Hidden Camera Movie

There's an old Alfred Hitchcock movie called "Rope". It's about two university students who kill a friend just for the thrill of it, then hide the body in a trunk in their apartment, and proceed to drape a tablecloth over the trunk and hold a dinner party for several mutual friends of themselves and their victim. In true Hitchcock style, it's a damned good film - as usual, it's a taut, tense thriller: unusually, however, it does have a little quirk to it which sets it apart from most films. It's all shot in one take. The whole story plays out in real time, with no cuts whatsoever. Whilst this must have made it a nightmare to shoot, it ratchets up the already tense and claustrophobic nature of the situation, and makes you feel as if you're actually there in the room with the increasingly nervous-looking students.*

It's an excellent film; but it's a narrative technique that could be taken further. What if the camera itself was to become a major player in the action? Almost a character in its own right?

(By the way - what follows is just a set of suggestions: it's more the concept I'm trying to get across rather than these sketchy particulars. Please bear with me for a bit - I can't think of another way to explain this other than to give a few possible examples...)

Two undercover reporters are trying to set up a sting on some criminal types. Perhaps some kind of illegal exchange is taking place. The reporters have a suitcase - which the criminals think will be filled with money - but which actually contains a hidden camera. So the first scenes of the film consist of extreme close-ups of the first reporter's face: "Testing, testing... Seems to work." Blurry shots of an anonymous hotel room as the case is passed to his partner. Extreme close up of a single eye. "That's it? That's the lens? Excellent. Almost undetectable." The pair then walk out of their hotel room, talking about what they're about to do (subtle plot exposition), while the camera walks through the interior of the hotel, perhaps filming seemingly background chararcters who might play a role in the narrative later on, but mostly just giving the audience a sense of where they are.

Perhaps they meet the shady criminal types in the bar - the suitcase is placed in such a way that it captures the transaction (or perhaps even misplaced, so that the criminal's faces are not quite revealed). Just as the deal is drawing to a close, the camera starts to pan out, albeit in a wobbly way. The incriminating evidence is caught on tape from a distance, just as a fellow drinker nudges one of the reporters and says - "Hey - I think that guy's stealing your suitcase..."

So the criminals are after the case because they think it contains money - the reporters want the case because it has incriminating evidence on it which might make their careers. The thief sees that he is chased and so stashes the case somewhere, somewhere where the camera can still capture the movements of other visitors to the hotel - enter the subplots. The main story of the chase for the case takes a backseat as the random background characters who were "accidentally" caught on film as the camera moved from place to place are now thrown into the foreground...

Anyway - that's the gist of the idea. It really needs a big location with lots of people in it - hence the "hotel" slant, but a huge party might work equally well. As I said - just suggestions. The movie would almost have to be choreographed rather than written.

*I know that "Rope" wasn't actually shot in one take. But that's the effect it gives. Please notify me (preferably by Raven) if my Poetic Licence has expired.