movie filming/continuity errors

[evoluzione]

ok, so with a fair amount of movie talk going on at the moment, and the fact i just watch "being john malkovitch" for the first time, and noticed a shadow of a boom mic appear on a door...

anyone have any good errors that made it past the editing room??? here's a couple i know of...i believe there is a white pickup in an opening scene of LotR??? and a production member in Gladiator is seen wearing jeans in the background....and of course the Star Wars Stormtrooper who hits his head walking through a doorway...

[shadowfax]

there's one in the 2 towers where gandalf is walking towards the throne of Theoden, and they show him from alternating camera angles. in one he has his staff right side up, and the other it is upside down... back, and forth... kind of odd.

[groovebuster]

That's a funny subject! :D But actually in every movie there are things like that, so I could already fill pages with things I noticed... but I an curious what other people will bring up.

I didn't notice the white truck in LOTR though and also not a guy wearing jeans in Gladiator... could you tell exactly when that is in the movie?

OK... two things I will "donate" too...

In the movie "It" when they are adults and in the catacombes to hunt the "beast", they are walking down a tunnel. The camera is following them and one spotlight must have been placed not carefully enough since you can see the shadow of the camera and the camera man moving across the wall. ;)

A classic in Star Wars is also Han Solo being dressed differently when he is frozen (Empire strikes back) and when he's freed again (Return of The Jedi). So he changed while he was frozen! Cool! ;)

groovebuster

[voicegy]

http://www.moviemistakes.com/top.php

Enjoy!:)

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by evoluzione
ok, so with a fair amount of movie talk going on at the moment, and the fact i just watch "being john malkovitch" for the first time, and noticed a shadow of a boom mic appear on a door...

anyone have any good errors that made it past the editing room??? here's a couple i know of...i believe there is a white pickup in an opening scene of LotR??? and a production member in Gladiator is seen wearing jeans in the background....and of course the Star Wars Stormtrooper who hits his head walking through a doorway...

Not to rant, but this is a pet peeve. These are not "editing errors" nor did any of them "slip by" the editor. The editor has probably seen that footage hundreds of times and knows the movie like the back of his hand. These are problems/short comings that came from production (when the film was shot) and ended up in the final print because it was either the only choice or it it was the best take/shot even though it had a minor flaw.

Honestly, would you choose a take where the acting was solid, but there was a minor continuity flaw, or a scene where the acting wasn't so good but there was no flaw?


Lethal

[hsilver]

It's hard to believe that with the hundreds of digital effects in the movies mentioned that removing a white van or even righting a staff carried by a moving person or changing a pair of jeans to a toga would not be comparitively simple.

Many continuity problems are missed by the entire post-production staff.

Some of the continuity errors are left in because it is thought that they are too subtle for most viewers to notice.

And what would all the people who watch for errors religiously and visit movie error sites have to do the producers didn't leave those in?

There are people who watch TV shows on monitors in underscan for the thrill of seeing the microphone on the boom above the frame.

[groovebuster]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Not to rant, but this is a pet peeve. These are not "editing errors" nor did any of them "slip by" the editor.

Wait! He didn't say that it was errors by the editor, he said errors that made it past the editor room. That's soemthing totally different. It doesn't matter what the reasons were for those errors, but they are just there and sometimes they are funny, other times you just can't believe that sometimes very simple things are totally screwed up and they didn't notice while shooting.

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
The editor has probably seen that footage hundreds of times and knows the movie like the back of his hand. These are problems/short comings that came from production (when the film was shot) and ended up in the final print because it was either the only choice or it it was the best take/shot even though it had a minor flaw.

Of course! Nobody claimed something different! :)

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Honestly, would you choose a take where the acting was solid, but there was a minor continuity flaw, or a scene where the acting wasn't so good but there was no flaw?

That really depends on the movie and the scene, don't you think? Especially since you can't simplify the problem like that.

For example... in "Fellowship of the Ring" there is that scene in the special edition on DVD when they meet the elves in the forrest after escaping Morria. From one scene to the next it changes from daylight to night and it really seems as if it did right in the middle of the conversation they had. That was definately bad editing and I would have preferred to have that scene deleted.

But as always... personal preference! :)

groovebuster

[Kwyjibo]

the funnniest thing is the 24 forums...as soon as the producers make a mistake people flip out and start questioning the plausbility of really weird theories....for example once a character was handcuffed by one hand...and then in the next seen it was the other hand...well people would conlclude that so and so was a mole because of that

[jethroted]

Where is the white truck in LOTR? I want to check that out.

[Juventuz]

When Frodo and Sam were in the field leaving the shire you were able to see a car drive by in the background.

It has since been removed from all versions of the dvd.

[iGav]

In 'The Shining', when Danny is playing with his toy cars on the pattern of the very stylish 70's carpet, when the ball rolls up to him and it's cuts away to a full corridor shot, and then cuts back, the carpet pattern has totally changed....

Kubrick films are full of these things.... can't say they bother me though :D

[FriarTuck]

Originally posted by Kwyjibo
the funnniest thing is the 24 forums...as soon as the producers make a mistake people flip out and start questioning the plausbility of really weird theories....for example once a character was handcuffed by one hand...and then in the next seen it was the other hand...well people would conlclude that so and so was a mole because of that

I hope 24 doesn't have a reputation for big continuity problems, since Apple is boasting that its products are used to ensure continuity on the show.

http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/rush/index2.html

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by hsilver
It's hard to believe that with the hundreds of digital effects in the movies mentioned that removing a white van or even righting a staff carried by a moving person or changing a pair of jeans to a toga would not be comparitively simple.

Many continuity problems are missed by the entire post-production staff.

Some of the continuity errors are left in because it is thought that they are too subtle for most viewers to notice.

And what would all the people who watch for errors religiously and visit movie error sites have to do the producers didn't leave those in?

There are people who watch TV shows on monitors in underscan for the thrill of seeing the microphone on the boom above the frame.


It takes time and money to correct things like that in post and it's usually not worth the time or the money to remove "little things" (stuff that 95% of movie watchers won't notice). Would you rather they spend their time and money removing a white van or working on the CG characters and back grounds? It's all about priorities and stuff like boom shadows or attempting to fix the mistakes of actors (Gandolf's staff to keep the going example) are the lowest of the low.


That really depends on the movie and the scene, don't you think? Especially since you can't simplify the problem like that.

Actually it really is that simple. When you are editing you are pieceing together the story and you attempt to use the best pieces. The two major things you look for are how is the acting and does this take move the story forward/does it need to be in the movie. If it comes down to a solid take w/a boom shadow (for example )and a medicore take w/o a boom shadow yer priorities, as an editor and a storyteller, are messed up if you use the sub par take just because of something as small as a boom shadow. And, of course, sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation and put in shots/scenes that you really don't like because they are needed and you don't have better footage even though you'd like it.


Like I said, this is a pet peeve mainly because a lot of people use these type of things to rip on a movie or the crew and they, the person doing the ripping, are usually complete morons that know less than crap about filmmaking. /rant


Lethal

[jelloshotsrule]

lethal- i agree with you

especially on the idea of "fixing it in post"... well yeah, for big things it can be worthwhile, but as you said, taking out a van in the distance or a staff or whatever, that's money that isn't worth spending when a measly % of the audience will see it, and that's only after many viewings usually.


i thought there was something in 3 men and a little baby where there was supposedly some kid in the background... i forget the details as it was 1. long ago and 2. when i was like 8

[trebblekicked]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
lethal- i agree with you

especially on the idea of "fixing it in post"... well yeah, for big things it can be worthwhile, but as you said, taking out a van in the distance or a staff or whatever, that's money that isn't worth spending when a measly % of the audience will see it, and that's only after many viewings usually.


i thought there was something in 3 men and a little baby where there was supposedly some kid in the background... i forget the details as it was 1. long ago and 2. when i was like 8

Snopes to the rescue (http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/3menbaby.htm)