# Continuity ..... or lack thereof **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494 "2013-12-04T17:42:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/21 "2013-12-07T17:51:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It just surprises me that these movies apparently don’t hire some of these people who are so good at seeing these problems. I guess the return on investment just isn’t high enough. > > Still, I bet there’s someone out there online who has or will fix the shoe thing digitally. We’ve been able to do that pretty easily since Jurassic (where they did it when an stunt double accidentally looked at the screen). They do (as \*\*Eyebrows \*\*said) but sometimes it’s not possible, practical or affordable to fix things, even when they’re caught. Carol Burnett was interviewed on, I think it was NPR, last week, and told the tale of filming _Annie_, then going in for orthodontic surgery to give her a chin and correct her bite. Then she was called back to reshoot the “Easy Street” number. When she told them she now had a chin, and Miss Hannigan didn’t have a chin, they told her not to worry about it, that they’d start the reshoot at a nice cutting point so it wouldn’t be weird. Then the director on the day of reshoots told her to start in the middle of the scene preceding. Apparently - and I’ve never noticed this before despite my daughter’s serious \*Annie \*addiction - Miss Hannigan goes into the supply closet with no chin, and comes out with half a locket…and a chin. There’s a costume continuity “error” in _Moulin Rouge_ that drives me batty. Satine is wearing one gown during “Diamonds”, changes into a second gown - but just after she collapses, the closeups on her are in an entirely different gown we’ve never seen before. This is explained in the DVD - they knew it, it was a previous costume they tried and didn’t like, but it was the best shot of her gasping after the collapse that they got, so they used it and hoped no one would notice. (And then talked about it in the DVD commentary to make sure everyone would notice. :smack: ) And that’s the biggest reason they don’t fix everything. While we all notice and are bugged by specific examples of continuity gone wrong, there are thousands of other errors that really don’t ever get noticed. No point spending the thousands of dollars to fix mistakes that are going to go unnoticed or don’t really change the story they’re telling. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/22 "2013-12-07T19:48:32Z")
In the first **Film Flubs** book – the text that inspired the modern passion for silly nitpicking films – the authors said that films were complex projects and that it’s only natural that small mistakes are made; it is not a flaw to be condemned and they were only pointing them out in fun, not to say anything bad about the movie. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/23 "2013-12-07T20:31:48Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > One of the odder cases of shooting “the same scene” in different places at different times is the park bench scene in [Moonlight Mile](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179098/trivia) between Dustin Hoffman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The front and back shots were done in completely different places, meaning that the bench they are sitting on clearly changes. The example that I always remember is 1980’s _The Stunt Man_ - filmed (partly?) in San Diego. Two characters are talking to each other. We’re facing east as we watch them, with the Hotel Del Coronado immediately behind them. Mid-conversation (between sentences, as I recall it) our point of view abruptly changes to facing west, ostensibly placing us between the actors and the Hotel Del, except that beyond the actors we now see the La Jolla Children’s Pool, which was and remains about twelve miles north of the Hotel. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/24 "2013-12-07T21:45:02Z")
There’s an old story about Jack Benny trying to mess with his continuity supervisor. The director called cut so he could discuss something with them, then told them all to get back into their places exactly where they were… Benny: I think I was picking my nose… CS: No, you were done. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/25 "2013-12-07T23:19:03Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > During a conversation when they cut from one actor to the other it seems like little effort is made in getting the head positioning accurate. One actor will be moving his head to the right or the left or nodding and then when shown from behind while the other guy is talking he’ll be ramrod straight. > > It happens so much that I particularly notice if they get it right. Anybody else? Is there any reason why it would be particularly difficult to get right? I always assumed the nodding and bobbing head would distract from the speaking actor; that it was just a convention we are expected to accept. Like the dangerously long time an actor will look away from the road while driving - sometimes it causes a crash, sometimes it’s done to create tension, and sometimes the line is just too long. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/26 "2013-12-08T01:47:23Z")
> [@j666](#): > > I always assumed the nodding and bobbing head would distract from the speaking actor; that it was just a convention we are expected to accept. > Like the dangerously long time an actor will look away from the road while driving - sometimes it causes a crash, sometimes it’s done to create tension, and sometimes the line is just too long. For some reason, the head thing was particularly noticeable in _ **Bewitched** _, in which they did a lot of such shots: not only would the position of Elizabeth Montgomery’s head change but the details of her hairdo and clothing as well. The car thing was particularly noticeable in _ **The Rockford Files** _. It always amazed me how the windows on the Pontiac would magically go from closed to cracked open as the camera’s POV went back and forth. My daughter asked me once how the hell people could drive without watching the road. I explained that they don’t; the body of the car is actually mounted on a trailer that travels along as the scene is being filmed. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/27 "2013-12-08T14:28:25Z")
Mulling over the kinds of continuity errors mentioned in this thread is leading me to try and categorize them a bit. 1. Deliberate choices made by the director and others where they don’t really care if the viewer notices. E.g., having John Candy and family drive North on I-75 thru Atlanta on their way to Florida in _Summer Rental_. The bench scene I mentioned above. Etc. 2. Necessities. The weather changes, retakes have to be made, there’s a scheduling problem. So things don’t line up. E.g., Andrew McCarthy’s haircut changing in the prom scene in _Pretty in Pink_ when they (horribly) decided to reshoot the ending. The Carol Burnett story told above. 3. Not really be careful at all. All the usual stuff ranging from books on the table in _Community_ moving between shots to windshields being smashed then intact in _Twister_. 4. “Script” errors. The number of escaped replicants in Blade Runner (older versions). Whether Hotlip’s father was dead or alive in M_A_S\*H (tv series). James Kirk’s middle initial. Someone just wasn’t keeping track of things in the show universe. 5. Acting errors. How the actor was standing, holding something, etc. between shots. This includes the type the OP mentions. The latter does bother me, not just from the point of view of being an unnecessary mistake. But also since they are actors. They are paid to do things a certain way. Just like they are expected to remember their lines, they should be able to remember they had the coffee cup in their right hand when they started around the corner and not carry it in their left hand when they shoot the part with them walking away from the corner. It should not be the job of a crew member to track these things. Especially since so many actors have egos problems that make even gently reminding them about such details impossible. The scene where they are shooting the pilot for _Jerry_ in _Seinfeld_ and George is trying to tell an actor how a line should be said is a classic example of standard actor response to guidance. And that’s lines. Telling them how to hold their head between shots? Only Truffaut could get away with something like that and within _Day for Night_. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/28 "2013-12-08T19:26:58Z")
I remember a fun book from the 90s called The Nitpicker’s Guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation, which went into great detail on all such errors in all the episodes. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/29 "2013-12-09T00:17:50Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > 1. Deliberate choices made by the director and others where they don’t really care if the viewer notices. E.g., having John Candy and family drive North on I-75 thru Atlanta on their way to Florida in _Summer Rental_. The bench scene I mentioned above. Etc. This is why I cannot watch movies set in my home town. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/30 "2013-12-09T01:39:36Z")
> [@j666](#): > > This is why I cannot watch movies set in my home town. I saw _ **Drop Dead Fred** _ when I was living in Czechoslovakia. I was amazed at how parts of downtown St Paul were suddenly in Minneapolis and vice versa. _ **The Saint** _ also blew me away immediately when Val Kilmer covered the distance from Moscow’s Hotel Ukraine to Red Square in about three seconds. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494/31 "2013-12-09T21:31:07Z")
Any movie that shows someone driving down the Las Vegas strip: They pick the most well known landmarks without regard to location, so it seems like the actors are downtown and on the strip simultaneously, teleporting willy nilly about the city. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-or-lack-thereof/675494.md?page=1)