One Take Shots

One-Take Short Film

Having done some research into one-take shot short films, in groups, we were given the task to create our own short film, filmed in one shot only. When filming in one-take, it is important to make sure that everything in the scene is easily accessible as this will prevent any unnecessary camera movement when moving from place to place. 

My group consisted of Tom and Claire and after some discussion of what we wanted our one-take short film to be about, we decided that a good place to film would be an urban setting, either in a car park or a backstreet/ally. This setting would be appropriate as our film fit the genre of thriller/mystery, so filming in a isolated and dingy setting, creates a serious and tense mood. Due to a problem with entering the car park, we decided to film around the back of the college which has an industrial and dull appearance, which fortunately still worked in our favour. 

After we agreed on a short script and the basis of how the plot would play out, we began to talk about shot types. In one-take shot films, it's harder to use a range of shot types without the filming looking messy and unstable. However, it is still possible to include them, you just have to make sure that they are evenly dispatched throughout the shot. As it was our first attempt at one-take filming, it was hard to work out how we would fit in the different shots, and being so short it was harder to fit a wide range of shots in there. In our finished product we start with an establishing shot of the location, which pans right, following Tom as he enters the scene, stopping on me. As the film is so short, with only one character that features properly in it, the shot types only really range from mid-shot to close-up, to exaggerate the characters reaction and emotion, intensifying the situation which is important to do in a short film as you need to make an impact in a sort amount of time. 

Once we had watched the film back, we were all aware of the faults we had made and knew what we would've changed if we had the chance to do the shot again. These improvements were:

Mise en scene: 

• Darker clothing - creating a tense and mysterious setting
• Darker and more isolated setting - underground car park would've created a claustrophobic feel
• A letter written by Jess' brother, informing the audience with what has already happened 

Lighting:

• Darker setting - with synthetic lighting to create an unnatural and intense atmosphere
• No natural lighting

Sound:

• Phone voice effect -  when edited, Tom's voice on the phone should have an effect on it to make it sound as if he is on the phone. This establishes that the voice is coming from Jess' phone when she is talking to Tom on it. This makes it authentic.
• Music - music helps the audience to identify that this is a serious scene and will make them feel tense

Editing: As it's a one-take shot, there isn't a huge amount of editing, other than possibly filters and adding music. If we were to add a filter to the shot, it would be suitable for it to be dark, making the scene look dirty, however the light in the car park would be intense and off putting as the audience should feel tense and uncomfortable.

Other: Due to this being our first attempt, we didn't really take it that seriously, therefore, instead of using the script to create tension and mystery, we made it more lighthearted. However, this isn't something that we will do in our actual product.