Breaking News - Opening Tracking Shot

The 7 minute opening tracking shot of the Hong Kong satirical actionfilm Breaking News by Johnnie To.
Note: The video is lacking subtitles but basically what happens is that a special investigation team is observing a group of bankrobbers who are about to pull a heist. When the robbers want to leave some regular cops appear and start talking to the robbers about breaking some traffic law. The investigation team creates a diversion to get the attention of the cops, but one of the cops asks the robbers about a bag in their car and all hell breaks loose.

[@Mcorstiaans]

They used a single crane with a camera hanging from it so the camera could turn 360 degrees. If you pay close attention you can notice the camera slightly trembling because of the wind.

[@Alankanjo]

And a note: camera operator of "Lord of the Rings" was asked by Johnnie To to make this tracking shot, but he rejected the offer... I think finally the camera operators were from Hong Kong. They are so DARING. Hong Kong action films are the best, simply becase these group of PROFESSIONALS are so DARING!!

[@tdtm82]

Johnnie films exclusively in Hong Kong.

[@cubdukat]

Say what you will about the gunplay, there's no denying the mastery of this scene. This is one of my all-time favorite HK movies.

[@MrKreamous]

And probably my all time non cut sequence

[@Alankanjo]

No words to describe this scene. May be "magic" or "oustanding".... Thanks!!

[@jjho8]

That was one amazing long take shot everything has to be pre-planned and they pulled it off seamlessly.

[@vincentu87]

6:32 the bag ...haha

[@levelazn]

favorite film opening

[@JaceDanielFilms]

The news paper!

[@szewei85]

haha just watch this movie on network and dam this is still awesome 2 watch all over again JOHNNIE TO is a fkin genius nuff said

[@Taksony888]

vive Johnnie TO !!!

[@tomlau]

Amazing.

[@neo1027]

I always like the gun's sound effect in many HK movie..

[@tetsuyahayami7519]

Me too! It's always amazing!

[@yusuke223]

one shot only...amazing

[@MegaLaidback]

Johnnie To makes some great movies.

[@gilgamesh310]

Very nice tracking sequence.

[@andyscoot43]

It was nearly done in Hitchcocks Rope, but they had to cut every 10 minute to put a new reel of film into the camera.

[@qwe123303]

I'm guessing you don't realize how hard it is to accurately shoot a handgun. Handguns are horribly inaccurate from seemingly close distances if you don't know what you are doing.

[@Whoa802]

But these are cops and professional criminals we're talking about, not your average drug dealer selling meth outside of a club. I love this movie but still, this scene is highly unrealistic.

[@WilliamBurner]

this is incredible... do you know about the newspaper landing on the windscreen? was that real? cause if it was, this scene must have taken FOREVER...

[@atomic_wait]

Good thing they did that at the very start of the shot, easy to try again if it doesn't fall just right.

[@stevenuss1482]

Definitely not real, they used a wire for that.

[@basilyeo]

brilliant

[@ineffa8le00rt]

very impressive

[@blinkzone1]

this shot is better then Goodfellas

[@voidofambition]

You NEVER see this in Hollywood.

[@tetsuyahayami7519]

Hollywood will never make a scene like this one! That we all know!

[@cubdukat]

Not very often, anyway...

[@SkollDrum]

is someone know where i can find the theme from the beginning ?

[@cubdukat]

Now this is how you do "fake news."

[@byAnArgentinian]

insane

[@Redgrant80]

@10000nutz No they have the same aim as real life cops and robbers.

[@CapitanBluebeard]

i saw this movie about a year ago. and im still searching for a copy. looking for english subtitles too but im good at broken chinese.

[@paddy6891]

My favourite Cantonese movie!!

[@zionnewkirk4838]

What year did this movie come out?

[@Grimba86]

2004 a long time ago.

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

Sweet shot, but the cops and bad guys can't shoot for squat. The main villain just casually walks back and the cop with the MP5 still can't hit him

[@backslashio]

Wonder how hard it'd be to make a single track shot for the entire movie? :P

[@cubdukat]

Probably took a lot of takes. From what I understand, director Johnnie To's a bit of a perfectionist. But I have yet to see a bad movie come out of him.

[@awz2142]

​@@cubdukat no way he would do multiple takes for such and expensive shot, I imagine he only did a few but also made tons of rehearsals

[@Andybaby]

i'm guessing the falling newspaper was an accident...?

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

You should upload the rest of the scene also!

[@10000nutz]

These guys have worse aim than Stormtroopers...

[@Nicoyutub]

@SadlifeProduction they didn't, the actor just improvised

[@szewei85]

haha this is fucking epic ^^

[@theburialmusic]

How is this done? With just a crane, or does someone carry it around and then stick it back on the crane at the right moments?

[@atomic_wait]

Sounds like maybe there was a crane set up above with the camera hanging down so it could move freely?

[@cubdukat]

I'm thinking this was a Louma crane shot. This is exactly the kind of shot it was made for.

[@sibailing]

LOL have you actually seen the movie? or at least read the plot summary?

[@Redgrant80]

@ChineseCommando Usually in real life it take more shots than this until somone dies in a shootout.

[@MozTS]

damn

[@levelazn]

i need to find the music for this movie

[@tetsuyahayami7519]

Same here!

[@levelazn]

Tetsuya Hayami still haven’t found it

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

@jmalmsten Yeah, good point.

[@dindondada]

this scene is incredible

[@gizelbelcoot]

agree

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

does someone know where I can find music for this movie?

[@jakehix8132]

hope you found it xD

[@WilliamBurner]

hm, looks like it was pulled.

[@YuriNiitsuma]

noobs, hit ratio 0,01%

[@TerryCheung]

but this is action shootout, 10 minutes is a drama (which amazing) only action is the kid running around. They area both better in different areas

[@Tuttigiu]

nu poc fatt c'u sparatrapp

[@kachonlam]

打劫救護車的不是人!!

[@1024room]

ไม่น่าตกใจเลยดู....action design ตอนหลังไม่เข้าท่าเดินกันยังกันsuperman
ตากล้องทำดีแล้วกำกับฉากบู๊ไม่เข้าท่า....ดูไม่เชื่อ

[@Rasilovic]

HELLO

[@zacuh17]

As cool as this scene is, the tracking shot adds nothing to the sequence. Look at tracking shots from Children of Men, Goodfellas, Hard Boiled. They truly add to their scenes and FOLLOW their main focus. This is just a camera randomly moving around. I am trying to say this in the nicest way possible, but this scene should not have a tracking shot. It should have been filmed in a traditional way of editing that would allow us to see all of the characters fighitng one another. One man's opinion.

[@ratijav]

Zach Nix not agree. this travelling make than the viewer feel more tension and pay more attention to whats gonna happen. like the opening scene y touch of evil. (muy language is not English, so you probably notice some mistakes in my writing. if you do, let me know)

[@golDroger88]

>As cool as this scene is, the tracking shot adds nothing to the sequence
That's the fucking point, it's called "style". Cinema is entertainment, it's not essay.

[@jakehix8132]

ratijav, only because you asked...
travelling makes the viewer feel*

[@stevenuss1482]

>randomly moving around

[@jeffpowanda8821]

Disagree. There's nothing random about this shot. The uninterrupted tracking shot increases tension.

[@arpadtapai1115]

Its boring film 😑