Long take exercise - A Place To Hide

For our final project of my studies in London, we had to create a short film including a 90 - 120 second long take. 

A long take shot is both difficult and rare to master perfectly. But throughout the history of film, the long take have been mastered. Like in this scene from the David Fincher movie Panic Room:

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For our Long Take, we decided to create a story about a girl who gets kidnapped on her birthday. We wanted to create a long take where the girl gets kidnapped and transported to another place, showing what was going on inside the van she was being kidnapped in. 

On the day we had a lot of problems. The actors who was suppossed to turn up didn't show, and we couldn't get in contact with them! This delayed our shoot with 6 hours. We were planning on shooting during the day, but since none of our actors showed up, we had to think in alternatives. We ended up creating a story about a homeless girl, who had moved into a random flat and were living there, but had to hide from the real tennants.

We decided to shoot on a Canon EOS 7D and a hacked Canon EOS 50D with RAW capabilities. The film was shot on a variety of lenses, ranging in the wide-angle specrtum, since we were shooting it on super35 sensor sized dSLR cameras. We had both a slider and a rig to create a steady and easy shot.

My role on the day was director, as I couldn't operate a camera because of my broken collarbone. We had to move fast on the day, since we got started late at night, and didn't want to disturb more than necessary. I found that I liked the directing role - It was pleasant to have the big overview of the shot, while the team was creating the good shots. 

The post production was what took the most of my time. The tutorials with Danny had prepared me for DaVinci Resolve, and I did my best to try and create a pleasant mood right until the moment the tenants come home. At that moment, the grading changes to a more pale, less saturated mood, and the film shifts into a tense mode. We failed the sound on the actual long take, since we were recording on a zoom h4n placed in the middle of the kitchen, hidden under the table so it wouldn't be seen in the shot.

All in all I learned a great deal of things working with my team on this film. For us it was important to keep on schedule, and make quick but constructive and good decisions on the spot! 

The film can be seen here: