Ever heard of a “oner”? If not, let me explain.
What is a “Oner”?
In filmmaking, a “oner” is when an entire scene is shot in a single take.
You roll the camera. The entire scene plays out. You stop rolling.
You could move the camera during the scene or keep the camera stationary while the actors move around, or both. None of that matters.
You’ve probably seen oners before, even if you didn’t realize it. The best oners are so well executed that they don’t draw attention to themselves.
Oners are tough to pull off. A single mistake and you have to reset and start from the beginning.
That’s why films like Citizen Kane, Children of Men, Goodfellas, and Birdman are often praised for their use of long takes.
A great oner immerses you in the scene. It makes you feel part of the story by highlighting:
- The location – no point filming a complex oner in front of a blank wall because you’re losing an opportunity to make the scene richer.
- The characters – when there are no breaks or cuts in the scene you have one continuous lifeline into their thoughts and feelings.
So, how do you shoot a oner?
Planning is absolutely critical. Start with these steps.
How does the scene feel to you?
Understanding the emotional tone of your scene is crucial. Think about what feeling you want to create. Is it intense, like the brutal battle in The Revenant? Or is it lively, like Henry and Karen’s date in Goodfellas?
Pinning down the tone shapes all your choices. You should figure this out during pre-production. The director, cinematographer, grip, and main crew members need to collaborate closely to pull it off.
Do you really need a oner?
Sometimes, it’s not practical to shoot a oner.
You may have to stitch different takes together. Post-production tricks can help. Techniques like whip pans, fade-to-color transitions, or using objects to mask cuts work well. Films like Birdman and Rope use these methods effectively.
Decide if the camera will move. Movement is key to a successful oner. It can follow the actors or stay still as they move around. Sometimes a mix of both is best.
But every movement should be motivated. Unnecessary movement distracts and weakens the story. Each camera move needs to serve a purpose.
Do you have a good enough location?
Location is everything. A good setting makes the shoot easier.
A bad one creates problems.
Think about whether the scene is indoors or outdoors. How easily can the camera move through the space? Can you rig lights where you need them?
Consider props, the size of your crew, and other logistics. Once you know the pros and cons of your location, planning becomes smoother.
And don’t forget to see if the oner will allow the location to be used in interesting ways. Unmotivated locations or distracting elements while the oner is in progress will distract from the scene. That’s the last thing you want.
Camera angles and blocking
Choreography is crucial when planning a oner. Every actor and crew member must be in sync. Timing is everything. If one person makes a mistake, the whole scene needs to be reset and shot again from the beginning.
To make this work, you must carefully choreograph the scene in advance.
Start with a detailed plan. Storyboards are a helpful tool. They let you visualize the entire sequence, shot by shot. If you have the budget, consider making a previsualization.
Previz lets you map out the scene in a 3D space or with animation. It shows exactly how the camera and actors will move. This way, you can spot potential issues before you even start filming.
Precise choreography makes a oner feel seamless. It’s a dance between actors, camera operators, and crew. Everyone must know their roles perfectly. Rehearsals are essential.
Practice until the timing is flawless. The goal is to have every part of the scene flow naturally, without interruption.
Do you have the right cast and crew?
Pulling off a oner requires a seasoned cast and crew. Experience matters. Everyone needs to know their roles inside and out. Each person must understand not only their own actions but also what everyone else will be doing, and exactly when it will happen.
It’s like an intricate dance. Practice is non-negotiable. Rehearsals must happen repeatedly to ensure everyone is in sync. Your team needs to rehearse over and over, fine-tuning each movement and timing until it’s perfect.
Only then should you consider rolling the camera.
Positive attitudes are crucial. Shooting a oner can be draining. It’s repetitive and can feel tedious. Staying motivated and upbeat is the only way to keep energy high and ensure the shot succeeds. The mental endurance of your team will often make the difference between failure and a flawless take.
What makes it all worth it in the end is the performance. If it really helps the scene, the atmosphere will be electric!
Your equipment matters
The equipment you choose plays a major role in whether your oner succeeds or fails.
Consider the layout of your scene. If the camera needs to move through multiple locations you need to plan accordingly.
A monitor with a wireless receiver becomes essential in situations like this. It reduces the risk of crew members tripping over cables, which is crucial when covering a lot of ground.
Wireless monitoring also help keep non-essential crew members out of the shot. Even when they’re not in the room, they can still watch and track every part of the scene. This setup keeps distractions to a minimum and allows for a cleaner, more efficient workflow.
Lighting is another factor that needs careful planning.
Will your scene use grips holding lights overhead to follow your main actor as he moves through a tense house search?
Or will you rig lights strategically throughout the set to illuminate the action as it unfolds?
Every lighting decision must be purposeful, supporting the narrative and ensuring the camera and actors move seamlessly through the scene.
Did I mention rehearsals?
It’s never enough!
Rehearsing your scene thoroughly before shooting isn’t just a recommendation; it’s essential. It’s where the kinks gets sorted out.
During rehearsals, you can test everything to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s a crucial stage where problems reveal themselves and solutions come to light.
For example, you might discover that your carefully planned dolly track simply won’t fit through a narrow door, even though it seemed like it would on paper. Suddenly, you’re rethinking your entire approach.
Or, maybe you realize that the two actors you cast have a significant height difference, which throws off your entire lighting plan. Now you have to adjust the lighting.
These kinds of obstacles are common, and rehearsals are the time to find and fix them. They also allow your cast and crew to memorize every movement, position, and cue. It’s a complicated choreography, and everyone needs to know where they’ll be at each moment.
It’s also during these run-throughs that you establish the signals and cues needed to keep the scene running smoothly. Whether it’s a subtle gesture from a grip to signal a light change or a sound cue for an actor to move, these details can make or break the shot.
Rehearsals provide a space to perfect this dance, ensuring that everyone knows their role and how they fit into the bigger picture.
Rehearsal is perhaps the most crucial part of filming a successful oner.
How to practice shooting long takes
Practice is key when it comes to mastering the art of oners. Start by experimenting with “fake” oners, using clever techniques like whip pans, frame obscuring, and visual effects to stitch different takes together in post-production.
These methods give you room to learn and refine without the pressure of having to nail every element perfectly in a single take. By experimenting with these techniques, you can gradually build confidence and understanding of how complex oners work.
Next, watch and study oners in the films you love. Observe how the camera moves and how the actors perform within those continuous shots.
Try to put yourself in the director’s shoes and think about the choices they made. Why did they decide to move the camera in a certain way? How did those decisions affect the mood or storytelling of the scene? Reverse engineer the shot in your mind, then consider how you might approach it differently.
Here’s a video that shows you how a master does it:
Then, apply what you learn to your own projects, starting simple.
Grab a mobile phone and ask a friend or two to act in your scene. It doesn’t have to be a big production; the goal is to practice and experiment with camera movement and actor blocking. Don’t let the lack of high-end gear stop you.
Over time, you’ll develop a better sense of how to pull off a great oner.
That’s it!
With these tips you should be able to film your first oner. It will probably fail the first few times, but that’s okay!
Remember this great advice from the great Sidney Lumet:
How to shoot a “Oner”
Now here’s a video of me showing you how to shoot a “Oner” from beginning to end:
The planning stage
For some reason I imagined this scene as a single take while writing the script.
We start with a close up of the surgeon, move to the nurse, then the hero. In a way we are introducing each character and their relationship to each other – both emotionally as well as their positions in physical space.
We change height and tilt up to reveal the surgeon’s face. He steps aside to reveal the nurse, and then we do a quick pan and track back to reveal the hero.
The equipment we used in this shot is a professional dolly, more specifically the Panther Classic. To know more about dollies, read this:
Our hero’s position is important. He is outside looking in – because he is tentative. He is also in a long shot because that physical distance translates into his emotional, tentative state.
The surgeon then tries to get the hero to enter, and that’s when we track in slowly, in a way we are bridging the distance. The surgeon is physically trying to coax the hero to give some blood, and since this is a conversation between the two of them we track in to just reveal their conversation.
Finally the hero enters and we track back to follow his reaction until he sits down. He has a decision to make.
To emphasize his dilemma we dolly in and also change heights slowly. After he makes his decision the camera pulls back slowly and the nurse ushers him into the next room. This is where the scene ends.
The room was tiny, maybe about 15 x 15 feet or less, and we had to have space for the actors and the dolly. We used a Red Monstro and Arri Master Anamorphics, specifically the 50mm lens, at a T-stop of either T5.6 or T8, I don’t remember. I don’t like shallow DOF.
The execution
The first thing I did was walk through the scene with my key grip, Ganesh, explaining all the important frames. If there are any issues, nows the time to figure it out. There are small bits and parts to a dolly that we need to decide on – low arm, U-bangi, jib, etc. The kind of support you need depends on the movement.
Obviously we are severely restricted by space here so I just sat on the dolly without any extensions. But I could have used a U-bangi for sure.
After we decide on the movement we bring in the dolly. We rehearse multiple times on the dolly, so Ganesh understands how he has to move it.
There’s only space for one dolly operator. Ganesh operates the height and movement, and I operate the pan and tilt. Focus was pulled by Raju Kamat using a C-motion system on an Atomos Shogun.
Then we completed the lighting, if you are interested to learn how to light please check out the Wolfcrow Online Film School.
We brought in the actors and rehearsed with them so they understood the space they had to work with.
The other challenge was we had to do all this very quickly because we had only 3 hours. It was an actual operating theater in a real hospital, because I had no money to create a set or to buy props.
Once everyone is ready to go we go for the take. A single mistake can ruin a take and we would have to start again. We nailed the first take, but I noticed flicker on playback. So we decided to do one more after adjusting the shutter angle to eliminate flicker.
The flicker was caused by the ER LED light. It is a mild flicker, easily correctible in Resolve, which I’ll show how in my lighting guide when it’s done.
Then we did a second take, and I’m glad we did two because in the final edit I used parts from both. I also had inserts of actors talking to break up the “Oner”. I needed this option so I could control the pacing. Even though the shot was planned as a Oner we always kept the option open to add edits.
So that’s how I accomplished the OT scene from my short film Man May Love.
I hope you learned something from this article and video.
If there’s anything you think I left out or would like me to go more in depth, let me know in the comments below.
