8 difficult scenes in films that were shot in the first take (8 photos)

Few of the crew of any film or TV series hope that this or that scene will be filmed in the first take. Even the simplest take can be screwed up, and especially many takes are required for heavy scenes with long monologues or dialogues, continuous shots that last more than a minute, or scenes in which there is a lot of action.





"Phone booth"



In the movie Phone Booth, Colin Farrell's character Stu Shepard decides to answer a call that comes from a phone booth. The decision is, to put it mildly, strange, but what can’t you do for the sake of the film’s premise. Stu finds out that he is being held at gunpoint and must confess all his bad deeds in order to survive. In one scene, Stu's wife, Kelly, appears, who also falls under the gun of a sniper, and now the main character has the motivation to finally confess everything, otherwise the sniper will kill Kelly. Colin Farrell gave a powerful monologue in this scene that would have been difficult for many actors, and it is noteworthy that he delivered it so perfectly just the first time.

"Godfather"





Initially, The Godfather was not the most significant project for the studio, because there were too many risks that might not work. The first risk is Francis Coppola, an aspiring director who took on the film adaptation of a bestseller. It was impossible to fire him due to reputational risks, although the studio tried more than once to replace him with other directors. The second risk is Marlon Brando, whom the producers also did not want to see in one of the main roles because of his terrible character. The third risk is Al Pacino, an aspiring actor in whom no one except Francis Coppola saw as a good actor. Because of this, the budget for the first film was only $6 million. For comparison, 13 million have already been allocated for the second part.

Of these 6 million, 100 thousand were allocated for one scene, in which it was impossible to make a mistake.

This scene is the murder of Sonny at the toll booth. This scene was very expensive for the film, so it was necessary to film it the first time, and the film crew succeeded. A second take was not required, which means the budget did not increase by an extra 100 thousand.

"127 hours"



But this scene did not require a large budget, like the film itself, which was shot mainly in one location, while the film’s budget was 18 million, and it paid off three times.

Many scenes in 127 Hours are hard to watch, but there is one scene that made some viewers faint. We are talking about when the main character decides to lose his hand in order to escape from a kind of captivity. James Franco didn't have to worry too much about this scene because it was relatively cheap. If it failed, I would simply have to buy a new prosthesis. But James Franco did such a brilliant job with his acting that a second take was not required.

"No Country for Old Men"



Tommy Lee Jones, despite his difficult character, is an excellent actor, and if he stars in a film, then you can watch it without even looking at the critics' ratings. He performed especially amazingly in his next role in the film “No Country for Old Men” with Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem.

At the end of the film, Jones' character gives a monologue about his father and how old people are already leaving and others are taking their place. One can only imagine with admiration the silence that reigned on the set as Tommy Lee Jones delivered one word after another so perfectly that repeating the monologue was no longer necessary.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"



If scenes are disrupted because of certain actors who can be controlled, it’s scary to imagine what happens when the director has to deal with animals. Often it is because of animals that more and more takes are required, but Gandalf’s horse in the second part of “The Lord of the Rings” seems to be truly magical, because one very beautiful scene with his participation was filmed the first time.

When Gandalf first called Skadufax, he appeared over the horizon and galloped towards our hero. Ian McKellen stroked him according to the script, Orlando Bloom gave out his elven phrases, and the take ended.

"Titanic"



As you know, James Cameron approached the issue of interior design quite scrupulously in his film Titanic. Everything cost millions, which is why Cameron was even criticized, because some people believed that such an extremely expensive project would not pay off, but Cameron succeeded, although there was one scene, due to the unsuccessful shooting of which the budget could have increased significantly. Towards the end of the film, when the Titanic begins to sink, the water approaches the stairs and the heroes escape from the watery hell. All this water was real and Kate Winslet even almost drowned in one scene, and many members of the film crew, including Kate, got serious colds because the water was cold, and this allowed the actors not to act out shivering from the cold, but to experience it in real life. actually.

The scene where the water approaches the stairs was filmed in the first take. It can be said that Cameron had no room for error if he did not want to ask the studio for a few more million to add to the budget.

"The Dark Knight"



Heath Ledger gave us a wonderful and terrible Joker in The Dark Knight, and his acting is even more amazing than in other films. It is not for nothing that Ledger was posthumously awarded an Oscar for this role, and it cannot even be said that this award was given to him only as a sign of honor.

One of the most controversial scenes in The Dark Knight is the one in which the Joker blows up a hospital. It is ambiguous in that the conversations about whether Heath improvised in it or not vary. Some insiders say that the second explosion did not occur completely by accident, and Heath decided to knock on the detonator rather than break out of character. And other insiders say that everything was thought out from beginning to end with all the details, so Heath did not improvise, but followed the script.

In any case, this scene was filmed the first time, because building a second set like this would have been inconvenient.