The opening to the highly acclaimed Paul Thomas
Anderson picture "Boogie Nights" features an almost three-minute
sequence that takes us through a nightclub and introduces us to each of the
major players in the film.
The film opens in 1977 with a
shot of the title's namesake, the neon sign of the "Boogie Nights"
club, and swoops down to street level to follow Burt Reynolds' director
and Julianne Moore's actress as they enter the club, and take their
seats. The tracking shit at the centre of this sequence then follows characters
around the dance floor, constantly joining different conversations,
establishing each characters' status and distinguishable persona, moving onto
another character, before returning to Reynolds and Moore, and
culminating with a shot of the main protagonist, 'Dirk Diggler', portrayed by Mark
Wahlberg, in what appears to be a single take.
The camera slows down and takes a moment to focus
on him, inaugurating him as the character at the centre of the film. However
this sequence also shows that this film is very much an ensemble piece,
through introducing a large number of characters, and establishing the central
premise of the film - the relationships between this wide array of roles, the
conflicts that drive the story, and their goals that reveal their true
intentions. The utilisation of the long take ensures that the audience can digest
and explore the environment and its inhabitants as if they were actually in the
scene. Viewers feel the rush and excitement of the nightclub as they attempt to
absorb all the information that Anderson presents us with in this sequence.
Production of such a scene is a very complex, lengthy process which is only
possible after heavy rehearsal, especially of timing, and Anderson cleverly
hides any crew or film equipment from view.
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