Observations on the Long Take

Object representation: intersecting infant observation with observational documentary

“…Further, this notion of linear temporality and the ‘now’, central to infant observation, may also find its correlate in documentary film's capacity to represent reality. In a short essay, Pasolini, MacAfee and Owens (1980) explore the long take in relation to time. According to Pasolini et al ., the long take is the present tense.…”

Theorising Digital Self-Mediation and the Smartphone as Filmic Apparatus after 6 January, 2021

“…In "Observations on the Long Take", Pasolini discusses Zapruder's amateur recording of the Kennedy assassination to advance his theory of the nature of film. 25 For him, the Zapruder film is the quintessential long take, synonymous with a first-person perspective, a single point of view. Like subjectivity itself, he argues, the long take is the "maximum conceivable limit of any audio-visual technique."…”

The Construction of "Singapore" in Singapore Cinema

“…As I shot and edited the film myself, I made creative choices along the way which reflect my personal voice and position on the subject matter. As Pasolini (1980) articulated, "it is impossible to perceive reality as it happens if not from a single point of view, and this point of view is always that of a perceiving subject" (p. 5). Chanan (2008) adds that with this single view, there are other things that are left out, having not been recorded, or edited out during postproduction.…”