A television poll

racerdave600 wrote: The "younger" audience may claim not to like it, but show them a movie from 20, 30 or 40 years ago and they will complain about it being too slow.

Maybe I'm too old at 36, but I recall a couple recent movies where they tried changing the shots every 2 seconds in a fight scene and the result was you couldn't tell what was going on. It's not just directors in older movies who got that using a long shot duration can work better for a fight by making it easier to follow. Have a look at the scene in Metropolis where the hero fights off a crowd in a single long shot, and then the infamous single long take in Oldboy where the hero fights his way through a crowded hallway with a hammer, and try to say with a straight face that either would have been improved with a bunch of two second close ups.

I forget now what movie it was, but we studied one from the '60's where the opening shot was 15 minutes long from one camera and no cuts. It was pretty entertaining I thought, but you'd never see it now. Or...someone will do it and call it totally new and start a new craze.

Although it wasn't the world's best movie, the opening shot of Gravity was pretty long and smooth. I know that is was CGI, of course.

racerdave600 wrote: I forget now what movie it was, but we studied one from the '60's where the opening shot was 15 minutes long from one camera and no cuts. It was pretty entertaining I thought, but you'd never see it now. Or...someone will do it and call it totally new and start a new craze.

They did and called it birdman.

I remember in 92 when the Robert Altman film "The player" came out and everyone couldn't stop talking about the ridiculously long take in the opening scene.

I saw a music video, that I had to re-watch*, because my assumption was correct - it was done in one shot, with one camera.

*Plus, the singer is pretty hot.

Jumper K. Balls wrote:

racerdave600 wrote: I forget now what movie it was, but we studied one from the '60's where the opening shot was 15 minutes long from one camera and no cuts. It was pretty entertaining I thought, but you'd never see it now. Or...someone will do it and call it totally new and start a new craze.

They did and called it birdman. I remember in 92 when the Robert Altman film "The player" came out and everyone couldn't stop talking about the ridiculously long take in the opening scene.

Birdman had several of those long tracking shots. They were the most interesting part of the movie, IMO. Goodfellas is also famous for a long tracking shot as Henry and Karen go into a club.

One recent movie that I thought was really hurt by the "quick cut" issue was the Bond flick, Quantum of Solace. I honestly couldn't tell what was happening in most of the fight scenes.

I had never thought about shot length but I am watching tv while reading this and now it is all I can see. The shot changes very quickly. I am only 22 and maybe this is why I have always found those black and white movies so slow and boring?

RealMiniDriver wrote: I saw a music video, that I had to re-watch*, because my assumption was correct - it was done in one shot, with one camera. *Plus, the singer is pretty hot.

Weird Al?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

Nope, but that's pretty similar. Also, "Weird Al" isn't hot.

Keisza is, though.