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How many shots are in the average movie today?

43 points rdmuser 4 days ago 14 comments

xvxvx 4 days ago | parent

Modern Indian films can be quite insane with the pacing and shot counts, not to mention the action and SFX.

I remember seeing one of the Michael Bay Transformers films in the theater with my nephew. Shots were so rapid fire that I had to look away regularly for fear of having a damn seizure.

cousin_it 3 days ago | parent

The more I watch movies, the more I want longer shots, wider shots, and more people in the same shot. And if there's a cool thing happening, then show the action and reaction in the same shot - don't cut at the exact moment a punch connects or a car crashes. And don't play nonstop music in every scene, let the actors act.

busymom0 3 days ago | parent

I'd recommend checking out the movie "Boiling Point". The whole 90 minute movie is shot in a single take and is incredibly impressive. It's a restaurant setting.

Also, the main actor has also done a tv show with a similar "single shot" for whole episode you may wanna check out.

MathMonkeyMan 3 days ago | parent

There's also the scene with the baby in Children of Men, and the synthesized long single shot in 1917.

busymom0 3 days ago | parent

If you enjoy good action movies, Extraction 2 has long single shot action scenes too.

hurfdurf 3 days ago | parent

  Also, the main actor has also done a tv show with a similar "single shot" for whole episode you may wanna check out.
Which one of the 50 entries in the "Television"-section of his Wikipedia-article is it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Graham#Television

busymom0 3 days ago | parent

It's "Adolescence". Each episode is single shot. Also other than Stephen, the child actor's performance in it is outstanding!

chistev 3 days ago | parent

Oh, it's such an incredible show! That episode three with the boy and the psychologist is one of the greatest pieces of acting I've ever seen.

Holy shit! I'm glad you mentioned it here because I was going to.

Also, for more continuous shots, the chase sequence in Adolescence is linked here - https://youtu.be/VQnyL7pagYY?si=oZiJJlTbnoyE0bBa and the behind the scenes here - https://youtube.com/shorts/dQ3F6qs3L0U?si=EEWEQOPKqh7bxsOy

But, really, the whole show is a classic. Highly recommended.

Then, of course, there's the continuous shot in True Detective Season one involving Rust Cohle. "30 seconds in and out. 30 seconds" - https://youtu.be/vnRTITzYnXs?si=tJZQ7BNAzPmOGsM-

PowerElectronix 3 days ago | parent

The thing with longer, steady and uncut shots is that the actor has to know how to fight, move, etc otherwise it stops looking like Jason Bourne fighting and starts looking like Matt Damon acting.

That's why older movies just went with a shaky camera and a lot of cuts in a fight scene and have the scene in a take or two, and more modern ones prefer to go all in in training, choreography and long takes and show you what a good production can look like. I personally thank Tarantino for helping bring that kind of cinema from asia.

Also, if you like that stuff, I can't finish this comment without referencing this masterpiece: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqw369ZskMk

chistev 3 days ago | parent

This is nice, but diminished by how obviously choreographed the fights are.

OroPla 3 days ago | parent

Too many. There's also too little dialogue. Not just people talking at each other, but long conversations.