Does "one shot to the end" movies really not require post-editing?

Speaking of "one shot to the end" films, the one that everyone is most familiar with is "Birdman", which won the Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards. In the film, the camera mainly follows the perspective of the protagonist Reagan, traveling both before and after the stage, indoors and outdoors, as well as traveling into the past and returning to the present without anyone noticing. The audience also feels as if they are in the physical world and mental labyrinth where the character lives, and personally feels the step-by-step process of Reagan's collapse. The formal sense of "one shot to the end" is cleverly integrated with the deep meaning of the film's content, and a unique masterpiece was born. Besides "Birdman", what other movies have "one shot"? Does the so-called "one shot to the end" really mean "one-shot"? Is post-editing required? What kind of content is suitable for "one shot to the end" to express, and what kind of aesthetic effect will it produce? That's what we're going to talk about today.

To be clear from the beginning, "one shot to the end" usually refers to a scene that seems to require almost no editing. It completely breaks the rules of montage. There is no switching, no front and back, and one shot completely records the entire event from beginning to end. process occurs. Note that it just "looks" without post-editing. In fact, many so-called "one shot to the end" films are a combination of long shots and montage. However, they often use various post-production techniques to make the editing points less noticeable, creating a seamless viewing effect. To put it simply, a true "one shot to the end" = the entire movie is a single long shot without post-editing; a pseudo "one shot to the end" = multiple long shots + post-editing/special effects.

In the history of film, the pinnacle of "one shot" is "Empire State Building" shot by American pop artist Andy Warhol. In 1964, he pointed his camera at the Empire State Building for 485 minutes without changing the camera position or scene. If technical limitations such as film length at the time were not considered, this film achieved the trinity of "single shot + fixed camera position + fixed scene", expressing avant-garde thinking that subverted tradition by deconstructing the art of montage editing.

The earliest feature film to show the consciousness of "one shot to the end" was undoubtedly the 1948 film "Speed" shot by the film naughty Hitchcock. Also limited by the length of the film (a roll of 35 mm film negative at that time could only record about 10 minutes), the desire to shoot a movie with a single long lens could not be realized at the time. "The Rope" is not a "one shot to the end" in the true sense, but is made up of more than a dozen long shots that were edited and spliced ??together in post-production. The photographer, once the previous roll of film is used up, stops the camera, points the lens at the back of an actor (or the sofa, or the corner), and then puts in a new roll of film. This makes the murder story adapted from real events smooth and coherent, and the master of suspense locks the audience into the thrilling plot trend.

The photography director of "Birdman" is Emmanuel Lubezki, winner of the Oscar for Best Cinematography ("Gravity," "Birdman" and "The Revenant"). The so-called "one shot" "In the End" is also composed of a large number of long shots, edited and spliced ??with special effects. The longest real shot in the film is only more than 7 minutes. The difficulty of shooting long shots is closely related to the flexibility of the camera. When Hitchcock shot "Rope" it was in the early days of color cinema. The camera was very large. In order to accommodate the movement of the camera, the props outside the camera were constantly moved. Over the past half century, cameras have become more and more flexible, and their range of motion and trajectory have become more comfortable. Two Alai cameras were used in "Birdman": one is Alexa M operated by Lubezki, equipped with a 4:3 image sensor and a sensitivity of 1250 ASA. This compact camera is mainly used for handheld shooting. to get into the heart of the action between the actors; the other was an Alexa XT used by the Steadicam operator for more objective, distant shots.

In order to present the perfect appearance of "one shot to the end", "Birdman" put a lot of effort into post-production. How to sew a long lens into a "one-shot" is the primary problem faced in post-production. Technicolor, the company responsible for stitching the shots, first stitched the "single continuous long shot" that was already very similar in the editing stage better, and then created it according to the needs of DI (digital intermediate, an important part of film production). "DI cut points", and these "DI cut points" are also sewn together. In addition to stitching, the rhythm of a comedy movie is also the key to the success of the film. A big problem with "one shot to the end" is that it easily causes the rhythm to drag. In this film, when a scene is not attractive enough, or the rhythm deviates from the design, the editor adjusts the rhythm of the film by speeding up and slowing down the camera.

In addition, the staff in the dressing room mirror will be "poached" one by one in the later stage. The most representative ones are Naomi Watts and Andrea Riseborough in the theater The background was full of lily-colored consolation scenes, and all the staff were exposed in the mirror. Visual effects artist Ivy Agregan said in an interview: "We have to dig out the staff and then use photogrammetry to put the elements back. This requires a lot of dynamic sketching and the workload is very heavy." It can be seen that we Seeing the smooth flow of "one shot to the end" is actually a complicated and sophisticated "special effects blockbuster". The active exploration of shooting modes and film language requires the support of a strong film industry.

The next question is, apart from pioneering works like "Empire State Building", do there really exist unedited single-shot feature films? Of course! Here are three real "one shot to the end" movies.

"Russian Ark", which won the Best Visual Effects Award at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, is an ambitious experiment by director Alexander Sokulov. The film tells a "time-travel" story: a contemporary filmmaker's fantasy journey in the ancient palace of St. Petersburg. The director used a high-definition digital camera to shoot continuously for 96 minutes in the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, passing through 35 exhibition halls and a space of 850 people without any interruptions or switches. The shooting time completely overlapped with the movie time. Post-production only adjusts color, light and other picture effects without editing. Although the movie adopts the "one shot to the end" shooting technique, you don't feel the monotony of the shot at all. The reason is that the push, pull and pan of the movie lens are handled very beautifully. Sometimes it pans and zooms in, sometimes it swoops and glides, all in the same shot. It has a variety of lens characteristics. A single long shot swept through the vast 300-year history of Russia, and also achieved an immortal miracle in the history of film.

"Grand Airport 2013" is the second installment in Japanese director Yuki Mitani's "One Shot to the End" series. It tells a series of stories that happened when flights were delayed and passengers were stranded at the airport. While continuing the quality of previous stage plays, the film maintains an ultra-high level of group play scheduling. The exquisite and meticulous structure and progressive narrative give the audience an overwhelming sense of presence, and it is completed in one go from beginning to end. The film was shot for 6 days, with only one shot per day, and each shot lasted 100 minutes. Photographer Hideo Yamamoto completed the shooting alone, wearing 20 kilograms of equipment that he personally modified on his body, and moved it by a mixture of cart and walking. After every shooting, Hideo Yamamoto would collapse directly on the bench on the roof and couldn't get up.

The German film "Victoria", which was shortlisted for the main competition of the 65th Berlin Film Festival, was hard to get a ticket at this year's Beijing Film Festival. Director Sebastian Spoor followed five young men in Berlin's bars, streets, and rooftops more than 20 times, completing a 140-minute one-shot shooting in natural time and natural environment, completely recreating the restlessness. How restless young people sink into irreversible abyss of violence. The romantic encounter in the first half of the film is stitched together with the intense crime scenes in the second half, creating a sudden and dramatic psychological shock and emotional tension. The entire film was shot with a Canon C300 handheld camera. The seemingly random shaking shots and the occasional out-of-focus shots amid the feasting create a sense of reality and immersion. Photographer Sturla Brandth Grvlen's name appears first in the closing credits.

Looking at the above films, whether it is the "one shot to the end" effect achieved through post-production editing and special effects, or a single long shot that flows smoothly, all of them have created amazing films based on the innovation of film language. visual spectacle. Compared with movies that mainly rely on montage editing, "one shot to the end" is more difficult and requires extremely high requirements on the director's scene planning, the actors' performance skills, and the photographer's skills and physical strength. One-shot is not to show off skills, but to focus on the integrity and fluidity of action, plot, and psychology, becoming a visual carrier to express inner emotions and spiritual situations. Therefore, the existing "one shot to the end" films are mostly used to show tense and thrilling crime themes and psychological imbalance themes, and to arouse the audience's intricate spiritual experiences such as excitement, surprise, tension, and sympathy in a unique and charming artistic form.