The long take

Many of those of us involved in the field of audio-visual storytelling are fascinated bythe challenge of creating a sequence in a long, single take. This is the direct antithesis of the fast-paced editing which has characterised action movies and television series since the advent of MTV and Miami Vice.

There was a half-hour episode of the American sitcom Mad About You recorded as a single take in 1998. An Indian director, B. P. Singh, managed an amazing 111 minutes for an episode of the crime series CID.

And Wiki deal with the phenomenon here.

And, yes, long takes float my boat, too. Particularly when this six-minutes-plus is set in Scotland and starts with bagpipe music!

The Johnny Walker story is well presented, the single-take videography (shot with Red camera) is masterful.

But, in spite of a brief period when I was much younger and found Justerini and Brooks chic, if it's going to be whisky then give me a Lowland single malt, Glenkinchie, not that far from the braes where my family has its roots.