Thursday, March 01, 2012

'Silent House' -- One Continuous Shot Becomes 'Captured in Real Time'

I went on yesterday regarding this shtick about how 'Silent House' is one continuous 88-minute shot -- how it would just be too tough and, really, can't be believed, and how there are plenty of ways to shoot a movie using conventional cuts but make it look like one continuous take.

If you don't know, the movie is being pitched as having been shot in one take because that's how the  original Uruguayan film 'La Casa Muda' was sold. Producers of that film claimed the entire movie was done in one take and this was made possible largely because they used a Canon 5D SLR, which is very compact especially compared to a film (motion picture) camera, and allowed them to move around the actors in tight spaces and shoot the movie without cuts.

Okay, fine. It's a fun gag -- we'll go along for the ride -- although, if anyone cares to check 'Silent House' certainly spent several weeks in principal photography just like every other conventionally shot single-location b-horror flick.

What's funny, though, is how producers are soft-selling this hokum. In this trailer, at 1:46, John Horn is quoted: "presented as one single film take". 'Presented as'... Of course, in the same trailer, at 2:12, we're told the story is 'Inspired by true events', and it ends with the tag: Real fear in real time.


I don't know how I missed it when this poster rolled out, but now the pitch is 'Captured in real time'. So, we're to understand the imagery in this movie was photographed...in real time? Filmed as the actors...acted? What's next? Will they proclaim the movie will be projected onto the screen in real time?

It looks good, though. I've been surprised by clips. I'll be watching 'Silent House'. On disc. In real time, 5 or 10 minutes at a time, over the course of a week or two.













































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1 comment:

Mike said...

Real time a.k.a. 88 minute movie = 88 minutes passing in the movie... not that hard to understand. Take 99.9% of other movies and this will not be the case.

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