History Main / LeaveTheCameraRunning

* ''BreakingBad'' has a scene where a character is arrested by an undercover cop for drug dealing. Most shows would have a quick scene, maybe 30 seconds long, where the guy makes the sale then gets busted. Here, the entire deal, the back and forth from the cop trying to convince the dealer, the dealer looking around trying to figure out what's happening, some chit-chat, and finally ends with the arrest.

* Played for laughs in one episode of ElChavoDelOcho, The Festival of the Good Neighborhood. Chavo is declaiming a poetry called "The Repenting Dog", which consists of just four verses which are repeated over and over. Chavo planed to repeat them 44 times, but then Don Ramon cuts him short.

* "Marginal Consciousness" from ''BattleGaregga'' is the only tune that doesn't technically loop, it indefinitely keeps increasing in pitch if listened to in the arcade game's sound test. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NS8jaW1iIc This clip goes up almost two octaves]].

* Doubles as an OverlyLongGag: the cutscene showing King Zora moving out of the way in VidoeGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime takes about a minute to finish.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4cD-gblAa8 This cutscene]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''...

[[folder:Fan Work]]
* This is one of the common criticisms of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan animation ''WebAnimation/DoubleRainboom''. It was made as an animation project for an art school, with a required 30-minute running time, while the initial script had been written to be only 22 minutes long. In an effort to make up the runtime, this trope results. Numerous shots linger on their subjects long after the action is done. A good example is an early shot of Twilight mixing potion ingredients that goes on for half a minute without anything actually ''happening''.
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[[folder:Fan Work]]
* This is one of the common criticisms of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan animation ''WebAnimation/DoubleRainboom''. It was made as an animation project for an art school, with a required 30-minute running time, while the initial script had been written to be only 22 minutes long. In an effort to make up the runtime, this trope results. Numerous shots linger on their subjects long after the action is done. A good example is an early shot of Twilight mixing potion ingredients that goes on for half a minute without anything actually ''happening''.
[[/folder]]

* In ''ChildrenOfMen'' Where Theo and Kee walk through the war zone with [[spoiler:the baby]]. Justified, as nobody quite believes what they're seeing.

* Many of {{Irreversible}}'s scenes, especially in the second half of the film, involve long scenes with no visible camera edits and random dialogue, such as the main characters talking about relationships while riding a bus. This is largely due to the fact that there was no script -- the actors were given a 3-page outline and improvised all of their lines. The infamous rape scene is notable mostly for being not only 9 minutes long, but featuring only one camera angle, no music, and only one instance of anything happening beyond the focus of the scene.

* Elaine May, MikeNichols' onetime comedy partner, pretty much made her second film, ''MikeyAndNicky'', this way. She had John Cassavetes and Peter Falk improvise extensively, in addition to shooting the scripted scenes, and kept the cameras rolling as they did so, even as they slipped out of character. At one point she even kept the cameras rolling on their ''empty chairs'' for several minutes after they both left to go do personal errands and/or eat. When one of the camera operators had finally had enough, he took it upon himself to say "Cut!". This is a major breach of filmmaking etiquette, since only the director normally has that privilege, and May dressed him down for it. He pointed out that the principals had left the set. "They might ''come back''," she responded. She wound up shooting more raw footage than ''GoneWithTheWind'' and fought with the studio over the cut for years, only releasing ''her'' final cut ten years later. Between that movie and ''{{Ishtar}}'', she has effectively forfeited any chance that she will ever direct a studio picture again.
* Speaking of MikeNichols--''TheGraduate'', anyone? How long are they sitting on that bus, slowly realizing they have no idea what they will do next, having burned all their bridges behind them? Nichols literally left the camera running without warning the actors.

* Neko Case's ''Middle Cyclone'' ends with "Marais la Nuit", half an hour of frogs croaking, as recorded outside of the farm she owns. At least it's kind of relaxing.

* The 360 version of ''GuitarHero II'' gave an achievement for watching the credits. The 15+ minute long credits where the only music is Push Push Lady Lightning on loop. Appropriately, the achievement icon is "ZZZ".

** ''Film/{{Gerry}}'', which is simply about two guys (both called Gerry) who get lost in the desert, features long sequences of the two men simply walking without any dialogue.

* In a possible ShoutOut to the Replacements' "Bastards of Young" video, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ixnqRyfz the official video]] for Music/{{Blur}}'s long awaited 2010 reunion single "Fool's Day" simply features the single playing on a turntable. The tonearm of the player moves slowly to middle of the record and when the song ends the video cuts to black. The end.

* {{REM}}'s "Bang and Blame" video ends with Michael Stipe walking off, while the video (and the song) keeps going.

** John Cage - never failing to push the envelope - planned his composition ''As Slow As Possible'' to last '''639 years'''. He just marked that tempo and neglected to say exactly what he meant, leaving "performers" free to make their own interpretation. It's an inversion of the more common "as fast as possible," which just means as fast as you can play it while getting all the notes. Amazingly enough, the piece is [[http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/new/index.php?l=e currently being performed]] at the Church of St. Burchard in Germany.

* LouReed's album ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Machine_Music Metal Machine Music]]''. 64 minutes of feedback. Released on vinyl with a locked groove at the end of side four, and [[[http://www.loureed.com/metalmachinemusic/ now available the same way on vinyl, DVD, and Blu-ray]].

* Iron Butterfly's ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'', which goes on for 17 minutes, only about 5 is actually the song. The massive middle section sounds pretty much like random instrumentals. A common theory about the song is that the band members were all stoned when they recorded it, and didn't know when to stop playing.

* Sometimes, the WWE or TNA will continue to roll the cameras during commercial breaks and/or following the end of a live broadcast. The idea is one of the following:

Sometimes a shot goes on for a very, very long time. Though this is usually a bad thing when done to [[{{Padding}} stretch the film and its budget]], it can also be [[TropesAreNotBad done deliberately for artistic reasons]] (or because NothingIsScarier). For example, a director might illustrate the lonely and mundane life of a solo astronaut by showing him going about his daily routine, never speaking a word because there's nobody to talk to.

* InUniverse in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Documentary Making: Redux". A simple assignment to create a commercial for the school turns Dean Felton into a PrimaDonnaDirector and becomes a TroubledProduction. At one point, he [[LeaveTheCameraRunning films Britta and Troy turning and hugging for]] ''twelve hours straight''.

* One could certainly make an argument that ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' is essentially one long instance of LeaveTheCameraRunning, since it consists mostly of inane conversations and little happens in terms of traditional plot.

* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' has several. Before the main credits, it opens with the "overture," which consists of music and stars (white dots) flying by on a black backdrop for three minutes. This is in the style of the old "epic films." There is also a several-minute cruise James Kirk takes around the remodelled ''Enterprise'' in a shuttlepod to show off the redesign. The infamous one is the V'Ger encounter, which goes on and on. The special edition DVD actually makes it ''longer'' by including CGI shots that are from shots that were planned or incomplete in the original film. The film was [[FanNickname nicknamed]] ''Star Trek: The Motionless Picture'' because of this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' commonly uses this trope in gags, such as a shot of the cast sitting on the floor doing nothing, or Spanky Ham continually farting, both for more then a minute. This can overlap with OverlyLongGag.

* One of the biggest complaints about ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', which not only makes a habit of making frequent cutaway gags to something completely irrelevent, but also makes them go on for way too long. Including, at one point, a minute-long clip of Conway Twitty performing for no fucking reason. Or one the episode where they show Conway Twitty singing an entire song, from start to finish.

* The killer in ''Lucker the Necrophagus'' sits in a chair observes a woman he has strung up scream for about four minutes straight.

* The 1976 hard core pornography movie ''Snuff'' reportedly had an infamous "leave the camera running" moment, where a female member of the film crew – after having watched the ending of a rape scene filmed for the movie – wants to re-enact the scene with the film's director. However, she is brutally raped and killed by the director and his crew after, upon realizing what the scene was actually about (a rape and murder), begins to object. The rumor has always been that the murder was real, that the murder scene -- which is brutal and graphically depicted -- was spliced on to the film after the original final scene and that, given an abrupt ending, was used to give the impression that the events were spontaneous. In fact, the new version of the film (released under the name ''Snuff'') used the tagline "The film that could only be made in South America... where Life is CHEAP."

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8MqjoFvy4 opening shot]] of Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" pulls this off masterfully. An over 3 minute sequence involving an elaborate crane pan with multiple actors and cars. It's said that Welles was simply showing off.

* SofiaCoppola's ''Somewhere'' starts with several minutes of watching a sports car doing laps from a fixed position.

* Music/JagaJazzist's "Out of Reach (or Switched Off)"--from their OldShame album ''Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz'--has about six minutes of actual song, followed by 22 minutes of what sounds like a Norwegian TV host talking about the album. Presumably, it's more interesting if you can understand Norwegian.

* One could certainly make an argument that ''WaitingForGodot'' is essentially one long instance of LeaveTheCameraRunning, since it consists mostly of inane conversations and little happens in terms of traditional plot.

* The same goes for ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'', which makes sense since the play bears a striking, and not unintentional, resemblance to ''WaitingForGodot''.