Another car related one – in virtually every scene where a character is supposed to be driving, the gear shift will be in park. This is especially obvious if it’s an older car with a column shift. I know the car probably needs to be in park for safety reasons during filming; from what I understand most driving scenes are shot by towing the car around on a trailer with cameras mounted on it. But it’s just one of those things can’t unsee ever since someone pointed it out to me.
I always wonder how hard it is to rig a car so that the transmission isn’t in “Park”–it’s just a matter of switching up the dashboard display, no?
Speaking of towing cars for filming, once you notice that the rear view mirrors are almost always removed, you won’t be able to unsee it. Like wet streets.
To the OP, I ws thinking, I am more forgiving of factual errors if they don’t affect the plot. Two example of ones that did:
One Monk episode hinged on the “fact” that Australian Shepherds are born without tails, but in fact very few are.
One L&O Criminal Intent episode had Goren repeat the UL that your hotel keycard had your entire data: name address CC information, and he used it to solve the crime. Complete bullshit. If he’d have just said it, yeah, I could overlook it, but not when used as a step in crime solving.
I’m bothered by details in subjects that I know about. I’m bothered after seeing a movie when I look up something and discover that there’s a mistake there. I’m not bothered by certain other things though. When I read the “Goofs” section on the IMDb, occasionally there is a mistake noted that consists of things like the fact that a person will be holding a pencil in their right hand in one shot. Then there is a shot that’s perhaps two seconds long of the person they’re talking to. Then there’s a shot of the first person, and they will have the pencil in their left hand. These types of mistakes apparently bother some people. I’ve never noticed one, even though the “Goofs” section often has these mistakes noted in movies I’ve seen. These sorts of mistakes apparently occur because often the shooting of a movie stops during what’s a continuous conversation on the screen. The director and actors decide that something has to be changed and they take several minutes to do so. Then they start shooting again and don’t notice that the actor picked up the pencil with the wrong hand (or whatever the “Goofs” section note was about).
But movies and TV shows have a specific person or persons whose job it is to watch that. They’re called script supervisors formally, and continuity people informally. It’s their job to make sure the actor picks up the pencil the same way, that the clocks show the same time between takes, and if possible that the cigarettes are the same length in every take.
Yes, and sometimes they don’t do their jobs well. Also, I suspect that low-budget films have no one with that specific job. Instead, there are only a few crew members who have to do a lot of things. As I said, sometimes there will be an entry of the “Goofs” section of the IMDb with mentions of these sorts of things. I tend to in general to be a nitpicker, so when a movie makes a mistake in a field I know well I am bothered by it. I don’t even notice the sorts of mistakes that happen when a script supervisor doesn’t do a good job.
One I caught the first time I saw it.
Watch the latch on the book at 2:38 and again at 6:33
I never noticed the rearview mirror thing, but now I’ll be on the lookout for it. I had to Google wet streets; I never noticed that either. But the Monk and L&O things are perfect examples of how I feel about inaccuracies that are incidental to the plot (forgivable) vs central (ruinous!)
If there is a rearview mirror it’s very safe to assume that at some point some one will use it to discover they’re being followed or check their hair or makeup.
Call it Chekhov’s Mirror.
I’ll put it here rather then giving it its own thread …and i guess it neither bothers me nor doesnt but: Columbo.
Yes, he does sometimes seem to have a search warrant. But he’s not a technical analyst. And he often seems to dig around in answering machines and gets his grubby hands all over evidence without a chain of custody and engage in near entrapment…not to mention the ridiculousness of someone standing there for fifteen minutes listening to his summery answering every question without a lawyer present or invoking his right to silence.
And finally the arresting officers standing off camera waiting for Columbo to summon them being able to stay awake. I kid, I love Columbo alone for the guest stars.
What’s the difference in the latch?
Hah! I never caught that before.
First shot - the book has one latch. Second shot - the book has two latches.
More precisely, in the first shot, only one latch is closed on the book. No one touches the book until the second shot. In that shot both latches are closed before the book is open.
And that’s why continuity, while nice, isn’t critical.
Watch this video about the color changing card trick:
There’s this thing called “change blindness”. Humans are actually quite bad at spotting differences, particualrly if we’re focused on watching something else. Sure, once it’s pointed out, it seems obvious, but a majority of people won’t see even large changes if they’re not specifically watching for them
I WOULD have spotted the shirt change on the woman had i not been distracted by my kid…only cause the second shirt is so Star Trekky.
I got the shirts instantly because I heard a TON of ruffling around when they zoomed in so I knew something major was happening off-screen. Didn’t catch the other stuff though.
And this bothers you more than the reflection on the glass between Indy and the cobra?
No, it never bothered me at all. I just noticed it.
And, yes - I caught the reflection, too…
Is this what you meant? The actor is in a chase scene and the sound effect is of a manual transmission running up and down through the gears. Then the actor stops the car, reaches up to the steering column, and moves the shift lever into park.
I recall a mechanic complaining about that one.
I thought he was referring to a shifter that sticks out of the side of the steering column, and you can see from the front that it’s in park because it’s horizontal. But I could be wrong.