How to make a movie look like one long shot

The trick to spotting cuts in a “one-take” film.

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The Best Picture nominee 1917 tells a pretty simple story: two British soldiers cross the no man’s land of World War I to warn a battalion of an impending ambush. What really makes the movie stand out is how director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins made the movie look like it was filmed in one continuous take. The techniques required to pull off hidden cuts have their roots in Alfred Hitchcock's movie Rope — and if you look closely, you can catch where they happen in 1917.

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