ONER TECHNIQUE
was such an expensive shot to set up!” he laughs. In Life , a science-fiction horror film about discovering extraterrestrial life on Mars, the opening shot had to reveal both the spaceship and the labyrinthine layout of the station. “We were shooting in a very restricted environment, and director Daniel Espinosa wanted to give the audience a picture of the place they are about to see the drama unfold,” McGarvey explains. “There wasn’t going to be much opportunity for movement within subsequent shots.” Despite being known for two famous examples, McGarvey remains sceptical of the oner. “I hate oners, even though I got nominated for an Oscar for one,” he chuckles. “There have been a few films when a oner was suggested and I’ve talked the director down from it. “I’m suspicious of the motivation for a lot of one-shot scenarios. I love when cinematography has an energy and a tautness to it. I don’t like being dragged around like a wet blanket, photographically speaking…” McGarvey believes some filmmakers simply see oners as an opportunity to show off cinematic agility. He compares them to “cinematographic Pilates. But it’s
just an exercise. You have to really argue me down to convince me that one shots are effective filmmaking. I think they’re just show-off devices.” For McGarvey, a rare instance of when a oner works is in Goodfellas . “It’s a prime example because it’s all about paranoia and the effect of drugs, things that define how I usually feel watching oners. It’s so discomforting, which is why it works so well in that film. You feel like you’re being dragged through somebody’s unhinged imaginings, which is exactly what it is.” EXECUTING THE ONE SHOT DOP Matt Lewis, who had previously worked with director Philip Barantini on Boiling Point , a feature film shot entirely in one take, was instrumental in one of the most high-profile oners of recent times: Adolescence . He knew the project would be shot as a oner a few years before filming started. “After Boiling Point , there was a conversation about putting together a TV series with the same format in mind and shooting it with the same character- focused and grounded methodology,” he says. “I think it’s better to write something as a oner than to write something and then try to convert it.”
UP TO THE CHALLENGE DOP Matt Lewis has tackled the technical difficulties of oners on both Boiling Point and Adolescence (below)
a flame literally goes out. Joe called it the last slingshot towards heaven or hell. I liked the notion of that and it really guided the kinetic aspect of the shot and the circular movement within it.” Lasting around five-and-a-half minutes, they shot the scene four times and used the third take. “We planned it out very carefully with designer Sarah Greenwood,” says McGarvey. “We built an 8x8ft maquette of the beach, including the vehicles, boats, carousel and Ferris wheel. We literally went round with a little lipstick camera and said where the camera should go.” McGarvey knew how many extras were needed for the scene. “When the camera panned off the extras, they would all hurtle around and become extras somewhere else to make it look like we had thousands of people,” he says. “A few elements were painted out, but it was all done in camera.” He argues the hero of the shot was operator Peter Robertson. “I even get nervous watching it now because it
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DEFINITIONMAGS
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