Research Project Topic: LONG SHOT (Then VS Now）
The subject of my research this time is the topic of a long shot. The development of long shots in the film industry has represented a testimony to the technological progress of the film industry. What is a long shot? A long shot is a certain segment of the movie since the director shouted action. At the end of this entire large segment, there is no break time or interruption of the shooting. In the post-editing process, there is no operation to cut the video, and the continuity of the entire segment is maintained without any trace of editing. The technique of using long shots is used in almost many movies, because the shooting of long shots is very visually tense, very shocking, although it seems that long shots are very simple and smooth in the picture, but The production process is not that simple. For the film producer, the scheduling of the actors and the position of the camera need to be arranged very accurately and meticulously in advance. For the actors, the pressure of the performance is also very huge. During the shooting, there is no rest time to cultivate emotions and consider moving positions, so the actor must be able to digest emotions and transform emotions by themselves in one take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8
Long shots have not maintained a fixed pattern from before to now. In fact, with various equipment and various technological advances in the film industry, the shooting and planning of long shots have also been further improved. In the 19th and 20th centuries, The film industry does not have such a high level of technical support to make the long shot shooting and editing methods reach the same level as they are now. The editing methods are mentioned here. It seems that the long shot I mentioned earlier will not be edited in the later stage. Contradictory, this topic will be more detailed and in-depth later, so in the film industry of the 19th and 20th centuries, if the film industry of the 19th and 20th centuries is to realize the long-shot film shooting form, it is purely to rely on the support of the cameraman and the camera, and the actor The test of personal acting skills, just like this movie, the cameraman uses the Steadicam auxiliary camera to follow the actors from the outside to the inside of the bar, and the positions of all actors are arranged before the shooting, when and which actor should appear on the screen. OK, then the director started shooting without cutting after he called to action. Once the actor made a mistake, he would start shooting again from the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90OFZQx_7xI
In the 21st century, the film and television industry is actually developing faster and faster. It is not only the rapid update of cameras, but Steadicam’s continuous improvement and improvement of functions, editing, and special effects are also developing very rapidly, which brings benefits. That is, the film is more realistic and cool, the pre-production is more complete and rapid, the texture and picture of the film are taken to a higher level, and the impact on the shooting method of the long shot is also huge. Nowadays, although the long shot is in the sense It is still the definition of continuity without any editing, but in fact, in the 21st-century film industry, long shots are no longer a “lazy” process that does not need to edit any clips in the later stage but make this clip look like continuous It’s a long shot without any traces of editing, but in fact, it’s actually a separate shooting. The actors’ positions and movements are planned in the early stage of shooting, and these foundations are fixed, and then these clips are edited in the later stage of editing. The action is still consistent, but some hidden cuts are often arranged in these long shots so that there is no trace of editing. This is contrary to the long shots of the 19th and 20th centuries, but it brings benefits and pictures. The impact is the point that attracts audiences today, and audiences will also pay for this technology. Here I take the very classic scene of fighting in the church in the movie “Kingsman” as an example. The overall look is a fragment of a long shot, but among them, Some people’s clothes slide across the entire screen from left to right or from right to left. In fact, there are many hidden cuts, but on the whole, it doesn’t affect the feeling that it looks like a long shot. And this kind of “long shot” has actually become a mainstream form and technique in the 21st century. The reason why it is called a long shot is also that in the final film it does look like the previous long shot. The same, but more shocking and impactful.
The last thing I want to say is that both the previous long shots and the current long shots are actually long shots for the audience, but the production methods behind the scenes are different, and the progress of the times also represents the progress of the production of the film and television industry. Today’s long shot shooting will no longer put too much pressure on cameramen and actors. If something goes wrong, you will have to shoot again. This actually saves time and labor costs. I believe that the previous pure long shot will eventually fade out of film and television. Industry production, but classics are still classics. This is undeniable. The future technology may redefine long shots, but what will not change is that clips or movies shot with long shots will eventually give the audience a feeling of shock and impact. , Is also the icing on the cake for the film industry.