Well, I knew that The Empty Coffee Cup was a favorite column for me (’cause you know I love to rant), but WOW, did I get a LOT of email about this one! Hee! Seems everyone hates that dang empty cup (and the missing rear-view mirror, and the empty boxes when we’re moving, and the fact that we can put a man on the moon but can’t figure out how to make it look like a car is actually driving outside when it’s shot on green screen). Really great feedback on this piece. I especially liked the following email. Hope you will too!
Love your column on The Empty Coffee Cup! There is a continuity error in an animated film! Now, you could go back and redraw the cells, but no. It is in Pinocchio, yes, the Disney film. Jiminy Cricket takes off his coat, hangs it up, and goes. He immediately pops back up and he HAS HIS COAT ON!!! Reshooting an actor is one thing but this seems so simple to fix. But no, it has been like that since it was released!
I must speak up about continuity errors in film and TV. Even though there is a script supervisor on the set supposedly watching for continuity errors, they simply have too much else to do to catch these all the time. They are timing each roll of the camera, watching the script and sometimes there are three or more actors in a scene. How can one person keep all of this perfectly straight? They can’t. It is an impossible job. So they, and the actors, rely on the on-set prop people to watch for continuity errors in the handling and use of props and on-set wardrobe people to watch for costume errors and on-set hair and makeup people to watch for errors in that department. But so many things need watching and so many things can go wrong that inevitably, there are errors.
Of course it is ultimately the actor’s job to keep track, but there is only so much they can do. Even such a continuity hawk as Robert DeNiro makes continuity errors (Cape Fear — at the car window with Nick Nolte inside the car). And sometimes a director will ask for something a little different and an actor gives them something different, including a small change in an arm position, and then the director goes and uses it but then cuts to the other way of doing it in another angle and the two actions become mismatched. The actor did nothing wrong!!!
On a network TV show that shall remain nameless, there is a shot of me asking a question of the other character and I am clearly wearing a dark blue casual shirt. The other character replies in a separate shot. When the camera, a split second later returns to me (via an edit, not a pan) I am suddenly wearing a formal light grey suit! When I saw it aired on TV I was simply stupefied. I called the production office and asked what had happened because I knew I couldn’t change my clothes that fast and didn’t remember doing anything of the kind anyway.
I was redirected to the editor of that episode and he told me how this had occurred. There had been two scenes in the same location (my character’s office). In the first I was wearing the blue shirt, but in the second I was wearing the suit. The producer wanted however to do a rewrite! Yes, he liked some of the lines from the first scene (with blue shirt) but wanted some of the lines from the second scene (grey suit) cut into it. Hence, the blink-of-an-eye switch. It is one of the worst continuity errors I have ever seen and I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! The producer wanted to rewrite the script AFTER all the scenes had been shot! This is sometimes done, but with a good deal more art.
Anyway, love the columns! Keep up the great work!
Thanks,
Richard Brestoff
Assistant Professor of Drama
University of California, Irvine
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000692.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.