Netflix's Adolescence and Apple TV+'s The Studio have one thing in common

Netflix's Adolescence and Apple TV+'s The Studio differ in genre, but they have a filmmaking technique in common—both use single-take filming.

Adolescence goes the bold route of filming each episode in one shot, whereas The Studio uses the technique on specific scenes and for the entirety of Episode 2.

The single-take technique, long admired for its intimacy, gives both programs an air of immediacy, whether it's the white-knuckle questioning of a teen murder suspect or the surreal misadventures of a Hollywood producer.

In Adolescence, the one-shot presentation heightens the immediacy of Jamie Miller's (Owen Cooper) experience as a 13-year-old arrested for the supposed murder of a classmate.

Cinematographer Matthew Lewis verified to Variety,

“There’s no stitching of takes together. It was one entire shot, whether I wanted it to be or not.”

In the meantime, Seth Rogen's The Studio applies this skill differently, having one-take scenes to accentuate the hysterical pace of Hollywood satire.

If you found that technique worthwhile, you'll enjoy how Rogen infuses the satirical comedy with a sense of urgency that you could not help but keep watching.

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Adolescence took on the challenge of real-time

The single-take approach in Adolescence is more than just a stylistic choice—it serves as an unrelenting narrative tool that keeps the tension palpable.

Director Philip Barantini and cinematographer Matthew Lewis meticulously choreographed every movement, turning locations into seamless storytelling spaces. Shooting in real time meant no room for error.

“The biggest challenge was how to go from a real house to a fake police station,” Lewis told Variety.

The team eventually discovered a studio close to South Kirkby, Yorkshire, and made a smooth transition.

One of the most elaborate episodes is set in a school, with actual students serving as extras. Organizing their movements was "an absolute nightmare," Lewis said, but the team of the assistant directors nailed it.

The technical hitches did not end there. Episode 3, which involves an interrogation scene between Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty, involved a camera mimicking the actors' emotions without being overt.

One-shots are most effective when there's movement, Lewis said, but because this was a static scene, the team had to build a special rig that enabled the camera to very slightly float, to show us the psychological tension.

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The Studio is a satirical spin on single-take filmmaking

Whereas Adolescence leans on the one-take style to create dramatic tension, The Studio uses it to maximize comedic mayhem. Seth Rogen, who plays Matt Remick, a newly installed head of a Hollywood studio, also co-directs the show.

The one-take scenes charge the satiric comedy with a kind of momentum that renders it impossible to turn away. In a particularly calamitous series of events, Matt disrupts Sarah Polley's set for her new film. This makes a meticulously choreographed one-shot climax into a costly nightmare.

By the time he left, he'd signed off on a music licensing deal and given company airplane privileges to Greta Lee—within 30 minutes of unadulterated chaos.

The single-shot style in The Studio is borrowed from HBO comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, relying on prolonged, unedited shots to immortalize cringe social moments in their entirety. Rogen's persona is perpetually stuck in embarrassing situations, and the uninterrupted takes up the secondhand embarrassment.

The method also makes it more realistic, and Matt's mistakes more unavoidable. Whereas Adolescence employs the technique for dramatics, The Studio uses it as a source of humor, so that every slip-up seems laughably inevitable.

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Adolescence is streaming on Netflix, while The Studio is on Apple TV+.