Today I read ‘The absolute brilliance of the single master shot’ 2009 in Reilly, Tom, The big picture : filmmaking lessons from a life on the set, Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s Press, New York, pp. 146-149. I enjoyed this chapter! It was interesting getting a lot of different examples.

An example provided in this article was the first scene of Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen, 1992). I watched this scene through a few times and really enjoyed it! I like that this shot was a bit bumpy and quite shaky overall I think it was great shot! It’s almost as if the camera is a person looking in at the scene. Which I suppose is usually what a camera is supposed to do anyway, but this example seems different. As there aren’t any cuts, it seems drastically more realistic. I enjoy the fact that they weren’t afraid for the characters to go behind walls, posts and lamps, which adds to the realism and immersion. I also enjoy that even though they have used one long shot, all the shot sizes are still quite varied, it doesn’t get boring with just one shot type.

At the end of this reading it explained that this type of filming is faster and easier and doesn’t require much set up changes. I think this shot would have required a great deal of preparation and rehearsal! And although I don’t think this particularly changed the effectiveness of this scene, for lack of a better word. I’m glad Allen decided to shoot this scene in this way.