3. Touch of Evil (1958)
Is the opening sequence of Orson Welles Touch of Evil a long take? Or is it an extended tracking shot? The answer is both, which is why it deserves mentioning here, despite not strictly being the first example of either technique. Coming in at three minutes of continuous length, the opening track is at the shorter end of a long take; but when combined with a virtuoso crane shot, following an explosives filled car creeping toward the US/Mexican border, the effect is utterly mesmerizing. This shot set a benchmark for what tracking could really achieve and has been emulated extensively ever since.