'Adolescence' and six other series that tell stories with sequence shots

BarcelonaIn just one week since its premiere, Adolescence can already be considered one of the series of the year. The British miniseries, co-created by and starring Stephen Graham, is not only captivating with its plot—a 13-year-old boy is accused of killing a schoolmate—but also fascinating with how it was filmed. Each of the four episodes of the series was filmed in a single sequence shot, without tricks or gimmicks, as confirmed by the director of photography ofAdolescence, Matthew Lewis. That is, the series is actually four sequence shots, each one hour long.

The technical complexity ofAdolescence It's evident from the first episode. In the second, when the murder investigation moves to the protagonist's school, the sense of technical miracle is reinforced: the episode is a grand choreography, with teachers, students, and police officers moving throughout the premises. They enter and exit classrooms, offices, and the courtyard, among many other movements. The idea of using the sequence plan comes from the two creators of the series, Stephen Graham and Philip Barantini, who worked together on the film. It boils, a restaurant-set film that was also shot using this technique. Filming each episode as a single consecutive scene increases the sense of tension and anguish, especially important for the series' plot, a shocking case of violence. Barantini, who directed all four episodes, explained in the presentation of the miniseries that this way of working is much more complicated than simply pressing the start button. memory and do not press the one stop until almost the end of the chapter hour.

"There's only one special effects moment, which is when we go through a window. We couldn't do that in real life. But there are no dams that we edited together: it was one complete plan, whether I liked it or not," Lewis explains in a recent interview on VarietyThe moment the director of photography refers to takes place in the second episode, when a student flees the school by jumping out of a classroom window. "Actually, there wasn't a window. It was removed and put back in with special effects. One of the camera operators was in the classroom, and when Ryan jumped out the window, the other operator, who was crouching on the other side, grabbed the camera and continued the chase," Netflix detailed in a lengthy thread.

The filming schedule for 'Adolescence'

BehindAdolescence There's a huge amount of planning involved, and this is clear in the content Netflix has shared to explain the filming process. Each episode involved three weeks of work: the first was dedicated to compulsively reviewing each of the episode's scenes with the cast and crew; the second was dedicated to technical rehearsals; and the third was actually shooting the episode. During that week, the crew had 10 opportunities to get the sequence perfect: the best of all of them is what happened in the final cut and became the episode viewers ultimately saw. For example, for the first episode, in which the police enter Jamie's house, the second shot made was used, while for the third, where the boy interviews the psychologist, it's the last shot.

In fact, the third episode, the most minimalist but most acting-demanding for newcomer Owen Cooper, was the first of the four shot. "I think if I had the choice, I would always choose to shoot in a single sequence shot because when you keep stopping and starting over you don't manage to make the emotion grow gradually," explains Cooper, who will soon participate in the adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emerald Fennell.

Film background

Adolescence This is not the first audiovisual production to use the sequence shot throughout the entire film. Aside from Graham and Barantini's previous project, there are many examples in the history of cinema of the use of single shots with various camera movements. One of the most famous is The Russian Ark, by Aleksandr Sokurov, shot in a single 96-minute long sequence shot using a Steadicam. The film is a journey through Russian history using the Winter Palace, now part of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as a setting. As the camera moves through the palace's rooms, the unknown narrator encounters figures such as Peter I of Russia and Catherine the Great.

Beyond films shot entirely in a single shot, as well as Victory either 1917, in the history of cinema there are several masterful sequence shots that have become iconic, such as those of The rope, Seat of evil either One of our own. In fact, the latter has a prominent role in one of the upcoming Apple TV+ series, The Studio, which premieres next Wednesday. Starring Seth Rogen, it follows the adventures of a newly appointed film studio executive who must find a way to satisfy his artistic aspirations and the company's commercial demands. The series, a true treat for film and Hollywood lovers, naturally features several long takes.

The best long takes in series

The sequence plan resource has been used in several series, in many cases, as occurs in Adolescence, to increase the sense of tension in the plots. We review other series with memorable sequence shots.

The Bear It's all adrenaline and anxiety, so the use of the sequence shot was more than expected. The seventh episode of the first season, which opens with the magnificent song Chicago Sufjan Stevens's film, along with various images from the city's history, includes an 18-minute long take that begins with a food review of Carmy's restaurant and extends into a full day in the kitchen, revealing the communication problems and poor attitude of some of the team members. In the 18 minutes, the pressure mounts and everything happens, including an accidental stabbing.

La Calòrica's transition to television also includes a notable sequence shot. In the fourth episode, the series, which operates in an anthology format, turns a pottery class into a macro-session of couples therapy: while trying to make a vase, the protagonists discuss their relationship and the frustrations they both accumulate. The conversation between the main couple, as well as the interventions of their colleagues in the workshop, is filmed in a single sequence shot, once again demonstrating what a valuable technique it is for capturing the push-and-pull between multiple characters.

One of the most famous scenes from the first season of True Detective It was filmed in a single sequence shot. The spectacular six-minute episode finale has no breaks and follows a covert mission by Rust (Matthew McConaughey) that goes terribly wrong. This scene was one of those that catapulted the series into television history. In an article published in Guardian, director Cary Fukunaga explained that one of his priorities as the series' head was to ensure that at least in each episode there were "specific moments in which the visual aspect was treated with the same importance as the dialogue."

Stranger Things It is one of Netflix's big blockbusters, but Shawn Levy, director of the series, assures that when filming the sequence shot of the episode Dear Billy, from the fourth season, had the same resources as any other television production. Levy emphasizes that the inspiration for this technique came from reading the episode's script, which includes a scene in which a group of soldiers burst into the house where Will, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are being guarded and open fire. "When I read it, I thought it was a scene that had to have a kinetic energy, that had to be in real time and viscerally connected to the characters, who suddenly find themselves in the middle of a battle," Levy explained in a chat.

As if one sequential plot weren't enough, the sixth episode of the Netflix horror miniseries features five, the longest of which clocks in at 17 minutes and 19 seconds. The episode, which divides the action between Shirley's funeral home and the house that gives the series its title, is a feat of engineering that caused many headaches, especially for the actors. "I started memorizing that episode two months beforehand, as if we were doing a play. But we didn't have the same rehearsal time. Normally, for a play, you have six weeks or more to rehearse. We had two," explained Elizabeth Reaser, who played Shirley.

The chapter The conversation, a bottle episode, was filmed in a single dam and in real time. All the action takes place next to the door of Jamie (Helen Hunt) and Paul's (Paul Reiser) bedroom, from where the couple is monitoring whether their daughter Mabel, still a baby, falls asleep without their help. Jamie has decided that in order for his daughter to learn to sleep alone they will follow the Ferber method, very similar to Dr. Estivill's method. While the mother is implacable when it comes to following the rules, the father can't help but feel guilty. While they wait for the girl to fall asleep after crying for a while, the couple has time to talk about everything: from how fattening a plate of rigatoni Even if they're shrinking. In the end-credits gag, Jamie and Paul are watching a movie: he points out that the scene they just saw is a twenty-minute long take, while she doesn't give it any importance.