What is “Single Shot Cinema”?

“Single Shot Cinema” is a way of filming which enables you to shoot a scene in one single shot, using all the different camera angles which express your personal perception of the scene.

In practice this means you will move the camera in a steady and flexible, yet constant movement, from one angle to another. Using camera movements both fast and slow, high and low, close by and far away, all in one single shot within one scene.

Doing so, the movement of the camera itself becomes the major way of cinematographic expression.

Both the philosophy behind “Single Shot Cinema” and the practical consequences in filming have been developed by Leonard Retel Helmrich. He based “Single Shot Cinema” partly on the ideas of the film theorist André Bazin.