How to fake a LONG TAKE with hidden cuts! | 4 editing tricks

Steve Ramsden here with DIY Moviemaking and this week I’m going to show to you four tricks to make continuous action look like one long take - by using hidden “invisible” cuts like in 1917, Birdman, Children of Men, Spectre, the Kingsman church fight and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.

I am obsessed with long takes in movies - they just immerse the viewer and can be a great way to keep your audience glued to action that’s supposedly unfolding in real time. But long takes are very difficult and expensive to get right. So it’s not surprising that many filmmakers have used various tricks to join several shorter takes together using hidden cuts, to create the illusion of seamlessness. I just find these kinds of shots fascinating and I’ve even tried several of my own fake-long-take experiments over the years. So I’ve come up with this handy list of 4 tricks you can try to invisibly join your shots together.

I’m always trying to add production value by doing a lot with a little, so if you want to see lots more fun DIY Moviemaking tips and tricks like this, then of course hit that subscribe button.

Invisible cuts, also know as ‘hidden cuts’ have been growing in popularity in recent years, in fact even some entire films like 1917 and Birdman have been based on using this as their central gimmick. And these films and others like them use the same surprisingly simple techniques I’m going to share today. These aren’t just decisions being made when editing, these are decisions you would make before and when you shoot so that you get the right shots on the day. And some of them are surprisingly cheap. So just like I teach in my course DIY Moviemaking for which the link is below, you don’t always need a lot of money to get some creative shots, you just need to spend a bit more time planning. So, here’s 4 tricks you can try for seamless cuts:

Trick number 1 is the easiest, and that is to obscure the frame with a colour match. This is a method of hiding a join by ending your first shot and starting your second shot on the same solid colour, usually black. This is the very basic method that Alfred Hitchcock used to join a lot of his shots together in his 1948 film Rope. The camera usually pushes in on a dark object, like the back of someone’s suit or a piece of furniture, until the lens is covered. Then the shot cuts, and the camera moves back out into the next take. To try this method yourself you don’t need any fancy editing at all, because the join can just be a straight cut that no-one notices. However you could put in a quick cross-fade if you wanted to.

Trick number 2 is to use what is called a whip pan. A pan just means swinging the camera to look left or right, and a whip pan just means doing this quickly, so that the image becomes blurred. This can be another great moment to hide a cut. You can see this method used a lot in Birdman, especially when characters are walking around corners or a quick pan shows us what a character is seeing. All you have to do on the day is film the end of the first shot and the start of the second shot with the same fast whip pan in a similar direction, and these should join together pretty easily.

Trick number 3 for an invisible cut is to use a foreground object to ‘wipe’ across the frame, sometimes known as a ‘frame-block transition’. This is usually an object that passes between the camera and the character and moving the join with the object. To do this, draw a simple ‘mask’ down the edge of whatever object is moving past the camera. Then you can add keyframes to move this mask in time with the object, and this will then reveal your second shot underneath.

Trick number 4 is really less of a single cut and more of a whole new ‘fake’ shot, which gets built to bridge the gap between the two real shots.This will often be used for situations where there would have just been no way to perfectly line the two shots up, or it would be an impossibly tricky shot to get. These ‘fake’ shots are often composited out of several parts from several real shots, plus sometimes more elaborate things like CGI.

So if you use any of these tricks you should end up with a fun result where you can shoot and edit using invisible cuts in your next film project!

#filmmaking #longtakes #hiddencuts

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:49 - Trick 1: Obscure Frame
03:17 - Trick 2: Whip Pan
04:48 - Trick 3: Foreground Object
06:49 - Trick 4: Build a new 'fake' shot

[shortclawedproductions]

Amazing tutorial! thanks. I have used many of your tricks in my previous films.

[aqualithmedia]

The series, The Chosen, did a thirteen minute shot without cuts to open episode 203. It was really cool as you saw the sun going down naturally during the course of it.

[GalaroidProductions]

I always watch your videos when I'm in need of tips, but I also just love to sit back and watch the videos considering they're also just entertaining on their own.

[alaskavfxfilmer]

I love that this is basically an in camera effect

[DanDavisHistory]

This was great, thanks. Esp the jumping out of the car scene. Awesome.

[Cardboardmanart]

Would you please make video on green screen dummy to convert any creature for animal 🐾like dinosaurs films 🦖🦕

[yuliafitsailo]

I love how you explain. Clean and seamless ! Thx

[maverickf]

Steve, I just got my first payment because of your amazing videos/tutorials that taught me A LOT (more than enough) for working on a project that paid me.
I'm so thankful!!!!

[stevesewful]

Thank you so much. So interesting. Concise with brilliant editing!

[gilgchannel]

Hello, I subscribe immediately. I am French and thank you for all your work which gives excellent advice. it's wonderful, I make very modest videos, almost without equipment and I love to solicit the imagination. But thanks to your technique, there is a way to work well and have a lot of fun. TYOU!!

[laurentb]

YOU ARE SO BRILLANT!!! I m very admirative of your work!! Thank you for sharing your expérience and knowledge !!!👍👍👍🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

[Grindmode]

Your explanation is very clean and clear Thx

[JeromeD]

What an extraordinary tutorial! Incredible!

[kalyuggaming]

Thanks for such videos that help beginner like me
🔥👍

[chaf]

You are a smart person. I will apply some tricks to my channel

[CrustyCowboy]

Great video. Sergio Leone was one of my favorite directors and, in my opinion, and I love his long takes

[shinde]

Awesome amazed by how simple these transitions thank you 🙏🙏🙏

[treffensaintjohnllc]

I am working on a large project and your video helped me in a great way. THANK YOU!

[oscarh]

What a genius Steve!
Steve, what do you think of "DaVince Resolve 18", they are advertising that it is "After Effects and Premier" together and easier to use, is it true or just advertising?

[DevotedSentry]

Thank you so much! I'm working on a long stopmotion right now, and I have used the whip pan effect several times but needed more ideas. This video is exactly what I need!