Fictional Filming Procedure: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A situation that would normally be chalked up to [[Did Not Do the Research]], but can't really be put in that category because movie shooting is being inaccurately portrayed... by people who are ''in the process of shooting a movie'' or making some other form of visual entertainment! Scenes are shot in a single take, often in sequence, with the camera kept at a great distance where it couldn't possibly be getting the right angles or close-ups to make the scene convincing, and they never do a retake. This is especially annoying in action scenes, although it can often follow the [[Rule of Cool]].

 

[[Tropes Are Not Bad|Not necessarily a bad thing]]: the entire process of filmmaking is rarely the point, so a bit of [[Artistic License]], so that the viewers have an easier time understanding it, or to prevent a subplot from dominating the movie can be a wise choice.

 

[[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]] can include:

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* When Renge decides to make a movie out of the titular ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' (with a Hollywood camera crew handy), the intended [[Throw It In]] scene with Tamaki fighting young [[Yakuza]] thugs couldn't have been filmed from the position the camera was in (not to mention it wasn't there when the fight started).

** There is an episode in the early Kanto series where the heroes participate in a movie. The director then proceeds to shoot the last scene of the movie, saying "I always shoot the last scene first, so I know how the movie ends". From the way he says it, this is implied to be a silly, comical quirk of his.

 

* The film ''[[Bolt]]'' uses this, with the dog convinced that the show is real. This is [[Hand Wave|hand waved]] by saying that they wanted the dog to [[Enforced Method Acting|think the girl was actually in mortal danger, so they'd get a better performance]]. Still, method acting didn't come close to justifying the absurd expenses and [[No OSHA Compliance|dangers]] incurred by the type of shooting they were apparently attempting. A network TV series in particular simply wouldn't have that kind of budget.

** Legality and budget aside, the director ''is'' shown as being a bit [[Mad Artist|insane]]. The network executive certainly thinks so.

* ''[[Bowfinger]]'' is ''all'' about this. It even has a shoestring guerrilla film crew shooting around an actor who doesn't know he's their star. With a crew made of illegal Mexican immigrants. And a [[Church of Happyology|cult]] in the mix.

* ''Dragon: The [[Bruce Lee]] Story'' Has an action sequence where Bruce fights a mercenary for several minutes, in one take as the camera follows them.

* Johnny Cage's introduction scene in ''[[Mortal Kombat (film)|Mortal Kombat]]''. They shoot an entire fight scene (until a last-move screw-up) in one take.

* Ironically the ending of the snuff film hoax ''Snuff'', which was actually supposed to look like a real film shoot, looked nothing like a real film shoot.

* The first scene of ''[[Austin Powers]] in Goldmember'', which has an action scene filmed in one shot for a [[Show Within a Show|Movie Within A Movie]] of [[Steven Spielberg]]'s Austin Powers.

** And it's clearly [[Rule of Cool]] mixed with [[Rule of Funny]]. It wouldn't be anywhere near as hilarious if the director had to keep stopping and ruining the surprise appearances of the actual actors.

* Completely overturned trope in ''[[Living in Oblivion]]'', an independent film about an independent film, which exposed every possible technical and artistic complication that can happen on a movie set, up to the cameraman and director arguing and playing politics over how the a scene was to be shot.

* It's not entirely clear if the opening of ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' is intended to be this, or if it's intended to be a [[Show Within a Show|Movie Within A Movie]] that then cut to the actors. The camera is never seen, so it might not be intended as a single take.

* ''[[The Truman Show]]'' is pretty good when it comes to the visual footage—the show does have the wonky camera angles, lack of/awkward use of camera movement, inappropriately close or far-away shots, etc, that you'd expect from a live show captured with hidden cameras. What is more problematic is the sound. All the dialogue is very clean and clear, as though caught on a high-end unidirectional mic from a couple of feet away, including a scene on a beach (beaches being notoriously awful places to record sound even under ideal conditions, usually requiring some degree of ADR for dialogue to even be comprehensible). At one point it's suggested that certain passers-by are concealing little shotgun mics on their person, but it's a [[Hand Wave]] at best.

* Francois Truffaut's ''[[Day for Night]]'' is basically a response to this trope. While it does show things like multiple takes (from different angles to keep it interesting) and the difficulties of making films, it goes a bit dramatic with worst case scenarios, including {{spoiler|actor death}}.

* During ''[[Gordy]]'', a camera has its ordinary lens secretly replaced with a wide-angle lens, which will cause the commercial being filmed to be distorted. Nobody notices this, meaning the director or cinematographer never bothered ''looking through the camera'' to see if they liked the footage, or that nobody looked at the footage while it was being edited together. [[Idiot Plot|Sabotage of this kind would require striking the whole film crew with blindness.]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Averted in one story by [[Ephraim Kishon]] where he demonstrates how different real filmmaking is from this trope: Production runs up costs even if nothing happens on set, continuity is [[Serious Business]], and a simple scene may need twenty shots until it's right. Add a [[Prima Donna Director]]... let's just say, it's not fun for the poor guy who ended up as an extra (even worse: unwillingly), having to play the role of the random guy who cries "Oy!" when the star steps on his foot.

 

* ''[[Extras]]'' has this trope in-universe, as the director of "When the Whistle Blows" is deliberately shown to be totally incompetent.

* Viciously subverted in ''[[Frontline]]'', where the current affairs show within a show's tricks are exposed time and again. A notable early example is the filming of an interviewer's reactions AFTER the interview is finished.

* ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' at least acknowledged the need for multiple takes, although {{spoiler|the movie was quickly revealed to be a trap, so we didn't get to see much more of the normal shooting.}}

* ''[[iCarly]]'' tends to take creative liberties with live podcasting. For example, using a studio quality camera for shooting, relatively stable shots despite no tripod.

* Not a movie example, but related; ''[[Glee]]'''s "The First Time" features Rachel and Blaine, the stars in the school play, rehearsing about a week before their debut. They're not blocking any scenes, or even off book! This despite the fact that both Darren Criss and Lea Michele (not to mention many other cast members) came to the show from theater/musical backgrounds.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] on ''[[30 Rock]]''. Much like ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' in the real world, the in-universe show is taped live in front of a studio audience.

* In ''[[Stuntman]]'' and ''Stuntman: Ignition'', long car-chase scenes are shot are shot in sequence, with very little props - even when the scene involves a helicopter chasing a sports car through San Francisco, [[Stuff Blowing Up|shooting just about every single thing with missiles]]. But hey, otherwise, it wouldn't be [[Rule of Cool|cool]].

** ''Ignition'' makes it a bit worse with the new effects and ragdoll physics on the actors. The director no longer seems to care if you just smacked your sports car into an extra on the sidewalk and sent him cartwheeling into traction. They also seem to have everything possible rigged up to explode; in the first scene of ''Overdrive'' you can optionally smash through a gas station and send it up in flames, while in the first scene of ''Whoopin' n' Hollerin' II'' the monster truck can crush every car, whether or not they're marked.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}