Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- Amazing Shot

[Joe Taylor]

Experienced Tinker Tailor last night and there was one shot in Particular that left me stunned but in this era of invisible F/X, I am wondering if it was real. A decade ago it would have been done by getting some hands dirty.

George Smiley and another operative are standing on a runway. The shot is obviously achieved with a very long lens and then as things get heated an airplane lands in the BG and moves right up to them without anybody batting an eye.

There are several elements that leaves me scratching my head and wondering if it might be an F/X shot, but mainly I am wondering if the element of safety prohibited such a shot.

Those who have seen the movie, please chime in.

 

[Steve G]

Think it was for real. Long lens. Great shot indeed.

 

[Andrew Gentle]

Yeah, looked pretty real to me. Great movie.

 

[Joe Taylor]

There's a similar shot in a room with a view of Big Ben out the window. When the scene begins, it is a wider show with the tower far in the BG. In another shot it composed to look like a much more compressed shot as if they had a much longer lens. Unless that was a huge room that allowed them to get the camera way back, I am going to assume that this was a processed shot of sorts.

 

[Anthony Vu]

Cinematography for this film was just amazing.

 

[Shapour Daneshmand]

Was this movie shot on Red?

 

[Eric J Robbins]

Was this movie shot on Red?

No, 35MM.

 

[Jeremy Wiles]

The cinematography was good, but IMHO the story was horrible. Felt like I wasted 2 hours of life.

 

[Evin Grant]

Loved it, most likely this was done practically, another long lens/compressed shot like this can be seen in "Stand by Me"...

 

[Subhadip Sen]

The real world distance between the airplane and the men are probably at a very safe distance. As Evin mentions, it is the extreme long lens used which severely compresses the perspective and makes it look like they were much, much closer than they really are.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Loved it, most likely this was done practically, another long lens/compressed shot like this can be seen in "Stand by Me"...

That shot from Stand By Me was achieved using a form of front projection called Introvision (at least that was the branding of it at the time). It was first used on the Peter Hyams film Outland.