War movie editing errors

[JPH]

I haven't seen it - maybe urban legend but supposedly there is a scene in a movie about either Biblical characters or ancient Rome where someone in the background forgot to take off their wrist watch.

It also happened in "Glory" (1989) too. In the scene when the 54th MA is marching past a group of slaves, Morgan Freeman stops to speak to some children, one of them is wearing a digital wristwatch. Oops.

There have been some good examples of continuity errors mentioned so far, and John did a pretty good job explaining the reasons for some of them.

There are basically 3 types of continuity errors that we are talking about in this thread. The ones made during principle photography, those made during the editing process, and a combination of the first two. The first type are made when there is a mistake made on set with something being moved or altered and not corrected for the next take or several takes being cut together as John mentioned. They also occur in not shooting the desired angle in a manner that matched the other shots. Sometimes this happens when shots are taken out of sequence in different locations. Perhaps a shot that belongs late in the movie is shot at the beginning of filming, then toward the end an action or special effects shot is made where something occurs, like an actor loses his hat. When edited together you get hat on, hat blown off, hat returns with no explanation. Most are not that egregious though.These errors are just what they are.

The only way to correct them is to use a shot that maintains the continuity but may drastically alter or even destroy the look, feel or flow the director is going for by being the wrong angle or the performance from the actors may not be optimum. That's then a choice of "lesser of two evils" in many cases. Since many errors are overlooked or not noticed by most viewers, add that retakes are expensive and time consuming, the choice is often simple. Although, sometimes it's just a matter of somebody missing the mistake until it's too late.

Then there are the continuity errors due to using multiple cameras to get shots at a number of angles. These sometimes result in seeing the same car go around the same corner several times in the same car chase, but from different angles, or the same soldier toss his rifle into the air and dramatically fall to the ground repeatedly during the big battle scene. This is the result of covering the shot as mentioned above, but in the name of economy the different angles of the same stunt are reused multiple times to stretch out the action.

The other editing errors are in poor shot selection when using stock or archive footage of the wrong type aircraft or other vehicles, scenery, weather or what have you. These errors can be either from ignorance of which aircraft or vehicle is which, apathy in trying to match the aircraft or vehicle by viewing hundreds or even thousands of hours of footage to find a match, or the lack of any footage of that aircraft or vehicle doing what they need to be in the shot. Choices are made, some are acceptable under the circumstances, some are so bad a blind man could see them.

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Joseph

 

[John in Covina]

Choices are made, some are acceptable under the circumstances, some are so bad a blind man could see them. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. - Joseph

The one thing is they are fun to discuss. I love when people post new errors sometimes you can get a good laugh. For me these errors like continuity errors are actually neat insights as to how film making works. We are jaded by so much special effects these days but don't realize just what type of magic comes from the sound and photography. One thing that always amazes me when watching a movie is just how fast a set becomes real to me. What is off camera does not exist.

 

[JPH]

The one thing is they are fun to discuss. I love when people post new errors sometimes you can get a good laugh.

I agree.

For me these errors like continuity errors are actually neat insights as to how film making works. We are jaded by so much special effects these days but don't realize just what type of magic comes from the sound and photography.

Sometimes you can also gain an appreciation of how they used to do physical effects in the the old days, live and in real time too. For me, the cgi may look realistic, but at times it nags in the back of my mind that the only way they could have done a certain shot was in a computer, and the magic dies a little more.

One thing that always amazes me when watching a movie is just how fast a set becomes real to me. What is off camera does not exist.

What we refer to as the "suspension of disbelief" and not "breaking the fourth wall." It's a great feeling when everything clicks and it's like you're there, you become lost in the story and willingly follow along for the ride the characters are trying to take you on. That's when the magic is at it's best.

Joseph

 

[John in Covina]

Breaking the fourth wall can be done in comedy now and then as if to let the audience in on the joke.

I seem to recall there were a few WWII movies where you might notice that the studio shared the footage of say tanks attacking in several films.

 

[Atomic Age]

Another error that can happen, and I have first hand knowledge of this, because its happened in my own movie. An anachronistic object will show up in the background when viewed on a big screen, that was not visible through the view finder of the camera. The view finders of cameras rarely have the resolution of a large HDTV, even film cameras. You look at the footage later on a large screen, and suddenly things show up that you had no idea was visible on the set.

Doug

 

[ukali1066]

As a military modeller and general military history nerd I have an irritating [ to other people ] tendency to spot errors in war films...

There's the perenial one of the hero not wearing his hat/helmet, Sharpe is always guilty of this....

Also clumps of 1960's/70's hair and sideburns sticking out from under WW2 headgear makes me wince...

Also when a weapon is brought up to be shouldered it's always accompanied by a ton of mechanical clicking sounds....like the rifle has tons of loose jangly moving parts.....

Badly shaped berets are a constant.....especially in anything depicting British soldiers from the 1960's-1980's, Benny Hill berets were never considered cool

 

[Atomic Age]

As a military modeller and general military history nerd I have an irritating [ to other people ] tendency to spot errors in war films...

There's the perenial one of the hero not wearing his hat/helmet, Sharpe is always guilty of this....

Also clumps of 1960's/70's hair and sideburns sticking out from under WW2 headgear makes me wince...

Also when a weapon is brought up to be shouldered it's always accompanied by a ton of mechanical clicking sounds....like the rifle has tons of loose jangly moving parts.....

Badly shaped berets are a constant.....especially in anything depicting British soldiers from the 1960's-1980's, Benny Hill berets were never considered cool

Tom Hanks talked specifically about men not wearing helmets in Band of Brothers. They knew it was wrong, and were told so by the advisers, but there were times when you just couldn't tell one character from another so the took some of the helmets off from time to time. Some times accuracy does suffer for clarity of story telling.

The one thing that I think is funny is that Hollywood movies about movie making, almost NEVER get it right. I assume it is because they think people would find the actual practice of making movies intensely boring.

Doug

 

[Cobden]

A continuity error that I am suprised no-one has mentioned: Major Strassers Eppaullettes in the final scene of Casablanca (whilst he's on the phone) keeping disappearing and reappearing.

Of course, Casablanca is rife with inaccuracies...

 

[John in Covina]

Another error that can happen, and I have first hand knowledge of this, because its happened in my own movie. An anachronistic object will show up in the background when viewed on a big screen, that was not visible through the view finder of the camera. The view finders of cameras rarely have the resolution of a large HDTV, even film cameras. You look at the footage later on a large screen, and suddenly things show up that you had no idea was visible on the set. Doug

It happens fairly frequently. One modern problem is that people are trying to film outside and have modern jet liners in the sky and even the sound from them gets picked up. Same with car alarms going off.

 

[John in Covina]

A continuity error that I am surprised no-one has mentioned: Major Strassers Eppaullettes in the final scene of Casablanca (whilst he's on the phone) keeping disappearing and reappearing.
Of course, Casablanca is rife with inaccuracies...

Wow, I didn't know that one. Casablanca is one of the movies where I don't look for errors, I think I just want the story to propel me along.

 

[JPH]

In many ways, it's an absolute miracle that "Casablanca" ever got finished and turned out to be such a good film. But that's a story all in itself.

Joseph

 

[Cobden]

It happens fairly frequently. One modern problem is that people are trying to film outside and have modern jet liners in the sky and even the sound from them gets picked up. Same with car alarms going off.

That reminds me of another inaccuracy - a rather interesting one, albeit in a non-war film. Namely, in Old Country for Old Men a large explosion goes off and several car alarms start sounding. Of course, in the early 80's (when the film was set) it would be excedingly unlikely to find any cars with alarms, let alone every car...

 

[Effingham]

P.S. Ok, ok I know that's not quite true, Russian weddings can last for several days.

I was gonna say...

When I was at the seminary (St. Tikhon's) we had quite a few weddings at the monastery church. Man, those things can take it out of you...

 

[Atomic Age]

That reminds me of another inaccuracy - a rather interesting one, albeit in a non-war film. Namely, in Old Country for Old Men a large explosion goes off and several car alarms start sounding. Of course, in the early 80's (when the film was set) it would be excedingly unlikely to find any cars with alarms, let alone every car...

Really? When I first started driving (82) car alarms were everywhere. Sometimes just driving past a car would set one off.

Doug

 

[Stearmen]

Low Down Extras

The one that I am sure drives you directors crazy, is when one of the low down extras spends the entire seen looking right into the camera, when he or she should be looking to the side! This goes to all movies, not just war movies.

 

[Baggers]

I was watching the The Kennedys a couple of nights ago and the big event of the episode of the Bay of Pigs. When it came time to do a quick montage assembled from stock footage to depict the invasion one of the first shots was a stick of paratroopers exiting an airplane...a Ju 52. The fixed undercarriage stuck out like a sore thumb.

Cheers!

 

[doctor dan]

One of my favorite things I see in movies that were made durning and after WWII, especialy by REPUBLIC STUDIOS, is anytime a pilot goes into a dive he leans forward into the insturment panel which is imposible since you are wearing a harness and when anyone has to bail out there is never any wind to contend with. If you don't beleive me if you are in a prop, go into a dive and when the speed reaches around 325 slide the canopy bag and stick your arm out. E-mail me when you get the cast put on.
My favorite scene is with a movie with Rock Hudson where he and his Black co-pilot are hunting Migs. When the co-pilot gets a mig on his tale he says, " O LORDY CAPTAIN, GET HIM OFF ME." I doubt very much if that conversation would have happened between two mig hunters. Not to mention that it would not have been allowed now.

 

[Italian-wiseguy]

I often noticed dialogues of many movies about ancient Rome as being particularly anachronistic, and sometimes distinctively "american";
including quite recent ones, as The Gladiator with lines as the infamous "At my signal, unleash hell!"
which would be simply meaningless at the time.
Ciao!

 

[ukali1066]

Haha Fallschirmjager dropping on the Bay of pigs ....

 

[DNO]

Cruel Sea

One of my favorites, from the 1953 classic "The Cruel Sea". The crew members are reloading the depth charge throwers while attacking a U-Boat. I guess nobody noticed the "inert filling" label!