For: The Take

A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.

Film

In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "set up". Takes of each shot are generally numbered starting with "take one" and the number of each successive take is increased (with the director calling for "take two" or "take eighteen") until the filming of the shot is completed.

A one-take occurs when the entire scene is shot satisfactorily the first time, whether by necessity (as with certain expensive special effects) or by happy accident.

Film takes are often designated with the aid of a clapperboard. It is also referred to as the slate. The number of each take is written or attached to the clapboard, which is filmed briefly prior to or at the beginning of the actual take. Only takes which are vetted by the continuity person and/or script supervisor are printed and are sent to the film editor.

Outtakes or "outs" are takes or portions of takes that are not in the movie. The vast majority of material (film or digital) shot for a major motion picture doesn't make it into the finished movie. Multiple takes of repeated performances, shot from various camera angles quickly add up. Shooting over a million feet of film for a movie and using ten thousand feet for the finished product is common.

Some film directors are known for using very long, unedited takes. Alfred Hitchcock's Rope is famous for being composed of nine uninterrupted takes, each from four to ten minutes long. This required actors to step over cables and dolly tracks while filming, and stagehands to move furniture and props out of the camera's way as it moved around the room. A camera operator's foot was broken by a heavy dolly during one intensive take, and he was gagged and hauled out of the studio so that filming could continue without interruption. The eight-minute opening shot of The Player includes people discussing long takes in other movies.

Aleksandr Sokurov's Russian Ark (2002) consists of a single 90-minute take, shot on a digital format. Mike Figgis' Timecode (2000) consists of a single 90-minute take as well, albeit with 4 camera units shooting simultaneously. In the finished film, all 4 camera angles are shown simultaneously on a split screen, with the sound fading from one to another to direct audience attention.

Multiple takes

Other directors such as Stanley Kubrick are notorious for demanding numerous retakes of a single scene, once asking Shelley Duvall to repeat a scene 127 times for The Shining. During the shooting of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick asked for 97 takes of Tom Cruise walking through a door before he was satisfied. Charlie Chaplin, both director and star of The Gold Rush, did 63 separate takes of a scene where his character eats a boot -- in reality, a prop made of licorice -- and ended up being taken to the hospital for insulin shock due to the high sugar intake. Chaplin also did 342 takes of a scene in City Lights (1931).