Tracking shots

One of the most difficult things to accomplish when making a movie is the tracking shot, which is continuous filming without cuts. It takes the most precise planning to bring it off. I wish I could remember the name of the film that had one of the most remarkable tracking shots in history. Being a musical, it was probably an MGM film. The shot started with a close-up of a singer’s face. The camera pulled back slowly showing the singer’s body, then the entire stage, then pulled up the aisle showing the theater’s audience, clear back to the door to the auditorium, then through the lobby, out the entrance, finally sweeping upward to show the entire building from a height of probably six stories, looking down at the street and all the surrounding buildings. One shot! I found out later that a specially-made 80-foot-long boom on a rolling platform was used, then dismantled never to be used again. The producer and director had to have some mighty clout to convince the money men at the studio to finance such a marvelous piece of film making. I hope the audience appreciated what they were seeing.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did a several-minutes-long dance routine that involved a swooping staircase, the two of them swooping up and down same, with the camera following the entire routine. One shot. Technicolor cameras were actually three cameras in one box, each with its own big reel of 35mm film. They were incredibly heavy and bulky. It took gorillas to move those beasts! But Hollywood had lots of gorillas.

Here is a tracking shot (it should really be called a trucking shot, since camera movement to right or left is called trucking) from a film by Jean-Luc Godard. Weekend was released in 1968. It’s about a supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside that turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams. Very French, as Godard’s films naturally are. This shot is a delightful 7-1/2 minutes that involves a bunch of cars that bring back memories, for me at least. Imagine! A 1958 Packard! A 1957 four-hole Buick (kids, ask your mom or dad [Grandma? Grampa?] about Buick’s holes). Austin-Healeys! Fiats! Rovers! Goofy French Citroën 2CVs! Goofy French Citroën DS 19s! The goofy French Renault Dauphin! A sailboat! A draft horse! TWO original Mini Coopers! Original!! And to complete the insanity, a truckload of lions and a truckload of monkeys and a llama! And dead people!

You couldn’t ask for more! If you have $35 to $150 burning a hole in your pocket, Amazon.com offers it on DVD here.

A Honda commercial that only appeared in England had a tracking shot that lasted two minutes, involving the most intricate Rube Goldberg (kids, ask Mom or Dad) craziness. Filming the commercial took over 600 tries to get it right! SIX HUNDRED!! I’ll try to find it and show it to you.