Unrealistic things that happen in films..

[BumbleBee120]

Recently I am noticing more than ever things that are so unrealistic and think it would be so simple to make more believable, is anyone else like this? 😂

• When someone pulls out their phone & presses one button and their instantly calling the right person!?

• How a sudden downpour of rain can just start with no warning!?

• Always the most extravagant meals on the table for every mealtime but the kitchen is never messy!?

Yes the piece of toast thing that no one ever does in real life

People leaping up for some non-reason from an elaborately-prepared breakfast without eating a bite and the poor bugger who was up at half six mixing batter doesn’t say ‘sit down and eat your eggs, you ungrateful wretch.’ Variation - someone being fêted for some achievement/birthday sits down to the luxury feast, eats one bite of bacon, swigs some orange juice and says ‘gotta go-‘
why the fuck wasn’t this elaborate celebration breakfast better organised?? Are there no clocks in the house?? AND SO MUCH FOOD WASTE

Slapping people out of hysterics. Good luck with that one.

Scottish/Irish character accents in films generally. He’s a crofter? from the Highlands? Why does he sound like he’s from Govan then?? And why have all this birth family got different accents?

Profound last words. Actually, natural death, generally, is glamourised and sanitised.

When school bullying is ended by everyone turning on the bully and their target experiencing some sort of sense of victory.

Curl continuity, when a bedhead or similar magically sort itself out between stressful scenes. And women with highlights in dystopian/zombie films.

No-one ever says ‘hear me out - do you think this might be demons.’ I know it seems unlikely you’d actually get possessed but we’ve all surely seen enough demon films by this point to know when it’s certainly looking like a bad case of demons. Ditto no-one ever believing anyone else until it’s ‘too late.’ If I said to DH ‘DD was just walking like a spider round her bedroom ceiling and yapping in Aramaic’ I cannot imagine him saying ‘oh honey you’ve been working too hard lately.’ Not because he overly believes in demons but I mean, you’d at least ponder the possibility. Especially if you’d just moved to a semi-derelict rural house with a troubled history, and the dog just got murdered, and the kitchen cupboards unpacked themselves. Like, take a hint, for God’s sake.

I hate beautiful flowers being put in the bin and no one recycling

In Brassed Off the actors were taught the actual notes of the music being played. Apparently the noise was horrendous but they do look like they can play, and the extras were members of a brass band.

I watch The Rookie, my carer started to get interested so we started watching from the beginning and we frequently turn to each other and say, "how have they not been sacked yet"

I think it's easier with a brass instrument because it's not so much about the posture. An actor might well be playing the right notes on a cello or a violin, for instance, would still not be holding or moving the bow well or their left arm or hand might be in the wrong position. Are you a brass player? I wonder if a brass player would say that the actors in Brassed Off looked like genuine players? Did their mouths and faces look right when they played?

Totally agree, and where do all the Chinese people, who've been here for literally centuries, disappear to. Talk about under representation.

That was a point I forgot to mention and meant to actually. Nobody seems to care about the Chinese/Japanese/phillipinos

@LillyPJ What about the old trick of filming the actor from the other end of the piano, apparently lost in musical concentration, eyes half closed, gently swaying, head thrown back....

....then cutting to a real musician's hands which are clearly completely different.

Also works for cello, to a certain extent. Just film the head, then switch to another person's fingers on the strings.

Whilst I'm about it, I may as well mention the well known convention of filming a pregnant actor from behind large vases, plant pots, sitting at high bar tables etc, which is similar.

Opening ovens and no steam coming out. Ditto non steaming cups of tea. Also handing over takeaway cups that are obviously empty (put water in to weight it!)

And women with highlights in dystopian/zombie films.

I watched a film, whose name I forget, where everyone was living underground and having to grow their food underground. Understandably, there was a shortage of everything. Except mascara.

I'd like to know that too, sorry I don't play any instruments, I wish I did.

Ewan McGregor was a decent French horn player (he’d been playing since childhood) so he was able to look completely convincing. Apparently Tara Fitzgerald couldn’t play a brass instrument but she learned the right fingering for the pieces where she was supposed to be playing. A lot of the unbilled band members were actual players.

(Not a player myself but I work in a musical setting - and watching actors pretend to play the violin is invariably cringe-making)

What do they do wrong? Do they hold the bow flat instead of tilting it, or something else?

If something burns, it’s always burnt to smithereens.

They do all sorts of things wrong but I think you'd only spot it if you played yourself or had other close experience. I'm sure people who are experts in other fields also cringe when they see actors pretending to do something they (the expert)knows about.

Oh what, like riding horses, you mean?😂

It’s just……wrong! 😂 You can see that, yes, they’re usually not holding it properly, and because they don’t understand how holding the bow, and applying the bow to the strings with the right degree of pressure, produces the right sound, they can’t make it look convincing. Worst of all is when you see them sawing merrily away during a dramatic piece while doing all the required face acting - but to anyone who’s reasonably familiar with eg watching a symphony orchestra play, they don’t usually express much on their faces.

It’s not surprising when you think that musicians spend their entire lives learning to do this. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to learn how to look as though I was a convincing violinist after only 6 months or so of lessons! So I guess we should cut actors some slack.

I had a year of violin lessons when I was 11 and I was terrible, but I did at least learn how to hold a bow correctly.

I agree with the pp. who can't stand all the bouquets of flowers being thrown in bins - what a waste! I once knew a guy who worked in a flower factory and he and the other workers were allowed to take home bundles of surplus flowers. This guy would sometimes hand them out to old ladies on the street - he was a big bloke with a shaven head and tattoos, so they tended to be a bit surprised!

You mixing your metaphors there 😂

Smashed to smithereens or burnt to a crisp

Exactly. I've been playing the violin for over 50 years and you can tell when it's... just wrong! But I'm convinced when actors are e.g. fishing or riding horses or playing golf or being a scientist, and yet I'm sure actors get that slightly wrong too.

Slight detour. If you play a note on a violin and hand the bow to a child to let them try to make the note they will make a dogs dinner of it but hand it to a child who is deaf they will be a lot closer and sometimes the actual note, because they are not relying on their hearing they rely on the vibrations they feel.

Being a scientist just means wearing a white coat and being a bit whacky, doesn’t it?

Or a Goth female who looks about 17.

I'd like to know why the scientists, mathematicians and other clever bods are all hot and sexy (with the odd one wearing glasses to show that they're actually not sexy at all). Such people I've known in real life tend towards the nerdish. They are generally not hot or sexy (like most of us, to be fair), have bad haircuts and no interest in clothes, and stare at the floor or across your shoulder rather than looking you in the eye. There is a lot of mumbling.

This description also applies to engineers...

How can you spot an extrovert engineer?
They look at YOUR shoes when they’re talking to you.

And the in the yellow pages (remember them?!) it actually said,

Civil Engineering - See ‘Boring’