Loved Adolescence’s one-take approach? These films and shows use the exact same technique

It must have been a drag to get it just right, but Adolescence’s unique one-take approach to filming ultimately paid off in the biggest way possible.

It adds to the tension and brings us viewers along for the ride but filming a TV show in one continuous take is no easy feat. Director Philip Barantini said it required weeks of planning, and even then, it required everyone to hit their marks and remember their lines. In one moment that left him in bits, Ashley Walters admitted to messing up a take.

As incredible as Adolescence is, it did not originate the process as that honour goes to 2002’s Russian Ark from director Aleksandr Sokurov. With that in mind, here are some other projects to watch if you loved the one-take approach in Adolescence.

1. Lost in London

In 2017, Woody Harrelson’s directorial debut offered a unique approach to the retelling of a real-life story that saw him arrested on the streets of London. The 90-minute film was filmed in one continuous take and live-streamed around the world in 2017. Alongside Woody, it also stars huge names such as Owen Wilson, Daniel Radcliffe, Eleanor Matsuura, and Willie Nelson.

It’s a comedy though so don’t go expecting the tense scenes of Adolescence.

2. Boiling Point

You should recognise this project because much like Adolescence it also stars Stephen Graham and was directed by Philip Barantini. The 2021 film, which is based on a 2019 short film of the same name, is 90 minutes of one continuous take. Much like Netflix’s new project, the one-take approach to Boiling Point expertly conveys the pressure-cooker environment of a busy kitchen. It makes for truly gripping TV, and did I mention Stephen Graham is in it?

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The BBC’s sequel series was just as action packed but besides an 11-minute continuous shot at the start, the rest of the show was shot completely normally.

3. 1917

Directed by Sam Mendes, 1917 follows British soldiers Will Schofield and Tom Blake on their task to convey a crucial message amidst Operation Alberich and the Germans retreating to the Hindenburg Line during World War I.

1917 is *technically* not one continuous take but most of the 2019 film was filmed as such. The shortest unbroken shot measured at 39 seconds while the longest was between eight and 12 minutes long.

“Most of the time, a different kind of sleight of hand [was used to break up takes], things that you simply wouldn’t expect,” the director told Yahoo.

“There’s a lot of very subtle visual effects throughout. Not just in service of the ‘one shot’, but also in environmental art, locations, set extensions, that sort of thing, but very, very beautifully done.”

4. Succession

Most of HBO’s Succession was filmed completely normally, but episode three of the fourth and final season called for special attention. It was the one where Brian Cox’s character suddenly died, and the one-shot approach was used to create a sense of frantic panic.

“In the planning of the shots, it felt to me like the camera had to be almost sadistically voyeuristic,” Director Mark Mylod told The Wrap. “It had to stay really close without kind of taking its eye off them because every time we cut away from the siblings it seemed to let them off the hook. So we worked on this idea of how could we keep the action as fluid as possible so that it’s unflinching.”

5. Russian Ark

2002’s Russian Ark was the first film to use the one-shot approach as a narrative technique as it followed a French aristocrat’s journey through a Russian museum where he met historical figures from across 200 years.

The film took four years to develop but was shot in just one day, with the final continuous take coming to 87 minutes.

6. A bunch of indie and lesser-known films

The one-take approach is not used as often as you might think, which is probably a good thing because it would lose its innate magic. That being said, over the years plenty of lesser-known TV shows and films have employed it.

Other projects that used the one-take technique:

• Macbeth (1982)
• Timecode (2000)
• Somebody Marry Me (2013)
• Paint Drying (2016)
• King Dave (2016)
• The Wedding Party (2017)
• A Boy. A Girl. A Dream: Love on Election Night (2018)
• Let’s Scare Julie (2020)
• Failure! (2023)

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