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Film School: The Spielberg Oner

A still from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws' (1975)

A look at how the master delivers story and character without cutting.

What is the Oner?

Every Frame A Painting looks at director Steven Spielberg‘s use of the single take, and his techniques such as reframing, to tell volumes purely through carefully-planned camera composition and movement:

The Silent Dialogue Oner

An example of how Spielberg covers a basic “dialogue” or 180 scene and manages its four basic angles – master, single, single reverse, and insert – within a single unedited take, by using reframing, can be found in the bar scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981):

And in this behind-the-scenes featurette, is footage of Spielberg directing that scene (starting at 19:50, via Cinematographers on Cinematography):

The Double Introduction Oner

Indiana Jones is introduced not once but twice, through camera movement and lighting (via Ci-Lovers):

The More Complicated Oner

Scott Jeschke, who breaks down several Spielberg Oners, explains the director’s overall approach to this kind of shot:

Scott breaks down the eight different compositions achieved within this oner from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), with detailed annotations about camera movement, framing, and blocking. Here’s the glossary of terms:

  • ECU – Extreme Close Up
  • CU – Close Up
  • MCU – Medium Close Up
  • M (or MS) Medium Shot
  • MLS – Medium Long Shot
  • LS – Long Shot
  • ELS – Extreme Long Shot
  • FAVORING: (Who’s face is favored by camera)
  • BLOCKING: Where/when the actor positions themself relative to camera/ dramatic beats

This oner from Hook (1991) comprises nine shot compositions in 35 seconds (via Scott Jeschke and CinemaCopa):

Here are two more from Spielberg’s Munich (2005)…

… and in both a key element, alongside or even integral to the visual reframing, is the sound design, as Nerdwriter demonstrates in this stunning deconstruction:

StudioBinder diagrams the blocking of oners in Jurrassic Park (1993 – the original, of course, and still the best):

Further Viewing

YouTuber-turned-Hollywood-director of Shazam! (2019), Lights Out (2016), and Annabelle Creation (2017) David F. Sandberg looks at examples from director (and Spielberg associate) Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future (1985), Forest Gump (1994), and most notably here, What Lies Beneath (2000), where the oner is used to cover entire scenes (and, he notes, to keep production moving by reducing the number of setups):

Speaking of taking inspiration from Spielberg, J. J. Abrams regularly utilises a technique which What I See describes as the Multi-Beat Shot:

Within the budget and resource constraints of a ’70s BBC miniseries, director Herbert Wise relied on blocking and oners to inventively tell the story of I, Claudius (1976). “The camera always moves alongside [the actors] with purpose,” Moviewise observes. “Takes are unusually long… and thanks to the choreography of camera and actors, they keep the need to cut down to a minimum”:

Watch an hour of Steven Spielberg directing (via Shot, Drawn & Cut):

More on sound design, in the films of Spielberg and others:

Film School: Sound Design