Single unbroken camera recording of action. Multiple takes of same shot give editor choice on performance and timing.
You're on set, the camera is rolling, the actress is delivering her line — that's your shot. From "Rolling" to "Cut," a continuous recording is made. No cuts in between, no interruption of the camera. This is the raw unit you'll work with later in the edit. A shot can last three seconds or three minutes — the crucial thing is that it's documented in one go.
Practice quickly shows why multiple takes of the same shot are indispensable. Your first take is perfect — until the actor stumbles in the last second. The second take: sound problem. The third: light flickered. The fourth is good. But the fifth is emotionally even more intense. In the edit, you then choose which take works best — or you combine parts of different takes into a composite, if the technical quality is right and the performance fits. This is what distinguishes professionals from beginners: having a quantity of takes to have options. Not out of insecurity, but out of craftsmanship.
On set, you distinguish between the master shot — the wide shot of the entire scene — and medium shots, close-ups, over-the-shoulder shots. Each is a separate shot, each requires multiple takes. A beginner shoots a scene in two shots and thinks that's enough. Then you're stuck in the edit. An experienced director and cinematographer shoot the same scene in eight, nine shots — different focal lengths, different heights, reaction close-ups. This gives you flexibility in editing, rhythm, tension.
The term take is often used synonymously, but is technically more precise: it's the numbering — Take 1, Take 2, Take 3. Script continuity and the editor note down each take with timecode and an annotation: "Take 3, good until frame 1247, then sound error." This saves you precious hours searching in the edit. You don't fast-forward through a hundred minutes of raw material; you know exactly which take is where. That's why clear communication between directing, camera, and script supervision on set is the foundation — only then does raw footage become usable material.