One-shot film

"One Take" redirects here. For the Lil Tjay song, see One Take (song). For the 2020 documentary film about BNK48, see One Take (film).

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	Fourplay	77 min.	Dean Ronalds	United States	[32]
2017	The Wedding Party	119 min.	Thane Economou	United States	[33]
2017	One Shot-Fear Without Cut	140 min.	Haroon Rashid	India	[34]
2017	One Cut of the Dead	37 min. (longest shot)	Shin'ichirō Ueda	Japan	[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	92 min.	Sofiene Mamdi	France	[65]
2024	An Order From the Sky †	72 min.	Karthi Radhakrishnan	India	[66]

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		[67]
2002	Irréversible	92 min.	Gaspar Noe	France	An experimental film combines with one-shot and reverse order.	[68][69]
2010	The Silent House	86 min.	Gustavo Hernández	Uruguay		[70]
2011	Silent House	87 min.	Chris Kentis, Laura Lau	United States		[71]
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.	[72]
2020	Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes	70 min.	Junta Yamaguchi	Japan		[73]
2021	One Shot	97 min.	James Nunn	United Kingdom		[74]
2022	Soft and Quiet	92 min.	Beth de Araujo	United States		[75]
2022	Medusa Deluxe	100 min.	Thomas Hardiman	United Kingdom		[76]
2023	Shttl	114 min.	Ady Walter	Ukraine		[77]
2024	One More Shot	102 min.	James Nunn	United Kingdom		[78]

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

References

1. "Best one shot (one-take) movies". FEENTA. 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
2. Grode, Eric (December 25, 2019). "1917 Isn't the First (Supposedly) One-Shot Film. Here's a Timeline". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
3. Bordwell, David (2008). Poetics of Cinema. New York: Routledge. pp. 32–36. ISBN 9780415977791.
4. "'1917' and 12 Other 'One-Shot' Movies, From 'Timecode' to 'Birdman' (Photos)". TheWrap. 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
5. "Ten Rules for Animating The Wolf House". walkerart.org. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
6. Jutton, Lee (2020-05-13). "THE WOLF HOUSE: A Delightfully Disturbing Fairy Tale". Film Inquiry. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
7. Kenny, Glenn (2020-05-14). "'The Wolf House' Review: A Different Kind of Quarantine". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
8. "Bela Tarr: Macbeth (1982)". Can't Stop the Movies. 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
9. Smith, Clay (1999-03-19). "Reflections". The Austin Chronicle. Austin. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
10. Williams, Richard (2000-08-11). "Once upon a Time Code". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
11. Ward, Caleb (2014-04-22). "Behind the Scenes of the 96 Minute Shot, The Russian Ark". The Beat. PremiumBeat. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
12. "Sábado (2003)". cinechile.
13. Alternation ( تناوب ) by Mehdi Fard Ghaderi - Iran Drama Short Film | Viddsee. Retrieved 2024-05-07 – via www.viddsee.com.
14. Beale, Lewis (2008-07-15). "A movie shot in real time recalls Colombian nightmare". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
15. Lowe, Justin (2008-11-12). "Still Orangutans". The Hollywood Reporter. AP. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
16. "The Documentary And Experimental Film Center". defcapp.ir (in Persian). Retrieved 2024-06-19.
17. Sorabjee, Deepika (2014-07-06). "Circling Time". ArtSlant. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
18. Simon, Alissa (2013-09-17). "Venice Film Review: 'Fish & Cat'". Variety. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
19. Dalton, Stephen (2013-07-10). "The Sad Smell of Flesh (El Triste Olor de la Carne): Karlovy Vary Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
20. Lyttelton, Oliver (2013-09-09). "Venice Review: Amos Gitai's Shot-In-One-Take 'Ana Arabia'". IndieWire. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
21. "Malibu local completes film". The Malibu Times. 2013-06-13. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
22. "Mitani Koki to film another single-cut drama starring Takeuchi Yuko". Tokyo Hive. 2013-04-19. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
23. Jeshi, K. (2014-01-02). "A record start". The Hindu. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
24. Kohn, Eric (2015-02-16). "Adopt Films Picks Up One-Shot Heist Thriller 'Victoria'". IndieWire. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
25. "Shadow Behind the Moon". Five Flavours Film Festival. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
26. "Story of a Rainy Night wins San Pedro Filmfest". en.irna.ir. 10 January 2016. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
27. "Duniya Vijay's 'Daksha' with S.Narayan". Sify Movies. 2014-04-07. Archived from the original on 2017-02-05. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
28. Loughrey, Clarisse (2016-01-26). "BBFC rates Paint Drying film 'U', after sitting through all 607 minutes". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
29. Barry, Kristina (2014-03-28). "One shot wonders – how feature film Eight was made". The Creative Issue. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
30. "Rome Film Fest; Immortality, shot in a single take". Variety. 2016-10-03.
31. Kelly, Brendan (2016-07-11). "Podz's King Dave: One-shot film premières at Fantasia". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
32. Scheck, Frank (2018-04-01). "'Fourplay': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
33. Chitwood, Adam (2017-05-16). "'The Wedding Party' Trailer Reveals Romantic Comedy Shot Entirely in One Take". Collider. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
34. Shukla, Richa (2017-01-02). "Haroon Rashid's film in Guinness World Records". The Times of India. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
35. Bradshaw, Peter (2019-01-04). "One Cut of the Dead review – zombie films get a shot in the arm". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
36. Cunningham, James (2017-03-01). "Australia's first single-take feature film, 'Watch the Sunset', with it's cinematographer Damien Lipp". Australian Cinematographer Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
37. McGovern, Joe (2016-12-06). "Woody Harrelson will make history with world's first-ever 'live cinema' movie". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
38. "'Heegondhu Dina' review: This ambitious Kannada film deserves a watch for sheer audacity". 31 March 2018.
39. Buder, Emily (2018-01-24). "How a Sundance Film Pulled Off a 90-Minute Single Take". No Film School. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
40. Connolly, Kate (2018-02-19). "Utøya massacre re-enactment stuns Berlin audiences". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
41. Lodge, Guy (2018-10-03). "Film Review: 'Blind Spot'". Variety. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
42. "Nepali Movie – Jaalo (Guinness world record holder one-shot film) – Nepal & Nepali". 24 September 2018. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
43. Brachmann, Jan (2018-08-05). "Luzern hören und sterben". Faz.net. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
44. comparison between the Swiss and Standard German versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcsqnJeQZw
45. Buder, Emily (2018-01-24). "How a Sundance Film Pulled Off a 90-Minute Single Take". No Film School. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
46. Carrasco, Juan Carlos, Love Can't Wait (Comedy, Romance), retrieved 2021-03-21
47. Debruge, Peter (2020-09-18). "'Last Call' Review: A Split-Screen Stunt Obscures the Statement at the Center of This Suicidal Plea for Help". Variety. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
48. "Farooki's 'Shonibar Bikel' selected for Sydney Film Festival 2019". Dhaka Tribune. 10 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-05-21. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
49. Ortmann, Joana (2020-02-20). "Das ist das One-Shot-Experiment von fünf HFF-Absolventen". Bayerischer Rundfunk. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
50. "Lichter der Stadt". Kino-Zeit.de. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
51. "Lichter der Stadt". Spielfilm.de. 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
52. "How Jud Cremata pulled off a one-shot thriller with 'Let's Scare Julie'". Screen International. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
53. "Let's Scare Julie". Film Seekers. 2020. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
54. "Don Palathara's next is Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam". Cinema Express. 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
55. "Thriller Shot in One Take 'Rendez-Vous' Due on VOD Feb. 12 From Level 33". MediaPlayNews. 2021-02-11. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
56. Keslassy, Elsa (April 21, 2021). "Tribeca-Bound, Paris-Set 'Roaring 20's'Acquired by Films Boutique (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
57. "Boiling Point". 55th Karlovy Vary IFF. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
58. "Amazon Prime Video premieres Causalidad, a film made entirely in sequence shot". Market Research Telecast. 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
59. "A Single-Shot Film Of Phenomenal Power And Ambition". NDTV review. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
60. "India's First Single Shot Action Movie 'YUDDHA KAANDAM ' Will Be An Internationally Recognised And Awards Winning Movie Which Will Create A Lot Of Sensations". industryhit review. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
61. Cranwell, Taylor (2023-06-20). "'Tales from the Neighborhood Cafe' Puts Alexandria's St. Elmo's Coffee Pub on the Movie Map". The Zebra. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
62. "La Noche Dentro - Film Distribution". LINE UP Film Agency. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
63. "Ted Raimi Thriller 'Failure!' Snapped Up for North American Distribution at Cannes Market by Red Water Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
64. Robinson, Tasha (October 18, 2024). "MadS' director says shooting a blood-gushing single-take horror movie is easy, kinda". Polygon. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
65. "Assemblage longest one shot feature film in the history of french cinema". Premiere.
66. "WORLD'S FIRST SINGLE SHOT WITH SINGLE CHARACTER FEATURE FILM".
67. Ciampaglia, Dante A. (August 5, 2014). "Andy Warhol's Empire Turns 50". Architectural Record. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
68. Sterritt, David (2005). Guiltless Pleasures: A David Sterritt Film Reader. University Press of Mississippi. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-57806-780-0.
69. Renga, Dana (2013). Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium. University of Toronto Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4426-1558-8.
70. Gingold, Michael (May 11, 2019). "A Walk Through The Silent House with Director Gustavo Hernández". Fangoria. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
71. Thompson, Bob (March 8, 2012). "Elizabeth Olsen on Silent House and why she'll never co-star with Mary-Kate and Ashley". National Post. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012.
72. Siegel, Tatiana (December 26, 2019). "Making of '1917': How Sam Mendes Filmed a "Ticking Clock Thriller"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
73. Balmont, James (3 December 2021). "Screen sensation: the single-shot thriller bringing time-travel into the Zoom era". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
74. Harvey, Dennis (November 5, 2021). "'One Shot' Review: Defending a High-Security U.S. Military Base in Gimmicky Single-Take Stunt". Variety. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
75. Erbland, Kate (20 October 2022). "'Soft & Quiet': Why the Year's Most Terrifying Film Was Shot Four Times in a Row". IndieWire. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
76. Lodge, Guy (7 August 2022). "'Medusa Deluxe' Review: One-Shot Hairdressing Murder Mystery Is an Elaborate, Backcombed Tease". Variety. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
77. Tartaglione, Nancy (2021-09-01). "'SHTTL': Single-Shot Shoah Feature With Saul Rubinek Wraps In Ukraine; Sets To Be Maintained As Open-Air Museum". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
78. Eoin (2024). "One More Shot (2024) Review". Retrieved 2024-08-28.