Coronation Street's amazing continuous tracking shot

Guest blog post from Ben Rigby who is on Twitter @islandniles

When the Victoria Street set extension was unveiled, I wondered whether Corrie’s directors were going to make the most of the new space. After all, the exterior set is quite a bit bigger now and flows nicely from what already existed. Since it’s appeared on screen, we’ve definitely seen some lovely shots of the new areas, in particular the wide angles and crane shots that give a real sense of space. We haven’t, however, had many scenes that show us the old and new exteriors together and reminded us that they’re part of a single, very much expanded set. That is, until Friday’s first episode, which began with a long, continuous single shot and took us right through the set.

We open on Johnny and Jenny, walking past the Rovers as a ‘for sale’ sign is being put up. As they make their way along Rosamund Street, Johnny worries that he won’t get to see Susie again. 

We leave those characters to see Simon and Tyler being thrown out of Roy’s Rolls and, during the same exchange, Sinead and Flora tell Roy about the 1950s party taking place that lunchtime. 

As the three of them go inside the café, we follow Simon and Tyler along Victoria Street as Simon deliberately barges into Abi, who is walking in the opposite direction with Seb. 

When we reach Victoria Court, Michelle and Robert are making their way out and talking about Robert’s first counselling session. 

He heads off but we stop outside Speed Daal where Craig is talking to Kayla before Sophie appears and tells her to get back inside (she’s really taken to this scary manager thing). 

We follow Craig across the road and as he leaves in the direction of the Co-op, we stay with Simon and Tyler, who are now at the community garden talking about Flora’s inheritance. 

The entire thing is a single shot, which is an unusual choice for Coronation Street. 

In two minutes and 45 seconds, we have five or six different scenes but with a fluidity and continuity that we don’t often see. I don’t know whether the opening was written this way by Joe Turner or if the decision was made by director Suri Krishnamma, but I certainly don’t expect it to happen regularly. 

Sequences like this are time-consuming to set up and shoot; every part has to be planned intricately and if a single mistake is made, the whole thing is started over. The scene involved 14 cast members, 25 extras (that I counted), a ladder descent and at least one moving vehicle. There are also the bits we don’t necessarily think about when we see the finished product, such as the requirement to have that entire section of the set dressed, and the logistics of ensuring that crew members aren’t visible in the continuous shot (much more difficult than static shots or those with just a bit of movement). Okay, so it isn’t the beach scene from Atonement, but we know that rehearsal, setup and shooting time on soaps these days is very limited. This was a bold choice for a show that has to produce six episodes a week.

Of course, not everyone appreciates creative initiatives and I’ve already seen comments on Facebook describing the continuous Steadicam shot as ‘dodgy camerawork’. People are used to soaps being filmed in a particular way, and that’s another reason why scenes like this one will probably continue as the exception rather than the norm. 

Nevertheless, for me Suri Krishnamma did a fantastic job in crafting a sequence that made the locations feel real and joined up, and like there were events happening in multiple places at the same time. By taking in so much of the set and dropping us in and out of various conversations and exchanges, we got a real sense of the expanded exteriors and the idea that our characters have lives that continue even when we’re focused on someone else.

Watch it here - from ITV Coronation Street on Twitter.

What a lovely sunny day, who fancies a stroll down the Street this evening?

It's #Corrie time! ☀️ pic.twitter.com/hDARDHfOnk

— Coronation Street (@itvcorrie) 29 June 2018

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