MovieChat Forums > Children of Men (2007) Discussion > Very disappointed when I found out the l...

Very disappointed when I found out the long takes are faked and spliced.

posted 11 years ago by nobody_nameless
35 replies | jump to latest

For anyone who doesn't know already (yeah I know, I'm several years late on this), don't tell people it was all one take. It's not.

From the wiki:

Visual effects supervisor Frazer Churchill explains that the effects team had to "combine several takes to create impossibly long shots", where their job was to "create the illusion of a continuous camera move."

Once the team was able to create a "seamless blend", they would move on to the next shot.

the car ambush was shot in "six sections and at four different locations over one week and required five seamless digital transitions"; and the battlefield scene "was captured in five separate takes over two locations"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Men#Single-shot_sequences

From wiki's source:

http://www.awn.com/articles/production/ichildren-meni-invisible-vfx-future-decay

we had to combine several takes to create impossibly long shots

[–] TheMouseShadow 11 years ago

Doesn't matter In the least. There is still an incredible amount of technical prowess required to put those together. Not only that the blood on the lens and the camera flying all around the car should have alerted you that it wasn't a single take. They did a similar thing with the car in war if the worlds..

[–] hugor 11 years ago

Was 'absolutely certain' that they were single takes after watching the movie several times. Shocked they aren't! But in a good way, a very good way. The end result is what matters... it's superbly done and gives the illusion of single takes.

I'll have to watch the movie again knowing it, to see if i can spot any inconsistency on the editing!

Thanks for pointing it out, fun fact to know of :)

[–] Meats_Of_Evil 11 years ago

Wow I always though it was one take, still even with CGI it was perfectly done.

[–] WavesBeneath 11 years ago

It doesn't matter to me in the slightest; it was still an awesome sequence and I enjoyed it.

[–] tyrexden 11 years ago

Look at it this way... the hard work you thought went into the camera placement and movement, instead went into seemlessly splicing it together in CGI.... You're simply replacing one challenge for another method.... In fact, its even more impressive now, because it involves more people than you thought.

[–] oh_no_mrbill 11 years ago

Even allowing for the VFX blending of different takes, each long sequence represented a huge amount of work and planning, and each take must have been at least a minute to a minute and a half long individually. For example I think the battle sequence takes about eight minutes, and it was done in five takes. So that's 90 seconds for each take.

But it doesn't even matter, because the transitions were done so beautifully that you will never notice them.

[–] JesterSevens 11 years ago

Who cares, its still a great film.

your opinion is the wrong one!

[–] nobody_nameless 11 years ago

I've watched it again and I have to agree with everyone.

It is still very amazing what they pulled off.

[–] aminwrx 11 years ago

Awesome to know that we have the technology to create the illusion of super long believable long shots. Now I want to see a movie in just one shot using this technique. That would be amazing!

[–] AnthonyAmmo 11 years ago

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film)

[–] psdhart 10 years ago

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film)

rope was not filmed in one take http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/faq#.2.1.6:

Was Rope really filmed in a single take with no cuts?
EditHistoryDelete No. Although the action of the film is continuous, it was not technically possible to film in one take, as the maximum length of a reel was approximately 10 minutes. The movie therefore consists of 10 reels, ranging in time from just over four minutes to just over 10. Trick photography is sometimes employed to disguise the cut (eg, having the screen darken momentarily as someone passes in front of the camera), but on some occasions there is a direct cut.

[–] redmethodband-1 10 years ago

I'm pretty sure the previous poster said they'd like to see a film shot with this type of editing, consisting of the illusion of one continuous take.

[–] Delvin1 11 years ago

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318034/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Russian ark is an entire film in one shot.

[–] Mataasi 11 years ago

Entirely filmed with only one shot? And there are still three people listed as film editors in the crew listings

My original scores:
http://bit.ly/11MlLaG
http://imdb.to/10jTA1f

[–] Jnbfwc 9 years ago

Quarantine: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082868/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_17

I don't know if it was filmed in one shot or digitally or what, but I know that when I watched it, I was astounded that it seemed to go on and on without a transition.

[–] Forlong 10 years ago

Awesome to know that we have the technology to create the illusion of super long believable long shots. Now I want to see a movie in just one shot using this technique. That would be amazing!

"Birdman" – the next film by Alejandro González Iñárritu will allegedly be like this.
The cinematography is also done by Emmanuel Lubezki.

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[–] hakmer_thefake 11 years ago

If I'm not mistaken, in an interview alongside GDT where GDT said that scene was an amazing 12 (or 15, I forgot) minutes long, Alfonso Cuaron corrected him saying that the longest take in the movie was about 9 (or 8, I forgot) minutes, so he probably meant that 454 seconds as said in wiki. So I don't think anybody lied or misdirected people by giving false information. But still, 454 second is long enough and that's quite a talent from Owen to do that 454 second scene. Nothing is being diminished just because it's still as hard to act and shot that long, really. 454 second is 7.5 minutes long. It's still a miracle that they pulled it of. Imagine that being captured scene until he entered the building and got to second floor if I'm not mistaken then a cut.