Shot-for-shot

Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot representation) is a term used to describe a visual work that is transferred almost completely identical from the original work without much interpretation.

This term has been used widely recently in the film industry, when it produces films that are adapted from a comic/graphic novel origin. Each scene/cut from the movies is identical to the panel in the publication.

Production uses

In the film industry, most screenplays are transferred into a storyboard for visual representation. so that the crew would understand how it should be shot. However some directors have skipped this process and used the comic panels as storyboards (such as Robert Rodriguez)

Examples

From comics/graphic novels to film

*Sin City and its film adaptation - most scenes are shot-for-shot
*"300" - director Zack Snyder photocopied the graphic novel and constructed the preceding and succeeding shots.
*The Tintin comic book series was adapted into a television series, with many of the panels being used in the television series for their respective stories.

Film to film

Some films are remade in an almost identical "frame-to-frame".
*Alfred Hitchcock's black-and-white "Psycho" was remade by Gus Van Sant into its color version which is nearly a shot for shot remake, also in English, with different actors.
*Michael Haneke remade his own 1997 film "Funny Games," which was in the German language, into a 2008 American remake in English, with different actors.
*Luc Besson's 1990 French film "Nikita" was remade as 1993's English-language "Point of No Return" by John Badham. Except for the language translation, only minor changes were made, and the two films are largely shot-for-shot identical (particularly action sequences, such as the "laundry chute dive" restaurant escape).
*The 1934 and 1957 film versions of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" were not only shot-for shot and scene-for scene, but were both directed by Sidney Franklin. The major differences between the two are that the 1934 version was filmed in black-and-white and in standard Academy ratio, with a cast nearly evenly divided between British and American actors, and the 1957 version was made in color and Cinemascope with an all-British cast, except for Jennifer Jones.
*The 1939 film "The Four Feathers" , based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason, and its 1955 remake "Storm Over the Nile" were not only both made in color, but like the two versions of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street", used the identical script.
*The 1937 and 1952 film versions of "The Prisoner of Zenda" also used the same screenplay, with the added twist being that the older version was released by Selznick International Pictures, while the 1952 Technicolor version was released by MGM, which had purchased the rights from Selznick.
*The Omen was remade in a shot by shot remake in 2006

Animation to animation

*"Tops with Pops" and "Love That Pup"

=Ho

Some directors pay tribute/homage to other works by including scenes that are identical.

*The Odessa Steps sequence of "The Battleship Potemkin" has been emulated in several films, including "The Untouchables," as well as the film "Brazil."
*"The 400 Blows" has a scene identical to "Zéro de conduite" as an homage.
*The famous "cropduster chase" scene in "North by Northwest" has been the subject of numerous homages and parodies.
*"The Dreamers" contains numerous homages and reconstructions of scenes from films such as "Bande à part", "Blonde Venus", "Freaks", "Scarface", "Queen Christina", "À bout de souffle", "Sunset Boulevard", and "Mouchette".
*The Disney film "Enchanted" includes numerous homages to animated films done shot-for-shot in live-action.

Parodies

Many comedy works that rely heavily on parody use shot-for-shot as a substance of humor.

*Many "Simpsons" episodes parody other works by using shot-for-shot representation.
**a scene in "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" is from "Requiem for a Dream".
*Weird Al Yankovic parodies music videos of other artists in an almost shot-for-shot.

References