Tv continuity errors ?

[Wishiwas24again]

Anyone else find these annoying , so last nights call the midwife showed bedding which I have , it’s vintage but it’s part of the country diary range so wouldn’t have been available at the beginning of the 1970s ……or am I just being petty ( lighthearted thread please )

That's not what a continuity error is. A continuity error is someone starting a scene with less beer in their glass than at the end of the scene, or wearing a blue jacket getting onto a train and a black jacket getting off.

My mistake , not sure what it’s called but you get the idea

I often spot anachronisms in contemporary films/TV that are supposed to be set in the 70s/80s. I sit there yelling at the TV "We had that wallpaper but we didn't get it till 1982!"😆

I have noticed more in recent years, especially in big box office movies. It's usually tiny details like a watch switching wrists or curtains being open, shut, open, shut within the same scene when ever it switches camera angles

The drinks thing, as mentioned already and cigarettes used to be a big one for me! In one scene on a programme I watched, the length of the cig being smoked was up and down like a fiddlers elbow!
I look at clocks in scenes too!

So continuity errors and anachronisms , ( thanks to previous poster ) ……both irritating

I was an extra in a film last year, the scene we filmed was a "pub" type scene and we were all given real drinks and very strict instructions not to even have one sip for continuity. Between takes you put your drink on a numbered square on a table so that you pick up the same one when they are ready to go again.

I've often wondered - when you're an extra in a pub scene, do you just have a normal conversation with whoever you are at your table with, as if you really were in the pub?

If I'm watching a scene where there are a lot of extras in the background, I often find myself watching the extras and wondering what they are talking about.

Many years ago when travelling in the US, my friend and I were on Santa Monica pier when a film crew asked if we wanted to be extras for a scene of Baywatch. It was only for one short clip (we had to play hoopla at a beachfront stall while the lifeguard vehicle pulled in to the foreground) so it only took half an hour or so.

We are just told to focus on throwing the rings and pretend to chat to each other while trying not to make much/any audible sound. The director guy used the word "Pantomiming". We were instructed above all not to look round and not to look at the cameras. I can't remember what we spoke (mimed) about.

I avidly watched the next series when back in the UK but never spotted myself, I assumed it was one of many filler clips not used.

I will add that we were not asked because we looked glamorous in bikinis or anything, we looked like very ordinary tourists in baggy t shirts and shorts, ideal for blending into the backdrop I suppose.

It very much depends on what they are filming. If they are filming the main characters talking, you may have to stay quiet and just pretend to be chatting. Other times they want background chatter.

By the time cameras start rolling you have spent several hours with these people sitting around in holding, having breakfast, drinking coffee, perhaps on a minibus to the location. Nobody I have ever met is a full time extra, in Scotland there just isn't the work. So everyone does other things so the main topics of conversation on any set are: where do you come from / did you have an early start / how was your journey, what do you do when you aren't doing this, or when do you think we will wrap or get lunch or will the food be any good. I personally don't mind chatting small talk with strangers, people on MN who take huge offence at being asked even simple details about themselves would hate it

But you can hardly expect them to track down genuine 50-year-old bed linen, surely? You've got to give them some licence for creating the look of the period without spending tons of money and time on it.

But you can hardly expect them to track down genuine 50-year-old bed linen, surely? You've got to give them some licence for creating the look of the period without spending tons of money and time on it.

Yes! There are companies that rent out costumes and decor and all those bits and bobs that are from the right era so productions feel authentic.

They just need to ask my parents!
Though actually I'm not sure they have anything that new. 😁

I volunteered in a charity shop chain which has a large online shop, we often packed up parcels of genuine vintage clothes, bags and accessories for costume houses.

I love spotting continuity errors, especially in big budget movies! I could definitely do that job!

Not tv, but I get annoyed listening to the Murder Most Unladylike books on audible with my child and hearing them talk about eating sticky toffee pudding in a boarding school in the 1930s. Possible I suppose, but surely unlikely. I can tsk quite satisfyingly listening to those books and their anachronisms!

I find Heartbeat normally quite authentic apart from one time an off licence shop had their sign spelt LICENSE, this Americanism would not be used in 60s Yorkshire, same I notice houses having central heating, this would be very rare in 60s Yorkshire, we did not get it until 1980

How do you know there wasn’t a similar pattern of bedding available in the 70s? I think the only time these things can be legitimately criticised is when technology is involved - like someone wearing a digital watch before they were invented.

I noticed the pillowcase , I have it on my bed in the spare room and the book was published in the late 1970’s so I doubt the pillowcase predates this , I know it’s not important ( hence lighthearted ) just fascinated and wondered what else people have spotted in the same theme

Why unlikely.? Sticky toffee pudding isn't new invention!

@TheyAreNotAngelsTheyDontCareAtAll

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickytoffeee_pudding

Didn't become popular till 60s

But was in existence before the 1960s, if under a different name.
Why is it so hard for people to understand that stuff was around before they were born?

Maybe but I imagine in the book it was named.
I was born long after the 60s!