Continuity
I always thought I'd make a great continuity person on a film or television show. I'm the kind of person who notices whether the glass of wine is filled to the same level when shown from different angles or if the time on the clock is wrong or never changes. Little things like that jump out at me.
Like did you ever notice in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is dancing around with the Scarecrow right after they meet, that her hair changes from shot to shot? Turns out they'd had to reshoot parts of that scene at a later date but the continuity person must not have been on his game, because it's pretty obvious that her braids are not always the same length.
I just watched The Last of the Mohicans and noticed the same kind of thing about Daniel Day-Lewis's hair. It seems to me that they would pay extra careful attention to something like that, seeing as he is beautiful to begin with and his hair is really something else and so would naturally be a focal point for the viewer.
Now, does that ruin the film for me? Of course not, but it does bother me. I'm a pretty picky person when it comes to certain things. Picky in the sense that I'm detail oriented, which by turns means I'm not very good at seeing the big picture sometimes. But that's a story for another day.
The Somnambulants--"In the Interest of Continuity" mp3 off Fabrication and Productivity (buy)
Yeah I notice all that stuff too. I think my worst habit when watching
(some) movies is I'm forever picking on the 'logic' of certain events and
circumstances. "As if that would happen!" or "as if she'd really say
that!". My friends tend to ignore it, or join in, but my sisters have
absolutely no qualms about telling me when to shut it!
I love spotting continuity errors in movies, being a film geek and all.
When you point them out to people, you look really smart and people say how
awesome you are. :)
agnes--between the two of us, we could keep these movie-makers in
line--nothing would get past us!
Nothing but grief I'm afraid. They just don't understand the supreme
greatness of our geekery.
Funny you'd mention Last of the Mohicans - one of my favorites and I've
watched it 100 times. Never noticed DDL's hair, though. I am more likely
to notice a logical flaw (of a different sort from Agnes), such as
something that can't happen in the real world or defies reason. By the
same token, though, movies that rely on that sort of reasoning to follow
the plot are the ones that I love the most (think Momento, Beautiful
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or even Total Recall).
Er - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that is. Clearly, my mind is
spotted.
wre--i think i noticed it in scenes inside the fort and when they were
embracing and then when he was back out in the woods. maybe they shot the
interior shots first or something. as far as movies, i loved momento. that
was one of the most original films i've ever seen. i think there are
certain movies where you just give up your sense of reality and embrace the
illogical/impossible and then there are other ones that are supposed to be
reality-based and when they make noticeable errors in those, it's much more
irritating.
I spend lots of time at movies looking for continuity errors, especially
when the film's not so great. I love finding the mistakes! Does that make
me geeky? ;)
nat--i couldn't believe i found a song that had "continuity" in the title!
but no, you're not a geek. coz if you're a geek, then so are the rest of
us! (not that there's anything wrong with being a geek!) ;-)
I'm somewhere in the middle. I tend to notice things like that if it's a
movie that I'm not enjoying much. In that case, I can get *very* picky.
However, if I'm really engrossed in something (like I was in Last of the
Mohicans) it all tends to fade and I don't really notice or sweat the small
stuff. There are some really great movies out there with some really
egregious errors in them, but as long as the story is a winner I guess the
logic center of my brain decides to give them a pass. :)
Yeah... I notice stuff like that as well. My ex is actually working on some
films in Egypt as Assistant Director and he started out doing that too. I
laughed because he is totally not very observant... It is funny to notice
stuff like that, I wonder how these people can spend so much money making a
film and then end up having these mishaps.
sean--that's a really good way of putting it, as i'm the same way. i'm much
more forgiving of a film that i like than i one that's not holding my
interest.
Well, if continuity errors take you out of the movie viewing experience,
then I suggest you never, ever watch a movie by Federico Fellini or Guy
Maddin, because they purposefully fill their movies with abstractions in
continuity, and you will surely explode. And I should warn against leaning
too close to a painting because you'll see the brush strokes, and stay away
from the book called "Ulysses" written by James Joyce.
ah, pluto, you bring a great perspective but i feel like i've angered you
somehow. i've been thinking about what you said, specifically in regard to
the directors you mention, and i think that if i knew the discontinuity was
on purpose, then i would be able to embrace it. it's the sloppiness, i
guess, that bothers me--but only if i'm not into the film. about the other
stuff, well, i wouldn't consider paintings in the same category. novels
that don't make sense or that i catch errors in do drive me nuts, though.
that said, i think you're wrong about my reading ulysses, i think i SHOULD
read it! : )
RSS Add-Me
