Upamanyu Biswas
‘Adolescence‘ presents a chilling account of a British family whose lives are turned upside down when their son, Jamie Miller, murders his fellow schoolmate, Katie Leonard. Subsequently, an inquest is led into the incident, dissecting the Miller family’s situation and the reasons behind Jamie’s actions. The Netflix show captures the emotional journey of the family and community through the use of continuous takes, built to raise tension, conflict, and anxiety. Each episode takes a look at different aspects of the crime, from the arrest to the investigation and psychology to the aftermath. However, the intensity remains the same owing to the one-take method, which throws the audience straight into the thick of the action, regardless of the subject matter in question. As such, the technical details behind the process come into question, especially considering the length of each episode.
Adolescence is as Authentic as it Gets When it Comes to One-Shot Filmmaking
The four episodes of ‘Adolescence’ are entirely shot in one take without the use of hidden cuts. The creative team decided to embrace the visual style of a continuous take to enhance the drama’s visceral quality and rack up the intensity in every scene. However, it required an incredible amount of pre-planning, rehearsal, and technical mastery before and during filming. In an interview with Deadline, co-creator and writer Jack Thorne said, “The camera doesn’t blink in this show, and by being unblinking it allows for a certain rawness and honesty.” The cast and crew had to be prepared for each shot as it would occur in real-time without the luxury of a break during the action. While it can seem restrictive in one sense, it was freeing for others. According to Stephen Graham, who plays Eddie Miller, Jamie’s father, the one-shot method felt liberating as it allowed him to concentrate on his task more clearly.
The process behind every episode required meticulous planning from everyone involved, including scriptwriter Thorne. Due to the nature of the one-take, he had to be on set to calculate traveling time between scenes as it would be authentically represented later. Meanwhile, the cast and crew spent around three weeks rehearsing each episode as often as possible. The actual filming would then commence for around a week, requiring two takes each day, going up to 10 in total. At the end of the filming week, producers picked out the best of the 10 takes for each episode. It allowed more flexibility and a range of choices for the creative people involved. A large chunk of the credit also goes to the show’s director, Philip Barantini, who previously employed the continuous take on his other projects. He kept a real-time watch during takes from a production vehicle that was disguised as a police van.
Everything had to be assembled, organized, and planned efficiently. The director and actors had to keep a good line of understanding with each other to mitigate unforeseen circumstances that might disrupt a take. To avoid cuts, operators handed the camera over to other operators during scenes, like a game of pass the baton, to keep the narrative flowing. In one scene, the camera is even mounted to a drone, which is then flown to the murder site for another emotional closeup involving Eddie Miller. The technical wizardry involved helps bring a seamless and natural flow to the drama, allowing the audience to get sucked right in from the first scene, which was part of the creative team’s remit. They wanted to get into the deeper aspects of the drama by using a complex filmmaking style that brought much-needed intensity and intrigue into the mix.
Read More: Did Jamie Kill Katie in Adolescence?
