# They're always empty! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [February 12, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378 "2022-02-12T19:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/141 "2022-03-04T17:42:21Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Then they put dry ice in the container so he’d blow the fog out when he exhaled giving the appearance of being able to see his breath. Nice bit of BB trivia, and nice small example of practical effects! > [@silenus](#): > > Which, at the very least encouraged a limited number of takes. Get it right or get plastered. I have a feeling that Festus, at least, averaged a lot of takes. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/142 "2022-03-04T17:49:27Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > And they always pay by flinging cash on the table, despite the fact they haven’t gotten the bill yet. All the time. They seem to have the amazing ability to just pull some various bills out of their pockets and instinctively know the amount is 15 or so percent above whatever the bill might be…with only a nanosecond long glance at the bills, if they even look at them at all. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/143 "2022-03-04T18:07:55Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Nice bit of BB trivia, and nice small example of practical effects! Back when it was on, about a day after each episode aired, there was a podcast with Vince Gilligan and Kelly Dixon, one of the editors. In addition to general chit chat about the show, they’d talk about some of the editing techniques as well as the special and practical effects. They used _a lot_ of practical effects. IIRC Vince preferred them since they were done right then and there while shooting. With special effects, it was considerably more expensive to hire people that specialized in whatever they wanted to do. One I recall them doing quite often is when there would be a gunshot or other loud/startling noise. They’d use SFX to ‘freeze’ the actors eyes before they blink so it doesn’t look like they’re flinching. Here’s another one, when Walter’s head hits the ground and they zoom in, you can see the dirt ‘crack’. That was done with two plates butted up against each other just under the surface. When he hit the ground someone triggered a mechanism to pull the plates apart, thus creating the crack in the ground (I think it was supposed to represent Walter breaking from reality or metal breakdown or something like that, it’s been a long time). I can only find a very small, very low-res gif, but you can see the crack appear next to his face. ![](https://c.tenor.com/3QO0fwcuZxcAAAAC/breaking-bad-fall.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/144 "2022-03-04T18:14:35Z")
This is more of a meme annoyance than in the true spirit of the thread, but sweeping everything off one’s desk/table/counter in a fit of rage is really tiresome. Nobody does this in real life. Okay, I can think of one instance at a place I worked. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/145 "2022-03-04T20:34:09Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Related: older movies or TV shows that are supposed to take place in extremely cold settings, but the characters have no visible breath vapor. Takes me right out of my suspension of disbelief. > > Of course these days that can also easily be faked with CGI. But I bet it’s still overlooked a lot, either because the people in charge are SoCal born and raised, and it doesn’t occur to them, or because they just don’t think it’s that important of a detail. But us native Northerners notice. The finale of _ **The Americans** _ had Philip and Elizabeth standing in front of the entrance to Moscow State University in the middle of the night in winter. They had me fooled for a few seconds—it was so well done, I thought they had actually filmed the scene in Russia. I realized it was all green screen when I saw no breath was coming out of their mounths. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/146 "2022-03-04T22:11:54Z")
To be fair, the Chemistry bldg at the Faculty of Science had lockers in the hallways when I went there. Mostly for boots and coats in the winter as this was in Manitoba. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/147 "2022-03-04T22:43:41Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > He had a small container in his mouth with holes drilled in it. Then they put dry ice in the container so he’d blow the fog out when he exhaled giving the appearance of being able to see his breath. In the 1937 _Lost Horizon_, despite the mountain scenes being shot in an ice house it was not cold enough for the actors’ breath to show. They did the dry ice trick but it slipped and injured Ronald Colman. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2022, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/148 "2022-03-05T05:15:35Z")
The story I heard was that a prop man made little wire cages to hold small pieces of dry ice that the actors put in their mouths, something like what they did on _Breaking Bad_. But it was so hard to speak with the thing that Colman got frustrated, took the dry ice out of the cage, and popped it straight into his mouth. With unfortunate effects. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/149 "2022-03-05T18:11:09Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > The story I heard was that a prop man made little wire cages to hold small pieces of dry ice that the actors put in their mouths, something like what they did on _Breaking Bad_ . But it was so hard to speak with the thing that Colman got frustrated, took the dry ice out of the cage, and popped it straight into his mouth. With unfortunate effects. In the audio commentary for that episode of BB, a producer/director says this happened in [_Dirigible_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirigible_(film)), a 1931 film by directed by Frank Capra. The wiki article quotes Capra in a 1972 interview as saying the actor was Hobart Bosworth. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/150 "2022-03-05T21:34:37Z")
Thanks for correcting the record. That’s what I get for relying on 40-50-year-old memories. I was sure it was Capra, and _Lost Horizon_ made sense, considering it’s setting. So when @DesertDog mentioned Colman, I jumped in with my ancient memory. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/151 "2022-03-06T00:31:19Z")
Well, I forgot the part about Colman getting rid of the appliance, then getting injured. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2022, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/152 "2022-03-06T04:23:58Z")
Yes, but as @F.U.Shakespeare pointed out, we were both wrong about the movie and the star. Here’s more detail, from [Mental Floss](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/78752/12-screwball-facts-about-frank-capra): > On the South Pole film _Dirigible_ (1931), which was shot during a Los Angeles heat wave, Capra forced his actors to hold tiny cages of dry ice in their mouths as they acted, in order to make their breath appear. Frustrated with trying to speak around the tiny cage, lead actor Hobart Bosworth decided to get rid of the cage and simply held the ice in his mouth, unprotected. “True trouper that he was, he flung away the cage—and plopped the square piece of dry ice into his mouth as he would a big pill,” Capra recalled. “He fell to the salted ground groveling and screaming. We ran to him. We couldn’t open his jaws! In a panic we rushed him to the emergency hospital in Arcadia.” In the end, Bosworth lost three lower back teeth, two uppers, and part of his jawbone. ---
**Author:** ![kwintenstraler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kwintenstraler/32/10698_2.png) [@kwintenstraler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kwintenstraler)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/153 "2022-04-07T15:12:54Z")
In popular scientific documentaries about dinosaurs or ancient beasts, they depict the dinosaur while on the hunt, and right before it attacks its prey, they let it roar very loudly in the direction of the prey. Seems an odd way of hunting. (but then again, they all died out, so…) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/154 "2022-04-07T16:20:36Z")
> [@kwintenstraler](#): > > they all died out but they turned to oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di’s clothes. I couldn’t believe it. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/155 "2022-04-07T17:22:54Z")
> [@kwintenstraler](#): > > In popular scientific documentaries about dinosaurs or ancient beasts, they depict the dinosaur while on the hunt, and right before it attacks its prey, they let it roar very loudly in the direction of the prey. Seems an odd way of hunting. (but then again, they all died out, so…) There’s an episode of _ **The Nature of Things** _ in which they analyze the vocal and auditory capabilities of _T Rex_ on the basis of fossil evidence. Turns out that tyrannosauruses probably didn’t roar. It’s more likely they growled and grunted (like crocodiles) in low frequencies, since they carry better and are actually more threatening. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/156 "2022-04-07T18:19:35Z")
When supposedly driving a car, against a back-projection of moving scenery, the driving actor makes wobbling-rapidly movements of the wheel, which, if done for real, would have you weaving all over the road. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/157 "2022-04-07T22:44:21Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Related: older movies or TV shows that are supposed to take place in extremely cold settings, but the characters have no visible breath vapor. Takes me right out of my suspension of disbelief. > > Of course these days that can also easily be faked with CGI. But I bet it’s still overlooked a lot, either because the people in charge are SoCal born and raised, and it doesn’t occur to them, or because they just don’t think it’s that important of a detail. But us native Northerners notice. Ahhhh, UpNorth, where you can tell you’re alive by the clouds of beer-breath! Yeah, that lack of condensation really bugs me, too. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/158 "2022-04-08T00:42:51Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > When supposedly driving a car, against a back-projection of moving scenery, the driving actor makes wobbling-rapidly movements of the wheel, which, if done for real, would have you weaving all over the road Or, worse, take their eyes off the road to look at the person next to them a long, long time while they reel off a paragraph of exposition. This happens even when they use today’s [process trailer](https://www.rollingcameracar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/66_opt-1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/159 "2022-04-08T02:37:23Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > And for god’s sake, if you find yourself having defeated a serial killer, don’t throw your weapon to the ground so that he can come back to life and attack you with it one last time. Do I need to spoiler this? In the second series finale of “Sherlock”, right after Moriarty blows the back of his own head off, I turned to my wife and said “Sherlock had better pick that gun up and shoot him a couple more times” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378.md?page=7)