen as a standard.^[2]

Although animated films are not included in a list of one-shot films, The Wolf House (2018) is a deconstructed example of (stop-motion) animated film that presented in a form of single, unbroken shot sequence.^[5][6][7]

Notable examples

Actual "one shot"

Year	Title	Length	Director	Nationality	Ref.
1982	Macbeth	57 min. (longest shot)[a]	Béla Tarr	Hungary	[8]
1998	Big Monday	74 min.	Michael Rehfield	United States	[9]
2000	Timecode	97 min.	Mike Figgis	United States	[10]
2002	Russian Ark	96 min.	Alexander Sokurov	Russia	[11]
2003	Sábado [es]	65 min.	Matías Bize	Chile	[12]
2007	Alternation	11 min	Mehdi Fard Ghaderi	Iran	[13]
2007	PVC-1	85 min.	Spiros Stathoulopoulos	Colombia	[14]
2008	Still Orangutans	81 min.	Gustavo Spolidero	Brazil	[15]
2011	Reversing Circles	21 min.	Mehdi Fard Ghaderi	Iran	[16]
2013	Rati Chakravyuh	102 min.	Ashish Avikunthak	India	[17]
2013	Fish & Cat	134 min.	Shahram Mokri	Iran	[18]
2013	El triste olor de la carne	87 min.	Cristóbal Arteaga	Spain	[19]
2013	Ana Arabia	85 min.	Amos Gitai	Israel	[20]
2013	Somebody Marry Me	98 min.	John Asher	United States	[21]
2013	Daikuko	98 min.	Mitani Koki	Japan	[22]
2014	Agadam	123 min.	Mohamad Issack	India	[23]
2015	Victoria	140 min.	Sebastian Schipper	Germany	[24]
2015	Anino sa likod ng buwan	120 min.	Jun Lana	Philippines	[25]
2015	The Story Of A Rainy Night	24 min	Mehdi Fard Ghaderi	Iran	[26]
2015	Daksha	142 min.	S. Narayan	India	[27]
2016	Paint Drying	607 min.	Charlie Shackleton	United Kingdom	[28]
2016	Eight	81 min.	Peter Blackburn	Australia	[29]
2016	Immortality	145 min.	Mehdi Fard Ghaderi	Iran	[30]
2016	King Dave	99 min.	Podz	Canada	[31]
2017	Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops	74 min.	Daigo Matsui	Japan	[32]
2017	Fourplay	77 min.	Dean Ronalds	United States	[33]
2017	The Wedding Party	119 min.	Thane Economou	United States	[34]
2017	One Shot-Fear Without Cut	140 min.	Haroon Rashid	India	[35]
2017	Watch The Sunset	83 min.	Tristan Barr & Michael Gosden	Australia	[36]
2017	Lost in London	103 min.	Woody Harrelson	United Kingdom	[37]
2018	Heegondhu Dina	106.11 min	Vikram Yoganand	India	[38]
2018	The Silent Pasture of Sparrows	20 min.	Qmars Mootab	United States	[39]
2018	Utøya: July 22	90 min.	Erik Poppe	Norway	[40]
2018	Blind Spot	98 min.	Tuva Novotny	Norway	[41]
2018	Jaalo	101 min	Araaj Keshav Giri	Nepal	[42]
2018	Tatort: Die Musik stirbt zuletzt [de]	88 min.	Dani Levy	Switzerland	[43][44]
2018	A Boy. A Girl. A Dream: Love on Election Night	89 min.	Qasim Basir	United States	[45]
2019	El Amor No Puede Esperar (Love Can't Wait)	76 min.	Juan Carlos Carrasco	Mexico	[46]
2019	Last Call	77 min.	Gavin Michael Booth	Canada	[47]
2019	Shonibar Bikel	83 min	Mostofa Sarwar Farooki	Bangladesh	[48]
2020	Limbo [de]	89 min.	Tim Dünschede	Germany	[49]
2020	City Lights	102 min.	Malte Wirtz	Germany	[50][51]
2020	Let's Scare Julie	83 min.	Jud Cremata	United States	[52][53]
2021	Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam	85 min.	Don Palathara	India	[54]
2021	Rendez-Vous	105 min.	Pablo Olmos Arrayales	Mexico	[55]
2021	Roaring 20's	85 min.	Elisabeth Vogler	France	[56]
2021	Boiling Point	94 min.	Philip Barantini	United Kingdom	[57]
2021	Causalidad	115 min.	Who (Marcelo Politano)	Argentina	[58]
2022	Iravin Nizhal	98 min	R. Parthiban	India	[59]
2022	Yuddha Kaandam	90 min	Bose Venkat	India	[60]
2023	Tales from the Neighborhood Café	41 min.	Al Hallak	United States	[61]
2023	The Night Inside	23 min	Antonio Cuesta	Spain	[62]
2023	Failure!	87 min.	Alex Kahuam	Mexico - United States	[63]
2024	MadS	88 min.	David Moreau	France	[64]
2024	Assemblage (film)	92 min.	Sofiene Mamdi	France	[65]
2024	An Order From the Sky †	72 min.	Karthi Radhakrishnan	India	[66]
2025	Adolescence	Four one-hour one-take episodes	Philip Barantini	United Kingdom	[67]

1. One five-minute shot and the film's opening credits precede the film's 57 minute main shot.

Edited to appear as "one shot"

Year	Title	Length	Director	Nationality	Notes	Ref.
1964	Empire	485 min.	Andy Warhol	United States		[68]
2002	Irréversible	92 min.	Gaspar Noe	France	An experimental film combines with one-shot and reverse order.	[69][70]
2010	The Silent House	86 min.	Gustavo Hernández	Uruguay		[71]
2011	Silent House	87 min.	Chris Kentis, Laura Lau	United States	An American remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film The Silent House.	[72]
2014	Birdman	119 minutes	Alejandro González Iñárritu	United States		[2]
2019	1917	118 min.	Sam Mendes	United Kingdom	Actually edited to appear as two shots, with the camera cutting to black as the protagonist gets knocked out half-way.	[73]
2020	Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes	70 min.	Junta Yamaguchi	Japan		[74]
2021	One Shot	97 min.	James Nunn	United Kingdom		[75]
2022	Soft and Quiet	92 min.	Beth de Araujo	United States		[76]
2022	Medusa Deluxe	100 min.	Thomas Hardiman	United Kingdom		[77]
2023	Shttl	114 min.	Ady Walter	Ukraine		[78]
2024	One More Shot	102 min.	James Nunn	United Kingdom		[79]

See also

• Digital cinema
• Digital cinematography
• List of films shot on digital video prior to 2015
• List of one-shot music videos
• Still image film