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Mates,I need your help on this one.
I've discovered that I can't prevent myself from looking for and noting little mistakes in movies.
For a very log time, the instant my mind begins to wander away from the movie for any reason, I start to look for little unintended items in the movie. These include:
Crowd reactions: When a scene is shot with casual onlookers visible, I always check to see what reaction there is when the actors walk through streets. It's interesting how the actors will pass someone while performing the scene and that person will take a few more steps and turn, looked confused, then you can read their lips, "Shit, was that George Clooney and what's his name back there? There's forty million on the hoof! I gotta call Cindy!"
Also, when there are car chases how often there are neatly contained crowds at the corners. But, you have to watch for this to see it.
Another are stadiums. The interesting thing here is to watch how the crowd reactons in distant shots do not parallel the action in the movie. this is covered by adding a scene in the bleachers with close ups of the approriate boos or cheers. "What's his name is doing his first no-hitter. He's doin' it. I gotta call Cindy!"Backfield in motion: Do you notice that in space movies, sometimes the star field moves and sometimes it doesn't? Sometimes the planet rotates and..
Mirrors and reflections: I also can not stop from watching for the reflection of the movie lights and sometimes the crew and camera trucks in shop windows and car doors. Terrible addiction. But watch how often you see movement in anything relective. On that subject, I also notice that black cars often seemed to have been washed over with something soapy looking that makes the surfaces less reflective. Have you seen this? That was more common in the 30's and black and white era.
Boom microphones: It's more usual on the television machine, but there are plenty of movies done by not exactly penniless studios in which the obsessive person can eventually tell you the model numbers of all the boom microphones. "Wow", MGM was using RCA ribbons! I gotta call Cindy!" Some boom mics enough screen time to deserve screen credit.
Dents and lights: As a carophile, I like to look at the period cars that appear in movies. This is where the movies help me put car shows into perspective- not absloutely everyone in 1932 drove orange Deusenbergs the way you might think! But besides looking longlingly at those casually flung about Figoni Talbot-Lagos and Scaglietti Ferraris and calculating the value of the movie car then to now, I also notice their condition -this is essential in final price calculations. And I notice how very often movie cars are seemingly perfect- except that they have quite deep dents 2/3 down the forward doors. Are these dents from previously hanging some kind of camera platform that bears on that part of the door for closeups of the driver and passenger? The obsessive deserve to know!
Also, when there are car chases in which the vehicles are damaged, watch how often dents and broken windows appear and disappear and reappear. Scary.
With lights, I have frightened myself at how often I've noticed cars with only one taillamp. This one does amaze me, though I don't subscribe to the urban myth that these thousands of one lamp cars are actually signals between Rosecrucians. The Rosecrucians do not exist. And do not read Gen 7:18. See- insanity!
Incongruities of time: I can't help this one either, but if there is a clock in the background of any scene, I will start to check it to see if it changes time appropriately. If a scene is five minutes long, does the clock indicate that? I also notice the time as part of tring to understand the action- is is a bit later or a long while? I absolutely hate though movies in which the time and place are typed in on the screen- rat-a-tat-aratta- "Sunday, November 9, 2091, Krakalack Fusion Station YRUHERE". Note to production designers: I will walk out whenever this appears. Extra minus points if the lettering is like old computer characters. And all Tom Clancy-based movies have this! Let have the clocks!
But, back to clocks, my opinion is that these are most often set for an appropriate time and then stopped.Of course there's the old familiar incongruity of people arriving somehere and it's bright day light, but when the car door opens it's midnight.
So, what's the answer? How can I stop the obsessive search for errors and enjoy the movie again?
Or, are there are piles of other silently suffering mistake collectors out there?
Cheers,
Bambi B
PS>
BAMBI B
WATCHING OLD MOVIE, EATING PEPPERIDGE FARM MILANO COOKIE BUT NOT DOUBLE CHOCOLATE
CLOCK READS 3:30
JUMPS UP
Oh look! When the end wall of Kevin's room in "Time Bandits" falls off the end of the extending hallway, there is a 10" long piece of drywall tape on the upper right corner next to the moulding. I gotta call Cindy!
GOES TO PHONE
RINGING
CINDY'S APARTMENT AFTERNOON
CINDY
READING VANITY FAIR EATING PEPPERINDGE FARM MILANO COOKIE- MINT UNFORTUNATELY
CLOCK READS 3:31
Bambi- will ya shut up already on the movie stuff! What's everyone wearing tonight?
OUTDOORS THE IVY NIGHT
HARP MUSIC
BAMBI HURREDLY WALKS UP TO ALREADY DRINKING CROWD AT TABLE
BAMBI B
Sorry I'm so late. Someone recognized Woody Allen outside the Carnegie in "Broadway Danny Rose". Hey everyone- In "The Italian Job", one of the Mini's breaks a window but it comes back later!
Hey, where's everyone going?
STARTS CHECKING THE BUSHES
FAID TO BLACK
MUSIC
As an obsessive compulsive type -well, aren't all we collectors and audionuts sitting here in a virtual asylum for a reason?
Follow Ups:
boom mikes appearing in the shot are the projector's fault for poorly matting the frame. i used to see them all the time at a university movie theater run by college kids.put it another way, do you see boom mikes on dvds of movies, or just at the theater?
__________
One of these days I gotta get myself organizized.
Roger Ebert collects a bunch of movie tibits like this. City streets are always wet when shot at night, even if the earlier scenes show that it was a sunny day. Wet streets at night look better on camera. Ransom money always fills the briefcase completely and neatly. These aren't unintentional mistakes, but artistic license that slip under our noses. I guess you'd probably draw more attention if that briefcase were half-full.Remember the alec baldwin sketch on saturday night live where he plays a doctor on a soap opera? He mispronounces every other word ("i'm afraid to say ... you have canker").
Movies and TV take a lot of liberties. For example, my litigator friend who's done trial work tells me that criminal lawyers almost never put a defendant on the stand to testify, and when you cross-examine a witness, the one question a lawyer never asks is "Why?"
It usually backfires to put a defendant on the stand saying, "I'm not guilty," and for that you risk devestation in cross-examination by the other side and allow the other side to present certain evidence that they otherwise wouldn't be allowed to.
In cross-examination, a lawyer finely directs the questions to pin the person on the stand, not open give them an opportunity to defend themselves. You don't ask any question you don't know the answer to, and you ask directed questions where the only possible response is "yes" (and object that the witness is saying more than asked if they say anything more than that).
Now, just about every movie I've seen involving a trial (and every episode of Law and Order for that matter) puts the defendant on the stand and the the other side starts asking big, general questions. It's for drama - because the courtroom would be boring without a confrontation between both sides.
Or try watching a movie or TV show with a doctor telling you how they're flubbing ever procedure. Even now I can't help but notice mistakes on ER, like how they perform CRP wrong. Since they're doing it on live actors, you can't push straight down on the chest like you're supposed to, so the actors bend their elbows to give the appearance that they're pumping the chest.
I don't need a military friend to tell me that it's against regulations to smoke cigars in a submarine like they do in the movies. You can't even do that inside a bar in New York City or LA, nevermind an airtight vessel armed with nuclear weapons.
And the wild, crazy stuff they do in sex scenes in the movies ... sometimes they make me think that my real life is one heluva mistake! Someone tell me that's just in the movies!
Always makes me wonder what mistakes I'm missing when I watch movies.
__________
One of these days I gotta get myself organizized.
In that fictional room where the client breaks down and confesses, ala Law and Order.
NEVER.
All negotiations are bewteen DA and us defense attorneys. Client is out in the hall waiting or not even in court!!!
That's how I go. And sometimes/often the movie is one I wouldn't normally select or want to see. I actually saw 'Elektra' last week. It was enjoyable. She can't act her way out of a closed door, but still the film was a pleasant pastime. Well crafted. The only temporary minor distraction was the excellent quality of the shots' set up. Kind of a surprise.The only film nit I'm usually distracted by is the car wrecked/smashed/cracked/dented. But of course showroom fresh in the next scene.
I must say, I found your post entertaining. When I do go to a film that I've been looking forward to. I try to be in a very relaxed state of mind. A little liquid refreshment brought with, from home. Loosen shoe laces, etc. Of course sometimes, all one can say when watching is "what drugs where they on?" ......
When I sart reading your message dear Bambi B It was still daylight, now it must somewhere to midnight, or is it just my clock?
And yes I do have the same bad habit you do have on films but only on the one that are not really passionating, mostly TV series, which I look very rarely.
There also is a book about. ( boring )
I couldn't tell for sure if you're implying that you think they shoot actors walking down the street with regular, unaware people walking in the shot but in case you were they don't do that.ANYONE that George Cloony passes was hired to pass or be passed.
In regards to some of the other stuff...there's a book by Walter Murch called "In The Blink Of An Eye" where he talks about how much more important it is to edit for emotional involvement than continuity.
I do the clock watching and dents on the cars thing too...but I do notice that I often notice those things only when the movie hasn't grabbed hold of me.
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
z
if that was George Clooney. THEY are all extras. Bambi imagining things.By the way, best movie for this is "A Dandy in Aspic" hilarious continuity errors.
you are aware of www.nitpickers.com, just the place for you. I myself am amazed at the continuity lapses in major expensive films.
fun website. thanks for sharing that.editors sit in a room looking at footage over and over and over. they see the mistakes nitpickers catch, but have to bluff through continuity to put together the best scene. it would just be prohibitively expensive to nail every single detail.
what's most revealing about the magic of filmmaking is when you watch a scene where one character is talking, they cut to a shot of the person listening while the first character continues talking, then back to the first character who continues talking. you realize that the clock or some other detail has changed, and that they've seamlessly spliced together two takes that feel like one. then you wonder how many times they've done that under you nose because there was no moving cup or whatever to give you a clue.
__________
One of these days I gotta get myself organizized.
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