Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

For Any Other Topic not covered in one of the specialist forums below

Moderators: David Martin, dave robinson, Iain Purdon, George Geddes

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby StuartD » Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:06 am

HI

In the film 'What a Crazy World', Freddie and the dreamers perform 'Who Wear's Short Shorts'. Freddie, at one point, takes their trousers down to reveal brightly coloured boxers. During the part with their trousers on Pete Burrill plays a Red Jazz Bass and during the trousers down bit it is a sunburst Precision!! Must have been done in two different takes on different days!!

Regards

Stuart
User avatar
StuartD
 
Posts: 562
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:21 am
Full Real Name: Stuart Duffy

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby neil2726 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:28 pm

Films such as Robin Hood and Titanic which use songs definitely not of the era!
Dialogue such as in a recent Hercules- the Legendary Journeys -"Hey Man thats real cool!"
neil2726
 
Posts: 1051
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:36 pm
Full Real Name: Neil Sutton

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby anniv 63 » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:26 pm

Iain Purdon wrote:Can you see it?

85A62D47-4950-48EB-82F2-07B2CFD1730B.jpeg


Regarding the bottle, I remembered the true story of a Victorian Gentleman, who after a few light
ales or sherbets, used to pee into peoples fireplaces , hence the origin of the phrase "Oh Gordon Bennett" !!!!!
No doubt the scullery maid left the bottle on the mantelpiece, as she might have had trouble lighting the fire
the next morning !!!!!

Mike
anniv 63
 
Posts: 744
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:16 pm
Full Real Name: mj shiach

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby noelford » Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:59 am

My biggest bugbear is when a film features a steam locomotive and the director uses stock footage. You don't have to be a train-spotter to see that the locomotive is totally different in different shots. Even great directors seem to have a blind spot with this lazy use of stock-film. Hitchcock's original 'The Lady Vanishes' features, for most of the film, one particular steam locomotive but, in one shot, it changes to another one, totally different. Also, quite often you see locos with a British Railways logo in a film set at a time decades before nationalisation of the railways. I've even seen a film where the train is supposed to be from somewhere on the continent but the loco has a British Railways logo!
noelford
 

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby JimN » Wed Sep 19, 2018 10:46 am

neil2726 wrote:Films such as Robin Hood and Titanic which use songs definitely not of the era!
Dialogue such as in a recent Hercules- the Legendary Journeys -"Hey Man thats real cool!"


Of course, it isn't really possible for films about Robin Hood to use music from the era, since none, other than religious plainsong and perhaps some oriental court music, is known. For that reason, music for films set in that period or earlier must use "modern" music - modern in the sense that it has been composed far more recently. But that doesn't mean that the production must use modern-sounding music and arrangements. No-one will ever beat the avowedly 19th century symphonic sound-pictures created by people like Erich Korngold (for 12th century England) and Miklos Rozsla (for 1st century AD Rome).

The original ITC "Adventures Of Robin Hood" managed to get away with it by using a (now famous) dramatic instrumental intro and an inoffensive and neutral song - or ballad - for the outro. By contrast, later, less successful, attempts at re-telling the story have used a peevishly trendy music, designed to be a record-selling hit rather than to paint a picture of medieval England.
User avatar
JimN
 
Posts: 4781
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:39 pm
Full Real Name: Jim Nugent

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby Tone » Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:37 am

noelford wrote:My biggest bugbear is when a film features a steam locomotive and the director uses stock footage. You don't have to be a train-spotter to see that the locomotive is totally different in different shots. Even great directors seem to have a blind spot with this lazy use of stock-film. Hitchcock's original 'The Lady Vanishes' features, for most of the film, one particular steam locomotive but, in one shot, it changes to another one, totally different. Also, quite often you see locos with a British Railways logo in a film set at a time decades before nationalisation of the railways. I've even seen a film where the train is supposed to be from somewhere on the continent but the loco has a British Railways logo!


I'm with you on this, Noel. It's been going on so long that now when I see it I just sigh instead of getting worked up about it. It seems odd that TV and film production companies will go to great lengths to get period detail spot on except when it comes to trains. As well as the examples you cite, how many times do you see characters who are supposed to be in an express train then you get an external shot of a little train chuffing gently along a single track heritage railway with a tiny loco which is out of sync with its coaches and the environment its supposed to be in.

Now excuse me while I unzip my anorak.
User avatar
Tone
 
Posts: 342
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:32 pm
Location: Berkshire
Full Real Name: Tony Ramsden

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sat Sep 22, 2018 4:24 pm

My opinion of non-diegetic music is that, even though the characters in the production can't hear it, it should still reflect the period of time in which the production is set.

(Worst offender being Chariots of Fire of course.)

Where the production is set before the introduction of written music, then no-one knows what the music of the period sounded like anyway, so the composer can have more leeway.
User avatar
Uncle Fiesta
 
Posts: 1187
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:31 pm
Location: near Gainsborough, England
Full Real Name: Steve Tebble

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby Simon Underwood » Thu Oct 18, 2018 12:49 pm

I can't believe no-one's mentioned the Gibson ES345 in Back To The Future yet, a guitar that didn't exist in 1955!

Simon
User avatar
Simon Underwood
 
Posts: 154
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:55 am
Location: East Sussex
Full Real Name: Simon Underwood

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby JimN » Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:44 pm

Simon Underwood wrote:I can't believe no-one's mentioned the Gibson ES345 in Back To The Future yet, a guitar that didn't exist in 1955!

Simon


There was also the infamous Case of "The Buddy Holly Story", in which Our Hero plays Fender guitars that didn't exist whilst he was alive:

(a) a red rosewood-board Bronco (introduced in the late 1960s)

(b) a rosewood-board Telecaster (introduced some months after he died) and

(b) a rosewood-board Stratocaster with the large CBS-era headstock and heavy block CBS-era lettering (though mercifully, no bullet truss adjuster), introduced in the very late 1960s.

Buddy cannot have even seen a Fender rosewood-board guitar other than a Jazzmaster (1958).

Eddie Cochran is shown in the same film as playing a Gretsch Duo-Jet instead of his Gretsch 6120 (though at least the orange colour was right).

The movie is nowadays held up by the (substantial) Hollywood prop-hire industry as the perfect example of how not to do historical instrument placement.

It was made worse by contemporary press reports which claimed that the Fender Musical Instruments company had co-operated with the producers in order to provide period-correct vintage instruments. In fact, not a single electric guitar was correct, though a Gibson J-45 used by "Buddy" was, for all intents and purposes, the real thing.
User avatar
JimN
 
Posts: 4781
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:39 pm
Full Real Name: Jim Nugent

Re: Mistakes made on Radio Television and Films

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:06 pm

You want wrong guitars? Have a look at Birth Of The Beatles!
User avatar
Uncle Fiesta
 
Posts: 1187
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:31 pm
Location: near Gainsborough, England
Full Real Name: Steve Tebble

PreviousNext

Return to The Lounge

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests

Ads by Google
These advertisements are selected and placed by Google to assist with the cost of site maintenance.
ShadowMusic is not responsible for the content of external advertisements.