To err is human

It is said that nine out of 10 movies have them.

Ranging from pretty women, to very handsome secret agents, to green ogres, pirates and young wizards. One would think this would be a positive quality wouldn´t they?Well, it´s not. In fact, directors shudder to think that their movie contains the much feared continuity mistakes.

Films generally take months to shoot, and this means that a single scene may have to be filmed many, many times, often over a few days. Over this period, actors leave the set and crew members get ahold of props: that´s when problems begin. How is one to remember exactly where everything was? Although the acting is likely to come out spotless in the last scene shot, the scene´s logical sequence may have been changed.

Have you ever watched a film and got the sneaking suspicion that something was wrong? Just a scene ago, the actor´s shirt was stained with blood, but where´s the blood now? You remember there was a big plastic cup on the side table, however, wasn´t it green, not blue? Thats preciselly what a visual error is: a tiny mistake that only the most observant viewer is likely to see.

The most feared mistakes are not visual though, they are editing and plot errors. The first is when, in a scene, an actor refers to an event that hasn´t been included in the film, and the latter is when the story is just not logical, like when a dead character comes back to life.

Although most movies have continuity mistakes, producers and directors do their best to ensure that their errors dont happen often. The script supervisor
is the person in charge of making sure the film has as few editing, visual and plot errors as possible.

These little mistakes are really fun to watch, so the next time you´re in a movie theatre take up this challenge: look really close, and see if you can catch one!

Here are some to get you started.


Posted by Denise Fenelon