Moving the scenery during the take?

August 9, 2017 10:07 AM

A while back I saw a video on youtube showing how a party scene (dinner party, I think) in a film or TV show was filmed. As the camera was pointed one way, the crew was busy moving the walls in or out to grow and shrink the room. I can't recall the film or show, or anything else about it. (And yes, I understand how vague this is.)
posted by nevercalm to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: Was it this party scene from the end of Hugo? Walls are moved to allow the camera to achieve different angles. YouTube
posted by valleys at 10:19 AM on August 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I know this is definitely not it, but if you're interested in such things, this behind-the-scenes car chase scene from Raid2 is crazy and fun.
posted by xingcat at 10:27 AM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is it the Copacabana shot from Goodfellas?
posted by miles per flower at 10:58 AM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't remember it as a Metafilter post, but I do remember a video making the rounds of SNL stage crew striking the cold open set during the theme song, and the producer counting down the seconds until they needed to be finished.
posted by emelenjr at 11:51 AM on August 9, 2017

I came in to mention the post-credits scene in Hugo also, even though it doesn't really match your description.
posted by achrise at 6:19 PM on August 9, 2017

The Hitchcock movie Rope had a bit of this, as it was filmed in very long takes, so as to appear as a single continuous shot (except for a flashback scene). It's set in an apartment with two rooms, the front room of which contains a dead body of someone who is murdered just before the film starts (IIRC, or shortly thereafter), and the smug killer throws a party in the room. The camera was bulky and on a hidden track, so it basically moves forward and backward in a straight line, through a door to the second room, as well as swinging left to right. Objects in the first room (particularly the crate) have to be moved out of the camera's path and back.

The real trick, though, is how Hitchcock got his signature profile view into the movie, as he does with all of them. Looks like you can watch the whole movie in 80 minutes on Youtube.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:26 PM on August 9, 2017

Response by poster: I feel like the Hugo thing was a step in the right direction...it was definitely at a party like that and things were moving in that way, but I swear there was a table involved, and an entire room either changed shape or was struck to make room. That might just be my mind rearranging events, tho.

I do love that SNL video, but mostly because I'm a stagehand in NYC and that's basically a bunch of my buddies doing what they do every week.
posted by nevercalm at 9:15 AM on August 10, 2017