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The Long Take in documentary - understanding film language

2/18/2021

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THE LONG TAKE
(Don't confuse with the Long Shot)

This workshop will help you understand WHAT is the Long Take, WHY we use it, and HOW to use it


  • What is the Long Take? 

It is a camera take longer than the normal 10-15 seconds. (There is also the extreme Long Take which I will discuss in a moment.)

  • Why do we use it?

In cinema language it gives us the chance to really engage with a scene and the subjects in that scene because we are kept on the subject for longer. We really have the chance to 'feel' the atmosphere. 
  • What does it do?

It allows the viewer to have the feeling that we are really involved in the moment, and it often gives a deeper sense of drama, due to the fact we are kept longer in the scene eg. a woman giving birth, a runner running a marathon, a child playing.

(In fiction the Long Take is very complicated and a lot of skilled technique are involved. In documentary none of this is really implied, unless it is a staged documentary.)


  • How to use the Long Take?
You, the director-camera person, will leave your camera on the subject/s for a longer than the normal time without cutting away to a new scene.

Within the Long Take you can use different movements as you follow the flow of the subject/s.
PictureBread Day. Photo: Sergei Dvortsevoy,











One of the best examples of an extreme long take is by Sergei Dvortsevoy, the Kazakh filmmaker, who uses the Long Take throughout his 1988 ethnographic documentary Bread Day.

It is handheld, shot on 35mm, and the epic opening scene lasts 7.48 minutes! A short in itself.

The D.P. is Alisher Khamidkhodjaev, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan.


What Dvortsevoy and Khamidkhodjaev
do for the viewer is  bring us intimately into the lives of a few people who need to push a train carriage along old snow bound tracks.

When the static camera pans at 2.40 mins, a complete, 360
°, it is like a dance as we follow on the face of one of the women.







Picture










Bread Day is a wonderful example of the Long Take as much of the documentary is slow and reflective; a life lived on the outskirts of life, where once a week bread comes to a small isolated community of elders by train. The pinnacle of the hamlet is the bread shop itself.

This story cannot be rushed. It is a story of routines, rituals, habits, old people, countryside, snow, winter months, and therefore the Long Take allows us to enter into this hard, rough and wild snowbound life. We have the chance to observe the difficulties the inhabitants face. We hear their banter and how it took two of them ten hours the day before to push the train carriage to the hamlet.

The opening scene allows us the time to settle into our chairs, sit back, and wander slowly into this different world.


It is, for me, a beautiful work.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PASSING
BY. HAVE A GREAT WEEK.

PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ENJOY.

Jeanne





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    Jeanne Pope

    Filmmaker, teacher, traveler and storyteller

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    Links to the Workshops

    Pre-production
    1. How to find your documentary idea
    ​2. How to find your documentary approach
    3. Understanding the documentary genre
    4. Creating hybrid documentaries
    5. Understanding narrative storytelling
    ​6. How to film an unscripted documentary
    7. Tips and techniques for interviewing
    8.Why you need a release form
    9. How to use free public domain archives 
    10. Why write a documentary synopsis?
    11. Find funding for your documentary film 
    12. What documentary film equipment do you need? 
    Production
    13. Seven camera shots and techniques
    14. The Long Shot
    15. The Long Take
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    British Film Institute, UK
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    Film Bandits
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    For the best Tarot Readings EVER
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    Documentary China Blog
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    Stanley Lewis Sculptor

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CONTACT ME

    Looking forward to hearing from you

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"Jeannette helped me find a path and create energy with my material which I first found so difficult to handle. With her help to become interesting and wonderful. She is interesting in class, lively in class, often in communication with students, very popular with students. Jeannette is a very conscientious documentary teacher." TianHui Li,  award winning filmmaker, Beijing Film Academy graduate, Concordia University

"Jeannette taught me the tools I needed, never having made a documentary before. She gave so much time, patience to show me, guide me and share her creativity and skills with me."  Zou Qialing, Master's student, Beijing Film Academy
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