Film Art and Cinematography : i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

first of all, i hope that "tracking shot" is the right term. if it's not, please correct me.
i love shots like this, they work well in horror or action movies. the most recent example i'v seen is from "Yakuza Weapon." it's a scene where the hero is in a warehouse, and it's a single, continuous 10 minute shot of him kicking ass thru multiple floors of bad guys. other good examples are in "Oldboy" and "Bunraku." can anybody suggest other movies where this is used?


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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Try "The Protector" with Tony Jaa, also called "Tom yum goong" (Original title). That one also had a lengthy tracking shot.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Kill Bill, even though Tarantino broke up the moves a lot in the editing.

300, with a "speed-up/slow-down" effect.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Everything Bela Tarr, but his movies aren't action-packed.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

True. He is a master.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Agreed.. Not just a master but Master..
Only 28 shots in the whole two and half hour movie, The Turin Horse..
Only two shots in his TV version of Macbeth..
The lengthy shots in Satantango...
All are exquisite!

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Probably the most famous long tracking shot in American cinema is from GoodFellas, when 'Harry' walks through the Copacabana with his g/f.

'Art is necessary' If I only knew what for.' Jean Cocteau

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The classic opening of A TOUCH OF EVIL, ironically imitated at the beginning of THE PLAYER.

"The answers to all of life's riddles can be found in the movies."

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The Hobbit has a wonderful continuous steadycam shot of all the dwarfes, Bilbo and Gandalf in Bilbo's Hobbit hole with plenty of stuff going on. And the best thing about it is when you realize that Gandalf is filmed separately from the rest, but everything is absolutely seemlessly put together.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Children of Men, most of Kubricks films... I'm surprised no one has said anything about those yet..

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

I think "sequence shot" is the more correct term since "tracking shot" actually refers to a shot done with the camera on tracks (kind of like rail tracks) - but I think nobody really cares (or knows) about that difference nowadays and so most people just use both terms interchangeably or sometimes don't use "sequence shot" at all, so either one is correct I guess.

Anyway, M. Night Shyamalan's films include a lot of such Steadicam sequence shots - particularly in Signs when at the end they emerge from the basement, it's like a 2-3 minute shot that ends with the alien's reflection being seen in the TV.

Spielberg's films use a lot of sequence shots (and long takes in general) though they don't run terribly long. And yes, I know it's animated, but "The Adventures of Tintin" had like this 4 or so minute long sequence shot in the "pursuit of the falcon" sequence.

Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" was composed entirely of lengthy Steadicam shots - I hear his style was inspired by Bela Tarr, so not surprising.

"Hanna" had one that follows Eric Bana into a subway or something and it ends with him fighting off a few bad guys. I thought it was cool.

Many more I can't think of right now.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Kill Bill vol 1, just before the fight of the crazy 88s starts.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Amos Gitai is also know for his sequence shots. I think you'll find it in most of his movies.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Jean-Luc Godard films. One of the most famous tracking shots is in his film Weekend.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Come and See does tracking shots continuously, if you like psychological war films check it out!

A Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, fan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cruV3c6KyY

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

RUSSIAN ARK is just one shot

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Aleksandr Sokurov just nailed it in Russian Ark.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?


I think you can find quite a few such long shots in "Agnus dei" by Miklos Janczi, Hungary, released very near 1970.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The opening shot of The Place Beyond the Pines is a brilliant tracking shot.

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Watch F.W. Murnau's classic, Sunrise on DVD for tracking shots that will blow your mind.

Movies today really haven't improved upon the filming techniques of tracking employed in 1927.

In movies, there isn't much "new". The basic technology has been around forever.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Hitchcock's Rope, one long continuous shot for 80 minutes!

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (Danny on the big wheel and Jack in the hedge maze)

Spielberg's War of the Worlds (following the family around in the stolen SUV as the camera moves around and THROUGH the vehicle--pretty amazing shot)

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson's expose on the porn industry of the '70s--when we're introduced to all the movie's characters in the club in the beginning all in one shot--and later when William H. Macy's character has had enough of his wife's cheating and walks out to his car to get a gun, walks back into the house to shoot both his wife and her lover, then blows his brains out in front of the whole party)

Gravity (the opening sequence)

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The seven-minute closing shot of Antonioni`s The Passenger.

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Children of Men is a must-see, I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned more in this thread.

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

I think you will find many very long shots in the Hungarian movie "Agnus Dei" by Miklos Janszi.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

hy,

You should have look to Kim Ki-duk and Michael Haneke's movies. They are known for making films with very strong and long "traking shots". If you like what they do, I can advise you a few more directors. Sorry if i'm english is bad, I'm french.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The WW1 film Paths of Glory from Stanley Kubrick has one of my favorite tracking shots when the main character, who is a general, and his battalion have to run from one trench to another.

of course it is complete chaos around him with bombs going of etc. And he blows a whistle all the time.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

This is not exactly what you're talking about, but I would recommend the movie Ordet (1955).

The camera does not move much but when it does it's in the middle of very long static scenes. You feel as if the camera is pointing at a very small makeshift set as the camera doesn't move from a medium shot of two people standing talking to each other for minutes on end. Then the camera simply pans round with them when they eventuall move to the other side of the room and you realise that you are only seeing a fraction of the actual set. It is a very weird effect.


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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Surprised no one mentioned Andrej Andrei Tarkovsky yet.

"Every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain" -Jim Moriarty

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

My favorite continuous shots are not tracking ones, they're Haneke's static long shots. He's one of the only directors I know of who uses the long shot in a long, silent and static way in key moments of tension in order to create strain and frustration in the viewer. One that comes to mind is the "rape" shot from The Piano Teacher. Just brave and horrible.

There's also Gaspar Noé who used the long shot with such a purpose during the horribly gruesome rape scene of Irreversible (go ahead and watch that movie if your stomach can take it)

But enough about rape shots...

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Red Palms (1972)

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Rope by Hitch. I'm sure you've seen it. Sorry for being stupid.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

I don't think The Longest Day has been mentioned yet. The scene is not as long as some of the others mentioned, but there's a continuous battle scene that's pretty impressive for 1962.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

You'll love Paul Thomas Anderson films then.

That Really Rustled My Jimmies

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Gaspar Noe uses these quite a bit. Irreversible and Enter The Void are worth checking out.

Russian Ark is entirely a single take tracking shot. Silent House, both the original Spanish language and the American remake, are edited to look like a single real-time tracking shot. So is Birdman, which was a great movie.

Birdman's cinematographer also did Children Of Men which has plenty. The same cinematographer has also worked with Terrence Malick, starting with The New World through To The Wonder. Once again, there are plenty in those films.

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Enter the Void has shots that are cheated to look anywhere from 10-45 minutes continuously

I mean it's fairly obvious where they would cut for the most part but it's still very nice looking

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

At the top of the list, The Revenant, without a doubt. Put that on the list with Innaritu's Birdman.

Also, call me wacky, but I love the opening shot from The Birdcage(1996). Helicopter sequence blended into a steadicam tracking shot that moves through the club. Only two minutes but a clever feat. Great cinematography throughout.

Hard Boiled.(1992) John Woo.
Serenity.(2005)
Don't forget Atonement (2007).

I'm also partial to The Player.

Cheers. 😴

Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

Ophuls, of course. I remember somebody wrote "a shot that does not call for tracks is agony for poor dear Max." A joke of course but when you watch La Ronde or any of his other great films you get the point.

Re: long continuous tracking shots – MAX OPHULS

Haven't read the whole thread so I might be repeating:
but it's worth studying several films by the director MAX OPHULS (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0649097/reference). EDIT: Ooops, I see the post just before mine recommends Max.

He was amazing at choreographing the camera with the actors. He loved constant movement which we take for granted now with the advent of SteadiCam. But this guy and his crew were working with BIG bulky equipment. They may not be super-long in time like the examples you want, but they're very impressive and beautiful shots.

The opening segment of LE PLAISIR is a good example. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045034/combined). I spotted at least one 360-degree movement as the camera followed various characters around a dance floor.


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Re: long continuous tracking shots – TOUCH OF EVIL, no NOT the opening.

I've heard that Orson Welles was a little disappointed that very few people noticed the REALLY long tracking shot in TOUCH OF EVIL. The bravura of the opening shot was so obvious that few spotted a longer and much more challenging scene. It involved interior sets and more difficult coordination between cast and crew, since there were intricate long lines of dialog everyone had to hit -- in one take. But it's so subtle that the achievement usually goes unnoticed.

It's in the apartment of the Mexican kid who Hank Quinlan frames for murder. During the shot Charlton Heston walks from the front room, through a doorway (which an unseen crew has to pull away and push back to accommodate the camera), into a middle room, then ANOTHER door into a small bathroom. There he bumps into an empty shoebox. The camera reverses its angle as he manipulates the box, then follows him back through all the interiors into the first room. Later someone runs in with the shoebox full of dynamite (obviously planted evidence).

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Re: i LOVE long continuous tracking shots. suggestions?

The mediocre-as-hell Nic Cage film Snake Eyes opens with a very impressive tracking shot. As soon as that shot cuts to another angle feel free to shut it off. The rest of the film is pretty bad!

Also, True Detective. I haven't seen the second season but the cinematography of the first is outstanding, and there's a robbery scene halfway through the season; the whole robbery and subsequent escape is one long, meticulously choreographed single take.
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