The Technique of Long Takes in Film

Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron [4/5]

I am very impressed with this film. I admit I don't quite understand how an infertile world can lead to such political mess and ungovernable situations all over the world, but I guess I can quite easily overlook that by the sheer brilliance of the filmmaking of Alfonso Cuaron.

At least three important scenes were all filmed in single takes. Imagine a scene which lasts five minutes, and all you have is one camera, and you need to orchestrate everyone, every movement such that everything coincides perfectly as you move your only camera in a decided manner when the main character moves from Point A to Point B to Point C. That means every actor knowing what he has to do, knowing his script for that five minutes, and knowing at exactly which position he would be at any moment, knowing at which speed to drive the car, knowing at which moment to speak, and at the same time acting and reacting since most of the time you won't know when the camera is going to focus on you out of the many actors. Imagine one extra foul up, and you have to reshoot the whole thing again!

Amazing. This is one example:



I don't quite know how to describe. But I know how difficult it is to do such a long take. This techinique worked for various reasons. For intensity, for gritty realism, for progressive revelation. Like I've said, for these three scenes, I don't really care that I only half-understand the plot. This is one great action-political film.


This technique is similar to this fantastic short film which I once watched, 10 minutes. It shows how 10 minutes can mean nothing to someone, but an entire life change for another. Amazing short film.

10 minutes by Ahmed Imamovic