And certain suburbs of NYC in 1980.
Personally speaking, 9 times outa 10 that would be a godsend for me
Could a person really sue if their number was in a movie? Could they win?
See landmark court case MGM vs 867-5309
But seriously, I don’t know that for a fact, but I am pretty darn sure they can.
I have no problem or difficulty choosing and succeeding to do that, just as when they give an address number that doesn’t exist (Sunset Blvd), or when a character goes from one real location to another in a way that isn’t possible (Falling Down, Collateral), or when they show someone going the wrong way on a famous bridge or when they obviously misidentify a famous location (i.e., the Bay Bridge or the Berkeley campus in The Graduate). It isn’t hard at all to ignore these things and “stay in” the narrative. Actual telephone numbers are just not that important to me. I guess maybe for some people they are, especially if there are actually people who are going to try to call them, thinking only God knows what.
They call it “make-believe” because you make yourself believe. Not because the artist makes you believe with some kind of perfectly representational experience.
IANAL, but it is my understanding that people can sue for just about anything.
They’d have to prove that they were harmed or suffered damages, I would think, but this wouldn’t seem too difficult if their phone never stopped ringing due to all the “clever” people calling. If it were a business number, and the business had spent money advertising the number, and potential customers could no longer get through, then damages would be even more clear.
I would think that would be up to the jury.
Its a joint effort though, the movie-maker (depending on the nature of the movie) presents a story with a fair approximation to reality and the viewer willingly overlooks the unavoidable inaccuracies to immerse themselves in the fictional reality presented.
I’m not American and the 555 convention never bothered me until I read about it, possibly on this very forum, but now every time its used it immediately jumps out and does grate slightly. Really how difficult would it be to avoid giving out an obviously fictional number? There are plenty of valid and easy methods used upthread to do so.
The first paragraph relates to a movie I recently rewatched, Terminator 3, I recall hating it when I saw it in the cinema but on rewatching its actually not that bad. Not a great movie by any means but not as bad as I recall, the major problem is that the people making the movie seemed to be playing the whole thing tongue-in-cheek and throwing in a whole series of ‘clever’ references and a lot of inappropriate, out-of-context, humour which did nothing but utterly destroy any willing suspension of disbelief I attempted to engage in.
One mark of a good storyteller and movie-maker is that they are able to engage you in the reality of the story they are telling, even if it is in a strange or fantastical context, Steven Spielberg is a ninja-master at this, one mark of a bad storyteller and movie-maker is that they don’t even try.
This kinda irks me too – doesn’t ruin the whole movie or scene, of course; it’s just a brief pin-prick of the illusion bubble. Like (as others have said) a boom mike suddenly showing up on camera, or the wobbling of a backdrop.
I always enjoyed the lampshading of this convention in Newsradio. Jimmy James (Stephen Root) is trying to get the phone number from some attractive woman and she gives it to him, to his delight. Later he realizes, “Wait, 555…? Aw, that’s one of those fake TV phone numbers!”
BTW, if I remember correctly from my Charles Schulz biography, Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz, the phone number in that Peanuts strip that caused problems wasn’t random – it actually belonged to his friend/collaborator Lee Mendelson. Could be apocryphal (Mendleson is the author of the book) but when the Sunday strip appeared and calls began coming in, callers would ask “Is Charlie Brown there?” At one point, Mendelson’s daughter, who’d answered the phone, replied, “No, this is Lucy.” The caller hung up.
Recent article in Cracked included a pic worth sharing.
Are there no fake area codes?
It used to be easy to make a fake area code: just have any number other than a 1 or a 0 as the second digit. But, if you go back that far, you reach into the ancient history where practically no one had to give their area code with their number because practically everybody could use 7-digit dialing.
Even relatively small metropolises like Charlotte have required 10-digit dialing for 10 years or so now.
If 555 kicks you out of the movie, you were never that deep in to begin with.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned before is that there are now genuine working 555 numbers. It’s only 555-0100 through 555-0199 that aren’t issued. That’s got to be inconvenient for somebody who has a number like 555-1234 and is always having to convince people he isn’t giving them a fake number.
Sorry it’s taken a couple of years to reply, but “me too!”
There is nothing a movie producer can do with a phone number that won’t get my attention. Use a 555 number? Ah-hah! They are adhering to the convention. Don’t use a 555 number? Why not? Is some poor schmuck gonna get inundated with crank calls? Hide part of the number? Ah, clever way to get around the 555 convention.
Best just to avoid giving out phone numbers.
I notice that a lot of the TV shows now have characters saying “I’ll text you that number” or “I’ll text you that address.”
No you’re not, because you’re still attempting to impose your reality upon the film. If you were in it, you’d accept that within the world of the movie numbers can start with 555.
Plays and movies are quite different, you’re right, but the idea that a play cannot be escapist is laughably ludicrous. I mean, the entire point of Brecht’s work with alienation effects was to try to jolt audiences out of ‘escaping into the world of the play’.
No I disagree. It is precisely *because *I am so immersed in a movie, that hearing a 555 area bothers me so much. If I was not that immersed in a movie, I wouldn’t care because I was already not that into it and it wouldn’t stand out.
What about the 3 minutes of floating text at the beginning of the movie? A narrator without a framing device? Someone getting a parking spot right in front of a well-known building in a busy city? Why is 555 such an outrageous violation of the movie-world but none of the other cheats and shortcuts?
I always wanted a hacker character in a movie to have perpetrated a really major hack on the entire phone system and inserted as his number something like 5#2-4*8-2##1 using the asterisk and hash keys on the phone number pad.
Seeing 555 doesn’t “kick me out” of a movie as such. It just makes me think “What a bunch of lazy movie makers. What else are they cheapening out on?” Good filmmakers care about doing things right. Using “555” isn’t doing things right. It’s like when a character’s shirt changes back and forth between camera angles. You know that this is not going to be a well done movie. If you don’t do the small things right …
It is so easy to get a phone number. Just sign up to Google Voice, for example. Use that, all 10 digits. You can even get one with some choice of numbers/letters. (Mine includes “ftg”.) You only need to hold onto it for a couple years. Whoever gets it after you can’t sue since you had it first.
I usually notice, but don’t care about, the 555 numbers. However yesterday I was watching an old episode of NCIS:LA and they had their wall-sized touch-screen monitor showing a perp’s cell phone log. The long list of lined-up 555 numbers really stood out. It looked completely silly.