I’ve been itching to create a music video with many one-shot sequences in it. But before I dove in, I wanted to do some testing. For those that do not know what a one-shot is, a one-shot is a self explanatory word/term. A shot that is executed in one take without cuts. Fluid motion with fluid action. You’ve probably seen one-shots in commercials, music videos, and in movies.
So, I called up Anthony and see if he was interested in being my subject for this experiment. He came out and we improvised and emulated a one-shot for one of his older pieces. We wanted to do something that stretched across the complex and tried to do it best and aimed to do it in the least amount of takes. It didn’t go so well and our ambitions were struck down in the first two takes.
We ran through the path many times, before actually making it through. Since I couldn’t pull any focus, while using two hands to operate, I had to keep my distance from the subject. To maintain the camera’s focus, I had to stay within a certain amount of feet, so the subject would not be blurred in the shot. We didn’t want to do anything really complicated, we stuck with something simple and attempt to execute well. We did 14 takes, to get it fluid and right! We could have done more takes, but we were losing light outside. In the end, it turned out good for the time and the takes we did.
In conclusion of this test, one-shots can be very difficult, because if the timing of an element is off, the shot ends up being compromised. The longer the take, the probability is higher for messing up and starting all over again. Here it is, the one shot test!
