The set facilitated long takes in which conversations begin indoors, move outside to actual storefronts, and continue across the town square. Welles used long takes as a way to protect the integrity of his film, giving "the great supercutter" nothing to cut away to. The long takes are so subtle that they go unnoticed. At a time when a one-minute take was a rarity, Welles presents one unbroken scene between Kindler and Meinike in the woods that is four minutes long—longer than the bravura opening of "Touch of Evil" (1958).