A Very Challenging Four-minute Steadicam Shot at FreshDV

A Very Challenging Four-minute Steadicam Shot

Published by Matthew Jeppsen March 22nd, 2007 in Art, Production

(See update note at the bottom of this post for more commentary on the shot)
The Thai film “The Protector” (Tom Yum Goong) features an amazing fight scene that runs 4 full minutes and was created with a single continuous Steadicam shot. In the scene, the camera operator had to follow the lead character through a multi-level martial arts brawl that spans multiple staircases and involved complex timing and choreography for both actors and camera. Watch the scene below.

A full month was spent preparing and choreographing this specific shot. It turned out that the original Steadicam operator couldn’t physically do it, and his replacement had to train for weeks. Due to the amount of actors involved and all the props/rigging, only 2 takes could be shot in a given day. They nailed it on take 5. In a world of CGI and invisible VFX, it’s refreshing to see a director pushing the envelope of physical possibilities.

UPDATE: There is some commentary and insight from the operator over at Steadishots.

6 Responses to “A Very Challenging Four-minute Steadicam Shot”

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1 Pilou Mar 22nd, 2007 at 6:20 am

Ouaw! I completely agree with your point of vue. It’s nice and “refreshing” to utilize “old school” techniques.
Couple of weeks ago, I was also amazed by a very long and beautiful Steadycam shot in Children of Men.
Just before Clive Owen and the pregnat woman leave the cost, the go into a building where everybody’s fighting … I’d like to know of they managed that shot.
2 Matthew Jeppsen Mar 22nd, 2007 at 10:20 am

I can remember a really long uncut take in “Children”, but it looked handheld to me. Still pretty amazing, regardless.

-MJ
3 AndrewMSV Mar 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 am

Two of the best uncut sequences that I’ve seen in recent films are from the Nick Cage film, Snake Eyes (lousy film) which featured a 15-minute(!) continuous shot; and Russian Ark which featured 90-minutes of uncut Steadicam work recorded in uncompressed HD.
I have Russian Ark on my TiVo but haven’t watched the whole thing. It’s really kind of boring to start and I couldn’t get through the rest.

But technically quite amazing.
4 Matthew Jeppsen Mar 22nd, 2007 at 10:40 am

I guess I’ll have to re-watch Snake Eyes (ugh), I must have missed that one.

Russian Ark was simply amazing. I thought it was not only well done technically, but that the uncut nature of the shoot served the material well. It’s been a while since I saw the behind the scenes featurette, did they make it all the way through without any cuts in that film?

-MJ
5 Afton Grant Mar 23rd, 2007 at 4:29 am

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to clarify a couple points. “Children of Men” used all handheld. Amazing handheld at that, but no Steadicam. In “Snake Eyes”, the opening sequence seems like almost 15 minutes of uncut footage, but actually it is 8 separate shots stitched together with well hidden edits. Watch it carefully and you’ll probably be able to tell where the cuts are. “Russian Ark” did indeed succeed in a 90 minute continuous take. An amazing physical and technical feat, but I’ll agree about the slowness of the story.

Best to all,
Afton Grant
Steadicam Operator, NYC
http://www.aftongrant.com | http://www.steadishots.org
6 Kendal Miller Mar 24th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

Just had an opportunity today at Fletcher Chicago to meet and hang out with Larry McConkey who did the steadicam shooting on Snakeyes his principles for drawing lines of action and working with actors were absolutely ingenious!!!!!!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566227/