Flip Teach - One Shot

In 1990 Martin Scorsese and Michael Ballhaus directed the 'Copa Sequence' in Goodfellas. It is my favourite one shot. I really like this shot because I like the way the camera follows them through in close proximity. This scene feels very intimate yet there is people around them and the camera is following them closely this is because of the location of the shot. I also like the way they go through a busy kitchen and the camera is following them and never draws away from them even in the hectic circumstances.

A lot of consideration went into this shot but the main problem was them being able to find out if they could actually shoot it where they wanted to. They came up with the location and then they looked to see if it was actually possible to shoot there. Although the actors had no clue as to what was happening, considering at this point that hardly anybody had even heard of a steady cam. The biggest problem of this was getting the actors right because the directors wanted to make sure that every single timing was perfect.

Shots from the hardest scene to shoot; the kitchen scene. 

I think that the most difficult part of this scene was when they were walking through the busy kitchen. This is because there was a lot of actors which could have caused some problems if one of them got in the way or if they got their timing off. It was important in all of the scene and especially this one that they got there timing right, therefore the actors had to pay extra attention to the directors in the shot to know when they had to come in. In this scene the camera is a bit further away from them than it would have been in the previous scene this is done so that if timings were a bit off it wouldn't affect them as much.

As a director the most important thing to worry about in a shot like this is whether the actors know when they need to come in. The director would have to speak to all of the actors involved and make sure that they knew when it was their cue. This shot would have been done a few times before in practice they would have used the camera some of the times to make sure that everything that needed to be in the scene fitted. The director would have also had to practice just to make sure everything was good with the actors. The thing that the directors would have to plan is the route the camera is going to take, this is because the route that they originally want to make might not be feasible due to the lack of space. This would have been especially important in this shot because of how enclosed the shot was. Therefore knowing the route and making sure the actors know their timings are the most important aspects of this shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBMKyNJvNV8 - 13th October 2013