Long shot is a movie record

QUESTION Which film includes the longest continuous shot? ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S 1948 movie Rope is often cited, but the shot concerned is actually made up of about eight takes of an average of ten minutes each.

Neither cameras nor projectors could take enough film at that time for a single continuous shot of 80 minutes.

The 2002 Russian movie Russian Ark — about a 19th- century French aristocrat walking through the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and encountering figures from the past — is thought to hold the record.

Digital cameras allowed director Alexander Sokurov to make the film in a single 96-minute shot.

Because the Hermitage had to be closed to make the film, the crew had only one day’s shooting. It took four attempts, due to technical difficulties, before Sokurov was happy.

One problem that plagued the one-day-only production was the language barrier. The director spoke only Russian while cinematographer Tilman Buttner spoke only German. A translator had to follow the duo around so they could communicate.

Another quirky example is Andy Warhol’s 1964 black-and-white film Empire, a single shot of the Empire State Building from early evening until early morning.

Though Warhol shot the silent film at 24 frames per second, it was screened at 16 frames per second. So, though only six hours and 40 minutes was shot, the film is eight hours and five minutes when screened.

Asked why he wanted to make such an odd film, Andy Warhol replied: ‘To see time go by.’

Steven Pope, Burwash, E. Sussex.

QUESTION Are there still any genuine bomb sites in Britain? FURTHER to earlier answers, after the Sheffield Blitz a number of unexploded bombs were loaded on lorries and taken out of town on the A57 Manchester Road.

The lorries flew large, red flags and sounded their horns continuously. They pulled into the first open gateway they saw, on the south side of the road.

The bombs were dumped close to the River Rivelin and water works about five miles from the city and far away from the road.

After a few days the bombs blew up, rupturing the main and cutting off water to half of Sheffield.

There are two craters still there, grid reference SK282867. They are about 5 ft deep, 20 ft in diameter and circular.

John Plant, Sheffield.