#MediaMonday: The Perfect Take

Good Morning, 

Okay, so as many of you know, I am currently working the STN 12 Days of Christmas Films for our Instagram. For each film, I'm only allowing about a minute or two of talking in the videos, which is forcing me to leave out some of my favorite stories about these awesome films. Therefore, since I have a weekly email that goes out to all of the affiliates, I'm going to send this little moment to you to maybe share with your classes today. 

So this week's lesson is: The Beauty of the Perfect Take 

Perfect takes in cinema are rare and serendipitous. In an industry that affords so much control over the final product, filmmakers rarely allow for only one-take to be good enough. It is even rarer to allow for a character break to make it into the final edit. Fortunately for us, Michael Curtiz (director of Casablanca) allowed an iconic moment slide into White Christmas In 1956. 

Between takes off-screen, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye had been mockingly parodying the "Sisters" number that was performed by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in the film. It had become such a joke that, on the day of the filming of the scene for real, director Michael Curtiz asked Crosby and Kaye to warm up with their "fake" version of the scene just for the crew. Little did the actors know, the cinematographer was shooting the entire time!

The actors hit each other with feathers, made faces at each other and visually lost the cues to their lip dubs. Many of the extras around the set also lost composure and began laughing at the performance. The scene ends with the two men laughing uncontrollably to raucous applause. 

When the men finished and reset positions for the scene, Curtiz informed the actors that they had already filmed the scene. This over-the-top train-wreck performance is the same performance made it into the film. 

It just goes to show that sometimes, the greatest moments in film are not the most orchestrated and controlled; rather, they are the clumsy moments that show the honesty of the characters. This scene, with all of its faults and mistakes is, by textbook definition, a perfect take. It was shot once and once was enough. 

To share this perfect take with your students from White Christmas, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyybi7t634

Watch for our 12 Days of Christmas Films series on Instagram beginning today and I will see all of you tomorrow!

Talk to you soon,

Josh Cantrell