Posted on 01/05/2008 2:05:20 PM PST by RDTF
NEW YORK -- Through cinema history, audacious, lengthy tracking shots have captivated filmmakers and movie buffs who marvel at their grace and choreography. In the middle of Joe Wright's critically acclaimed ''Atonement,'' a 5½-minute shot unfolds as Robbie, a British World War II soldier (James McAvoy), comes upon France's Dunkirk beach, where the final point in the British retreat from the Germans is portrayed as a grim circus of defeat and chaos.
In the Ian McEwan novel from which the movie was adapted, the scene is described in just a few pages. McEwan writes: ''It was a rout and this was its terminus.'' On film, though, it took a lot more doing.
The scene was composed with 1,000 extras, a number of horses and vehicles on the beach, and (digitally added) ships off the coast. It all cost a sizable chunk of the film's estimated $30 million production budget and had to be shot in one day.
That's how long the hundreds of extras were available for, and that small time frame is what initially drove Wright and his director of photography, Seamus McGarvey, to stage the single long shot, rather than squeeze in a dozen separate setups.
''It was conceived out of necessity,'' said Wright in a recent interview. ''We had one day with the extras and then the small issue of the tide coming in and washing away the entire set.''
While the tide was out and the light was right, Wright and his crew managed 3½ takes -- the fourth finally exhausting Steadicam operator Peter Robertson. They used the third take.
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(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
The author of the book is one of the producers - they did it justice. This one is worth seeing, make sure you watch the video when it comes out.
Thanks. I will.
This is a FANTASTIC movie.
could you believe this shot? All of the filming was incredible, but when this scene came on I just couldn’t believe it was one continuous shot. The audience was gasping.
The movie had a reputation of being a "chick flick" but the Dunkirk scene and overall theme of trying to atone for a terrible and inexcusable action that can never be taken back really appealed to me.
I almost put down the book during the first 100 pages but then it really picked up after that. I highly recommend it and sticking through the first section which is all about setting the scene for the actions to come later.
Thirteen years later.....what prompted you to revisit this thread ?
Why not? Zombie threads are a fine FR tradition!
I often read posts from 20 years ago or earlier.
Interesting. You probably remember posters like “Ash” or “A+bert”
Even Eschoir and ClintonsALiar
Oh yes !
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