Continuity and C**k Ups on TV

[yello]

Now THAT is a genuine continuity-type error - nothing to do with technical or period details, not pedantic in any way.

Yeh, well, whatever. Makes me smile either way! I just see it as something that is, for whatever reason, and doesn't really matter in itself. Yes, sure, if you've got a movie chock full of such things then, well, maybe.... you've probably got a cult classic on your hands!

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

One that sticks in my mind whenever I see the film, & I've lost count of how many times I've watched it since I first saw it when it was released in 1977
Smokey & The Bandit

When Bandit slews the Trans-Am across the road, to pick up Carrie ('Frog') there's several sets of tyre-marks, where numerous practices had been done
Then, a few seconds later, as Snowman (Jerry Reed) comes round the corner in the Kenworth, there's a momentary locking of trailer brakes, as a car pulls out, again there's previous tyre marks

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Production errors are different from continuity mistakes. In Love Actually, Hugh Grant's tie keeps changing in one scene (shot from the side his tie is patterned, shot from the front, it's plain). Then there's Pretty Woman - watch Julia Robert's croissant transform into a pancake and how many times Richard Gere unfolds his newspaper.

View: https://youtu.be/9cX76YS3NEU


Movies actually employ somebody to check this stuff.

 

[Profpointy]

How about David Lynch's Twin Peaks? The evil spirit / murderer "killer Bob" played by Frank Silva was actually one of the crew who accidentally ended up in-shot and seen in a mirror. Lynch thought he looked really creepy so wrote him in as the main antagonist for the rest of the series

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Can we include music cock-ups?

In the first ten seconds of Roxanne you hear an atonal piano chord. This was caused by Sting accidentally sitting on a piano keyboard during recording. The chord and his subsequent laughter were kept on the track and Sting is credited with playing Bum Piano in the credits.


View: https://youtu.be/WXzFCS72QIA

 

[yello]

Then there's Pretty Woman - watch Julia Robert's croissant transform into a pancake and how many times Richard Gere unfolds his newspaper.
Movies actually employ somebody to check this stuff.

Makes me wonder if sometimes it's deliberate. No idea why. Like some kind of reverse McGuffin or somesuch. That is, something of absolutely no consequence (to the plot) for an audience to pick up on (perhaps) and have a smile about.

 

[Chris S]

Life on Mars. An episode yesterday, in the background was a building with a modern air conditioning unit bolted to the side.

The producers can get away with that because Sam Tyler isn't sure if he's, "... mad, in a coma or back in time."

 

[captain nemo1701]

Can we include music cock-ups?

In the first ten seconds of Roxanne you hear an atonal piano chord. This was caused by Sting accidentally sitting on a piano keyboard during recording. The chord and his subsequent laughter were kept on the track and Sting is credited with playing Bum Piano in the credits.


View: https://youtu.be/WXzFCS72QIA

Rick Wakeman's original 1974 live album 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' in the song The Battle, the choir sing the wrong chorus. I think that might have been in the mix though.

 

[matticus]

Production errors are different from continuity mistakes. In Love Actually, Hugh Grant's tie keeps changing in one scene (shot from the side his tie is patterned, shot from the front, it's plain). Then there's Pretty Woman - watch Julia Robert's croissant transform into a pancake and how many times Richard Gere unfolds his newspaper.

What I was saying is that those are both very different from the technical/historical pedantry that fills up most of the pages of this thread! They are errors/mishaps on the day, I guess.

Was the scene set in a period before printed newspaper? Did Ms Roberts use a fork only available in a different hotel chain? etc

Anyway, carry on ...

 

[MontyVeda]

The ending of The Neverending Story

 

[roley poley]

Movies actually employ somebody to check this stuff.
[/QUOTE]
continuity editor

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Outrageous. In the Bond film Thunderball, an RAF Vulcan bomber ditches into the sea. Later we see a nuclear bomb being recovered but the bomb is on a Valiant 5 point carrier, not the Vulcan's 7 point carrier. Whoever advised on that movie certainly wasn't a military man.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Outrageous. In the Bond film Thunderball, an RAF Vulcan bomber ditches into the sea. Later we see a nuclear bomb being recovered but the bomb is on a Valiant 5 point carrier, not the Vulcan's 7 point carrier. Whoever advised on that movie certainly wasn't a military man.

That is exactly the sort of pedantic nit picking that we need!

I don't know that much about the details like that - but I do sometimes annoy my wife by pointing out that the wrong type of Spitfire is used or similar
Her special hate is sailing - because I actually do know a bit about boats - and I point out that the sail setting are totally wrong and the wake of the ship shows that it must be under mechanical power and going way faster than a sailing ship of that type can
Pirates of the Caribbean is especially bad - the Black Pearl is pretty much unbelievable!!!

 

[AndyRM]

That is exactly the sort of pedantic nit picking that we need!

I don't know that much about the details like that - but I do sometimes annoy my wife by pointing out that the wrong type of Spitfire is used or similar
Her special hate is sailing - because I actually do know a bit about boats - and I point out that the sail setting are totally wrong and the wake of the ship shows that it must be under mechanical power and going way faster than a sailing ship of that type can
Pirates of the Caribbean is especially bad - the Black Pearl is pretty much unbelievable!!!

You mean, it's not crewed by a cursed crew of skellington pirates?! I'm going to be writing a strongly worded letter to Disney and demanding my money back having been wildly misled by this documentary.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

You mean, it's not crewed by a cursed crew of skellington pirates?! I'm going to be writing a strongly worded letter to Disney and demanding my money back having been wildly misled by this documentary.

I know!
I was shocked as well!

But the real baddy is Paw Patrol
their grasp of basic aerodynamics and the way aerofoils work is just terrible!!!!