Thank you very much ! I worked with so many persons who were obsessed with continuity, as if the only thing they wanted was making a flawless but commonplace story. Without risk there is no chance to make the difference...
Hey, man. I caught the continuity error, but only because the context and the title of the video prompted me to look for it. EDIT: And I still didn't notice the jacket.
I guess i'm just dim because I don't tend to notice that many mistakes until people point them out. I guess the emotion of the scene or what else is going on visually overrides it. That eye tracking stuff is cool. When I do spot an inconsistency I just kinda chuckle. isn't most the editing done well after the shooting so it's kinda impossible for them to go back and reshoot just for the sake of fixing something hardly noticeable. and if the dialogue in a scene is really important and a guy has a watch on or off, you may just have to sacrifice that inconsistency for a good exchange of dialogue or something.
I assumed he was going to talk about the train, since it was clearly intentional, and the type of cut that most people don't notice or care about. I also noticed that the cross bars are closer in the exact cut where the jacket appears, but I again thought of that as the type of continuity error most people don't notice. Nothing he said really explained why seeing the jacket was so difficult, since there was no face to follow at the cut. He should have gone into how we also follow the direction of movement, and just change blindness.
I noticed he was walking in front of the train light but when it cut to the scene where he was wearing the jacket he was standing in front of the train light
Usually people say "wow that's a shitty editor" but I have to say, as an editor, I have to work with the footage I had been given and nothing more than that, and that happens most of the time. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
You notice continuity in two situations; if the movie is so boring that you're looking around for anything to entertain you. Or if you absolutely loved every second of the movie that you're rewatching it a 100 times and know every scene by heart.
That scene from Shutter Island with the water glass is so obviously not a continuity error...it's an extremely deliberate choice to show that DeCaprio's character is not trustworthy.
The question I have is though, how many people will understand that was the true intention behind the scene? Do most audiences pick up on what is a deliberate choice by the director or editor?
Its quite simple... what will the audience be looking at in a particular shot? Is there a continuity error in that element? Then it matters... [In the shot where you showed the train leaving, there is nothing more important than the train. Everybody sees the train, and they all notice that it is different. It matters then! Same with the jump in location, audience are thinking 'where is he going?' and they are trying to look for it, that's not when you are allowed to make a continuity jump in location!]
To me (and to the last 27 years worth of IMDB users, I presume) errors in continuity are different from revealing mistakes. Continuity is about shot B and C being in accordance with shot A. That is, if for example the cigarette is halfway smoked in shot A, then only just lit in shot B, and then perhaps in shot C halfway smoked again, it is a error in continuity. Same if, say, a car as yellow in one shot, blue in the next etc. Revealing mistakes (visible crew, camera, rigging etc) is in a category of its own. Anyway, when does errors/mistakes matter? When they take something away from the film (like the viewers attention). Most often is just fun catching it, but in films that relies on details for giving clues, for interpretation, or for foreshadowing, errors can be devastating though.
Continuity can mean a great deal - as a VFX compositor, it's one of the number one things I get hired to fix on films, and some people with budgets will pay thousands to fix things that differ between shots (or if there's an historical continuity error or goof). It all depends on the scene, the budget, and it's influence on the audience's attention in relation to the story. I worked on the feature film Person to Person and there's a scene where it's cutting between two characters. One has a digital alarm clock next to him. The takes the editor chose to cut together caused the alarm clock to constantly change what time it was during the back and forth talking. It was completely distracting and I imagine that most people's attention would have shifted from the face of the characters to the alarm clock had I not been hired to fix it, effectively ruining the emotion of the scene. To me it's all about whether the error (whether it be continuity or a goof) takes you out of the story - if it does then fixing it "in post" would be a good idea. I'm not saying things have to be perfect but I find that I have to be especially diligent with my work because many people are more perceptive than you might give them credit. And emotion is certainly key, but the emotion of a scene dies the moment the audience isn't thinking about the characters anymore, and about a continuity mistake or goof instead...but once again, this is a gray case-by-case issue. I would leave the jacket take in if it was the best take in your first example (it'd be very time consuming to digitally replace anyway), while the camera goof on the stairwell I'd comp out because it wouldn't take too long and it's something I think most will notice.
Not all scenes should take place in real time. Editing is meant to string along important moments of a scene. It's totally okay to jump ahead when necessary.
Exactly what Butt Boys said. You can jump ahead in space, there's absolutely no problem with that, it just implies that a person walked more than what we saw. The film is not forced to show you all the steps a human walks.
@@OKULTRACOMEDY Yes, but in this film, it's very poorly executed. The whole scene up until that point is patient and shot in real time. He's waiting and watching the train pass, waiting for the barriers to open, then slowly walking across the tracks, so it throws you off when he's suddenly inside the car park. Terrible editing.
@@oh-totoro Exactly this. If the scene had shown straight cuts that compressed time prior, then yes not showing all the walking is fine, but in the segment we saw that wasn't established and would be considered wrong or off. Of course we are only seeing a segment of the scene so I'm giving the editor the benefit of the doubt that he already established that type of editing dynamic.
For me, a continuity only really matters when it pulls you out of the film experience. The biggest example, which I note they've fixed for the blu-ray, is in Star Trek V. Kirk is falling from El Capitan, and wearing a blue vest. Halfway down the stunt double takes over and is just wearing a black jumper, and then we cut back to Shatner wearing the blue vest again.This wasn't for performance. They just didn't get the wardrobe right on the stuntman. If it doesn't draw attention to itself, then it's fine.For example, I don't care about the blue milk switching hands in Star Wars. I only notice it because people write about it.
THANK YOU! Just started editing my short film and some of my crew started pointing out these little things like a character switching hands holding a beer bottle too quickly, which was a conscious editing choice on my part where I sacrificed movement continuity for better rhythm, clarity and avoiding distracting movement in the shot. They said it's unprofessional while I actually feel the amateur films suffer a lot from committing to 100% continuity and dragging the scene forever with no rhythm. I felt bad anyway, but then I started reading "In the blink of an eye" and watched this video )) Now I don't feel crazy anymore.
I always thought there was something wrong with me because of all the critics on the internet who constantly point out continuity errors (check the "goofs" section on IMDB) but I rarely ever notice them. But, now that I saw this video, I decided I like not noticing them.
Editors know how difficult it is to cut an emotional scene, or an action scene. People who watch films often assume editing is very easy. It's actually very difficult, I don't think anybody appreciates a brilliant actor as much as the editor. There is a nuance to editing and honestly when you break it all down continuity just doesn't matter in the same way to the story tellers. Nice job explaining it.
It's Jonah Hill's position, he switches his leaning position from hand to elbow back and forth a few times. 2:46 to 2:54 hand 2:54 to 2:57 elbow then suddenly he switches back to hand again.
I used to think that continuity errors were a bigger deal, perhaps because of how much people like to point them out. But now I see that as long as the scene and its message are conveyed effectively, a few minor continuity errors here and there do not truly hurt the movie as a whole.
dude i love your channel, your videos have this spark in them that keeps me watching without realising that the video is about to end lol. keep up the good work!
I saw the train first, didnt spot the jacket and only found the cup because i went looking for it after the video. Therefore jacket and cup are mistakes i wouldnt have spotted and dont bother me. Neither does the train though. Im sure i would have seen it but it wouldnt get more than a giggle out of me.
I think the fact that the train changes between two consecutive shots at similar angles makes the change more noticeable. Also, the fact that, in my case at least, I was focused on the background detail because I 1) was looking out for a continuity error 2) like that sort of casual world-building detail and 3) was watching the clip out of context and so wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, so my eyes weren't focused on them. :)
I completely agree with Walter Murch and yourself, as human beings we are foremost, and naturally, emotional beings, the rhythm, pacing and construction of the story in an overall scene shapes our journey through a film, not a single defined moment. Emotion is shaped by a multitude of things all working at once over time, I never cut around continuity, I don't even cut around out of focus shots. Some of the best moments I've put in films is when a shot is out of focus, and it works.
The cameraman in 6:45 could have been easily fixed in post with a rectangular moving piece of gray. Had to fix a crew that could be seen in a windows in 3 shots recently and didn’t take too much time but made the scene way less distractive.
A problem I have with "continuity errors" is exactly as you pointed out in the "Shutter Island" example: especially when watching indie movies, filmmakers hide so many hints in the visuals, I start searching for the little details, and am often thrown off by genuine errors. I don't want to look for them, but feel I'm meant to, and then sometimes feel led astray.
As opposed to who? Those cutting on film? That is such an easy fix. Its laughable and amateur to leave it in. Given the ability to fix it, would you honestly leave it there?
i noticed the train having ads in first shot & not in second, way easier than the jacket!! Working on my first short. Continuity not as easy as people might think. thanks for the video!! cheers
To me, it depends highly on the continuity error. If it's noticeable I think it's very much worth trying to find a good way around it in editing. The most important thing for me is to be careful on set with continuity errors, if you catch most of them while filming, then the ones that slip by usually aren't that big of a deal.
That scene though where the guy is walking down the stairs holding the kid and you can see the camera in the reflection, that would be super easy to remove in after effects. Just sayin.
It`s art, not science. It is not supposed to stay true to reality, but to trick you into state of relaxation, when you just accept it as something that COULD happen. Otherwise we all would be going like: "There is a mistake! He is not a king. He is an actor Whatshisname" So if you really have to try to destroy this illusion of reality, it means it is working. Real mistakes are things, that are so stupid/obvious/whatever thay do not let you believe in this created reality. Therefore if something fits into the film and doesn`t spoil the mood (on the first (10) sight(s) ) it is not a real mistake. Take an example: actor A was sick, so he sent his identical twin brother - actor B to do one day at work for him. No one noticed, because they were twins. Mistake? Maybe? But what if it`s done on purpose? Or what if actor A was an inanimate object and his identical twin brother - actor B was the identical inanimate object? Could it be a mistake? How do you tell those identical inanimate twin brother actor objects apart? You have to go to the set, do some lab research and voila! Now you have a proof, that director is fucking liar and used a diffrenrt object in this one particular scene.
Love these analytical-type videos. This one particularly! This is such ha big lesson for first time filmmakers. We often have a saying on our sets "if they audience is paying attention to that, then we didn't do our job". This usually only applies to minor continuity errors and we still do our best, but the emotion is the most important factor.
Actually, I did not notice the jacket, because I already noticed the child was no longer holding the plastic cup with a straw. I thought that was the continuity error - maybe error No. 2 ...?
The crew member on "Pirates..", the hand on the velociraptor or the air bottles on "Gladiator" are NOT "continuity errors", check you facts before making a video about the subject. They shouldn't be seen, they are mistakes, but not continuity errors.
I'm working on my first feature and it's become a running joke on set about the number of continuity errors we're going to have. One of our big issues is blood after an action scene. We already know we're going to have actors going from bloody faces and clothes to suddenly clean faces and clothes and then back again. Ultimately we just decided "it's a movie, no one is going to care as long as they are engaged and entertained." I think this is my first time commenting, but I really love your episodes. I've been an avid viewer for a few months now.
Hey Sven, Just wanted to say that I like the new direction you took with this episode. Your firm delivery and faster-paced edit demands the viewer's attention from the very beginning and carries that consistency through to the end. There's a nice balance between examples and explanation that creates a question for the audience and promptly proposes a possible explanation. By doing this, you leave just enough room for the audience to still consider their own opinions-- THIS is respect for an audience. This balance in teaching is my favorite form of education and, quite frankly, the one I find most effective. I definitely feel like the emotional stakes in this video are raised in terms of the edit. It makes me want to find an answer to the posed question as you ask it. Though the arc of each episode was well established independently in prior episodes, I definitely feel the emotional draw in this one. It's an inspiring and challenging episode. Also, I love seeing the more emphasized inclusion of your followers' comments. It really shows that you're taking our thoughts into consideration and I appreciate that. I'm definitely seeing the positive evolution of this channel and think it's something very worthwhile. Keep up the great work! Cheers, Vinny
Fair enough, I didn't notice the jacket. I was way to distracted by the train that was completely different. A good distraction as a more glaring continuity error, I guess.
Haha, I only spotted the jacket after you'd pointed it out, I was feeling too smug about noticing the train by that point. I only noticed that because you'd said "watch this clip" on a video with this title, so I was on the lookout for a mistake somewhere.
You could probably do some form of scientific study that may show this scene makes viewers feel uneasy or odd, because even if you don't see the magical jacket appear, your subconscious does and probably raises red flags you may not even be aware of. Our brains don't like it when our physical environment acts/responds in unknown or unexpected ways.
There's that candid camera type thing where they have someone talking to a person and people carrying a board walk between them and they swap the actor with someone else completely different and the person usually won't notice.
Honestly, I'd never notice if you hadn't told me to watch out for something, and even then it was only the train. The jacket went straight out the window exactly because I thought I had noticed the thing you were thinking about, and therefore relaxed.
I come from a theatre background, so I am often highly attuned when continuity errors occur in film; as they are so much more easily eliminated in film. Thus, when they happen, I often wonder, why?
NO SPOILERS: I just wanted to add: Shutter island's phantom glass stems from the fact that we shift between the point of views of the protagonist and the lady. Water is symbolic to the main character which he attempts to suppress, thus we don't see the water from his point of view, only the lady's.
This is related to "[in]attentional blindness"/"change blindness" as well. As we're focused on what's most important to the story going on, only more glaring mistakes will tend to be noticed without one actively trying to find them. The psychologist Richard Wiseman has one interesting video on it, with dozens of things changing from cut to cut, or from close ups to zoom-outs. I think it would be funny to see if someone can get away with changing the actor playing an unimportant character (like a salesman interrupting a dialog for a brief moment), as at least in real life, this is perhaps the most extreme thing people can be "blinded" to.
some mistakes can be distracting. it would be like reading a book with bad grammar. yes you will get the same information in the end, but the impact of the message will be compromised if you're taken out of immersion and the flow is interrupted
@@codesymphony Yup, I rarely notice mistakes unless I am specifically asked to look for them, but there have been some that have been too obvious to miss and it really pulls you out of the film for a moment. I can't even remember which film it was now, but I remember one where a guy falls over a hand rail and down some stairs, and you can clearly see he lands on a crash mat. It really took me right out of the film, and I had to rewind to check that I saw it. It was so obvious and I couldn't believe it made it into the final cut.
I'll settle this by saying, "Continuity errors ARE lazy planning and lazy awareness with lazy execution" I worked on a film in the pacific northwest back in the early 90's and continuity was taken care of with a polaroid camera. Nowadays when producers/directors/editors are CAUGHT with continuity they give the juvenile answer, " Oh I meant to do that"
Great video for filmmaking! I often stated that if you're caught up in the emotion of the scene you likely won't notice or care. Glad there's good examples here to back that up. My favorite example is in "When Harry Met Sally", when Harry and Sally are fighting outside the building after they ran into his ex-wife. On the cuts back and forth, Meg Ryan has crossed arms and then uncrossed arms - through several cuts. When I've pointed this out to people, they never noticed. Because the performance are THAT good!
I Totally Disagree, and consider this whole point of view to be an insult to the craft and art. now while i dont look for them Continuity errors, but there is this little thing in films called easter eggs or just hidden information/symbolism from the story or even simple darn ambiance so you dont just look in one particular portion of a screen, if that were what the director wanted they would've kept in close to the face. im sorry im not jut staring at eyes and teeth. on that one on the stairs with the kid you couldve easily just punched in the whole cut so that it was just the baby in his arms the lower shoulders blades of the mans back to the top of his head then a little head room with NO frame to the right WHERE THERE IS A REFLECTIVE SURFACE . or a simple digital mask over the window (replicating the solid black portions of the window). im still just seeing most of this a workers/artist being lazy. and way too content with themselves. while i agree that the best shot should be used. you always get that Neo in the matrix effect (when he notices his first glitch) when a continuity jumps up at you. the one that always catches me is scene cuts with different moving objects in the background. for example when 2 people are sitting at one of those outdoor cafes talking and you see a Mail truck behind them then later you see that same truck come into frame and park in that spot. your brain automatically goes from the story to what the editor as thinking. sort of like your shot of a white train with huge windows and writing on the side changed to a silver amtrak train, in a weird out of place cut away 0:08 . it was so jarring that i couldnt even notice the jacket stuff. thats what we are talking about. and the whole point is to immerse the viewer in the world NOT the flaws Of the production team, whether that be crew members standing in shots, the wardrobe department not remembering that 7 pieces of clothing between 2 actors (jacket,shirt,pants,shoes for the father. and shirt, pants, and shoes for the baby) , or editors and directors just calling it a night in the editing room and saying "well i dont care and 2 other people doing the same job as me doesnt care so F the other 7 billion other viewers." like really, you made a whole 8 minute video trying to convince the world that a continuity director is a waste. that knowing what is in your camera frame is useless (none of those crew members would be in the shots). that feeling like you are in a moment with a man and his child deeply enthralled in their turmoil and then you see some sweaty guy following them around all paranormal activity style. this isnt a reality TV show that is Real Housewives type crap. understand that you are humans WHO WILL ALWAYS MAKE MISTAKES. but "Strive for perfection" and never make excuses. as an experienced artist you have a responsiblity to all who see your work and watch this channel, dont go around propagating this horrible trope in film.
great video mate, something I always seem to pick up is continuity errors, but I think photographers tend to do this because we train our eyes to look for little things that may be a miss in our shots.
I am too of the opinion that even though I don't look for them, if I notice one it will bother the hell out of me. This is the main reason I dislike The Wolf of Wall Street. It was full of obvious and in-your-face continuity errors that I never really got into the story. I was just sitting there noticing mistakes.
That Shutter Island scene is more specifically there because (spoilers): Andrew has a fear of water because that’s what his children died by so he is editing it out of his perception
I can't stand continuity errors, they are incredibly distracting, things like the levels of a drink, or the foam on a beer changing throughout a scene. I don't care what these editors say, I think it's lazy film making. The most common is the over the shoulder shot of someone talking but their jaw and face are clearly not moving. This is exacerbated when the character is meant to be yelling something.
UltraClue I agree, that is the most common mistake I see, they insert other dialogue but clearly the mouth was not saying those lines. The over the shoulder goof.
I sometimes notice the unsynchronized movement but it seldom bothers me. If the editing benefits the emotional effect and/or the overall rhythm of the scene, then it's the right sacrifice to make.
Great video. Found the extra 2 mistakes. My favorite mistake is in the 1st Transformers when Bumble Bee is “broken down”, the car door is close then in a few shots later it’s open or vice versa Lol.
This is one of the things that I teach to my students. Filmmakers are supposed to love movies, but new filmmaker often hate everything they watch because they see mistakes everywhere. So I say to my students: If film school is going to make you hate films, then you better do something else.
the scene in shutter island represents Dicaprio's characters fear of water. as his character has a fear of water, his mind creates a mental block when he sees the full glass, which is why we see it again only when the glass is empty and the water is gone.
3 errors in that scene, the first is the insert shot of a completely different train, the second is the jacket suddenly appearing and the third is how the kid is holding a cup in the first closeup, but the cup is never seen again.
Yeah, the emotional aspect of the back of his head as he walked down the stairs would have been difficult to recapture. Sounds like BS to me. Refilm it without the cameraman im reflection.
With that scene with mark going down the stairs, I agree the scene works best when un-interrupted but at the same time seeing the camera in the mirror and again in the window when he reaches the bottom catches my eye so much it throws me out of it. Something similar happens at the start of American History X. When the kid is talking to the principle in the beginning you can see boom mics reflected in the glass behind the principle. It becomes such a distraction when it's noticed the acting really can't help it.
There are 2 kinds of editors in this world : 1 who work with directors Martin Scorsese Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick 2 who make youtube videos criticize others work n make nonsense
I noticed the continuity error right from the start and... The funniest part is that camera shake got more of my attention than that. Also, kid steals attention: kids and cats, as they say, are always a center of the scene. ;) I've also noticed single-frame at 5:55 from the start but it took me several attempts to actually discern it: getting sloppy then since I usually also can discern the shape at first glance. I love the message of this video essay about the emotion and performance being way more pivotal than continuity: it's been my guiding star through 12 years shoot of an ugly feature film which is about to hopefully end this year and it's nice to know more about theoretically, to cut more effectively. As I sort of edit along with shooting to fasten the process it's been a nightmare so far and continuity was one of the first corners to cut, which actually served for a lot of moments of creativity bot on-set and in the edit.
Scorsese and Schoonmaker very quickly made me not care about this. Obviously you want to avoid them pre-emptively, but being a stickler for it is pointless, and actually counter-intuitive. In fact, there's some science behind the idea that people experience time differently when watching a film. It doesn't matter if when you cut away, an actor's face is in a different spot, or whatever; in part because you have an instinct that superfluous seconds may have been lost, and that this is why their face has moved. Or to add in the sensation that you are watching a longer conversation that is not exactly playing out in real time.
I find it remarkable how well she understands the flow of the scene to not care about eyelines and head position. I bet she doesn't even see it as she cuts it, because she is totally engaged with the emotion of the scene.
Watching it in 2019 : 0:11 The train in two separate shots are different : White carriages with advertising stickers on, as train enters frame from the right, and then a Grey train carriages, as it leaves the frame. 7:25 The woman drinks water from an invisible glass with her right hand, and puts a real glass down with her left. In a RUclips video, Martin Scorsese actually showed a continuity error in one of his early films (Mean Streets, I think) where Harvey Keitel has different hair cuts in the same scene. As long as you don't dilute the 58% of emotional connectivity, it's just a movie...
I caught 3 - 5 continuity errors in my first viewing of the opening sequence. I don't understand how you could have watched it 100 times without noticing the errors. I figured this was a piece of film to test how many inconsistencies there were. The three that stuck out like a sore thumb: 1) Different train coming than the one going. 2) The child is drinking a red slushy type drink out of a see-through plastic cup with a straw. Missing in the next shot. 3) The guy's clothes don't match from scene to scene. 4) This is iffy. I'd have to go back again to watch: the fence on the other side of the train tracks doesn't fit when the train is rolling out towards the left of the frame. 5) The lighting is different on the train in the second shot than the train in the beginning with the advertisements on it. It's a sunny day when we see the first train. When I was 10 I noticed my first error in continuity in the movie JAWS. The boat's name painted black in one scene and white in another. (Also red, I discovered later.) I don't agree with you that continuity doesn't matter. Egregious errors pull you out of your suspension of belief. I was a photographer and lighting specialist in NYC (before becoming disabled), and I score hog l high on spacial math in intelligence tests, so I'm predisposed to looking around the frame. I'm not a fan of horror: I'm sure if I was my eyes would be staying right on the subject or thing at the "center" of the shot. I've been studying films since art school (actually studying scenes, etc.). I watched SPLIT several times before noticing there's an up close shot of Betty Buckley where she's not wearing eye glasses. The camera changes angles to behind her, the lens on James McAvoy. At this point Buckley can be seen taking off glasses that she wasn't wearing. This type of error was hardly noticeable and did not affect the viewing pleasure at all. I didn't notice it until I was specifically studying the cinematography.) I have friends who work on film sets (gaffers, prop guy, set dressers, lighting technicians). I don't buy that continuity doesn't matter. It's someone's job to ensure that there's IS continuity. (Sidney Lumet makes a great point, in his priceless MAKING MOVIES book, about Henry Fonda and his uncanny awareness of his body language, clothing, emotions, etc. , from scenes that were shot weeks earlier in 12 Angry Men. They were reshot to get the other actors POV.) I'm not saying directors can't & don't use continuity to play with the viewer's mind, but egregious mistakes that have nothing to do with the plot do take away from the integrity of film (again: egregious ones). I love what Coppola and Lumet say about continuity. I love their films and they were both sticklers for continuity.
Continuity does matter. If the film editor says that it doesn't matter, then she's not doing her job well - what a poor excuse for not doing her job lol! Also, there's a large segment of the population who *do* recognize flaws, and it ruins the scene. If you want to make a masterpiece, then do it right. Film makers and actors are getting paid millions to create a movie-going experience - do your job.
Interestingly, in the very first scene from the railroad crossing, I noticed a much bigger mistake than the jacket. Immediately in the first shot. The train is white with advertising in the first shot, and when the camera rotate it is silver without advertising.
I was in a wildlife hide the other week (same one where my profile pick was taken) when I got talking to this guy about Steadicam. He told me many people are now using stills camera's for this. The following night I was watching Lindsey Sterling's Phantom of the Opera video and what did I see? That's right a Steadicam operator with what looks like a Canon 5D.
I didn't noticed the jacket. What I found jarring was how they suddenly went from the tracks to the middle of the parking lot without establishing the path to the parking lot beforehand.
In the First Scene with the jacket - there are two different trains one white with commerical first and after that a grey train without any commercials.WOW!
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Thank you very much ! I worked with so many persons who were obsessed with continuity, as if the only thing they wanted was making a flawless but commonplace story. Without risk there is no chance to make the difference...
amen
Hey, man. I caught the continuity error, but only because the context and the title of the video prompted me to look for it.
EDIT: And I still didn't notice the jacket.
I saw the kid's cup missing, then the jacket after you pointed it out. What's the third one?
BrandNewBoston To Mr it was most obvious - the train changes colour!
I guess i'm just dim because I don't tend to notice that many mistakes until people point them out. I guess the emotion of the scene or what else is going on visually overrides it. That eye tracking stuff is cool. When I do spot an inconsistency I just kinda chuckle. isn't most the editing done well after the shooting so it's kinda impossible for them to go back and reshoot just for the sake of fixing something hardly noticeable. and if the dialogue in a scene is really important and a guy has a watch on or off, you may just have to sacrifice that inconsistency for a good exchange of dialogue or something.
Noticed the train. Didn't see the jacket, lol.
Gordo Cabrón same
I assumed he was going to talk about the train, since it was clearly intentional, and the type of cut that most people don't notice or care about.
I also noticed that the cross bars are closer in the exact cut where the jacket appears, but I again thought of that as the type of continuity error most people don't notice.
Nothing he said really explained why seeing the jacket was so difficult, since there was no face to follow at the cut. He should have gone into how we also follow the direction of movement, and just change blindness.
I noticed the missing slurpy cup or whatever it was.
I noticed he was walking in front of the train light but when it cut to the scene where he was wearing the jacket he was standing in front of the train light
Lmao exactly the same
Haha I saw the train was different, not the jacket
Same lol
How can you ignore the train? LOL
omg thank you i thought i was losing my mind
Yeah this guy needs to pay attention. Train is different.
Also the drink disappears!
Is there an insert with a completely different train as well or am I crazy
also saw the other Train, i'll guess two continuity errors
Thought exactly the same :D
Who cares about the jacket, the train dude!
to address the Train in the room ;)
Lucas Yh the train is not same I thought there was mistake
Where dd the child's drink go?
Usually people say "wow that's a shitty editor" but I have to say, as an editor, I have to work with the footage I had been given and nothing more than that, and that happens most of the time. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
100% plus sometimes you are directed to edit something a certain way that you may disagree with but you must do what the director wants
You notice continuity in two situations; if the movie is so boring that you're looking around for anything to entertain you. Or if you absolutely loved every second of the movie that you're rewatching it a 100 times and know every scene by heart.
Idk, sometimes it's just too obvious
Also, sometimes I just randomly glance at objects
@@razkanaz 3: having adhd
That scene from Shutter Island with the water glass is so obviously not a continuity error...it's an extremely deliberate choice to show that DeCaprio's character is not trustworthy.
as we point out at towards the end of the video... :)
The question I have is though, how many people will understand that was the true intention behind the scene?
Do most audiences pick up on what is a deliberate choice by the director or editor?
Now I wanna' make scenes with intentional continuity gaps to subconsciously imply a feeling of confusion and delirium.
Steven Blanton I think most won't notice that her hand is empty. It happens too fast and looks like it might obscured by her hand.
That's how Nolan cut the car chase scene in the Dark Knight.
I thought it was the child holding a cup and then his hands are empty. Didn't notice the jacket.
Same
Its quite simple... what will the audience be looking at in a particular shot? Is there a continuity error in that element? Then it matters...
[In the shot where you showed the train leaving, there is nothing more important than the train. Everybody sees the train, and they all notice that it is different. It matters then! Same with the jump in location, audience are thinking 'where is he going?' and they are trying to look for it, that's not when you are allowed to make a continuity jump in location!]
To me (and to the last 27 years worth of IMDB users, I presume) errors in continuity are different from revealing mistakes. Continuity is about shot B and C being in accordance with shot A. That is, if for example the cigarette is halfway smoked in shot A, then only just lit in shot B, and then perhaps in shot C halfway smoked again, it is a error in continuity. Same if, say, a car as yellow in one shot, blue in the next etc.
Revealing mistakes (visible crew, camera, rigging etc) is in a category of its own.
Anyway, when does errors/mistakes matter? When they take something away from the film (like the viewers attention). Most often is just fun catching it, but in films that relies on details for giving clues, for interpretation, or for foreshadowing, errors can be devastating though.
Actually,that's a sequencing error.
@@c.s.mcleod7383 - Nah, it's definitely called continuity error; filmstudies.info/terminology/manuscripts/continuity-error.html
"I found the train/cup, not the jacket!"
He knows about them.
8:02
same
Of course he does. He's the one who asked us to point them out. So you can't complain that people are pointing them out.
which movie trhat was?
Also, the train in 00:09 is not the same one as the train in 00:16
Continuity can mean a great deal - as a VFX compositor, it's one of the number one things I get hired to fix on films, and some people with budgets will pay thousands to fix things that differ between shots (or if there's an historical continuity error or goof). It all depends on the scene, the budget, and it's influence on the audience's attention in relation to the story.
I worked on the feature film Person to Person and there's a scene where it's cutting between two characters. One has a digital alarm clock next to him. The takes the editor chose to cut together caused the alarm clock to constantly change what time it was during the back and forth talking. It was completely distracting and I imagine that most people's attention would have shifted from the face of the characters to the alarm clock had I not been hired to fix it, effectively ruining the emotion of the scene.
To me it's all about whether the error (whether it be continuity or a goof) takes you out of the story - if it does then fixing it "in post" would be a good idea. I'm not saying things have to be perfect but I find that I have to be especially diligent with my work because many people are more perceptive than you might give them credit. And emotion is certainly key, but the emotion of a scene dies the moment the audience isn't thinking about the characters anymore, and about a continuity mistake or goof instead...but once again, this is a gray case-by-case issue. I would leave the jacket take in if it was the best take in your first example (it'd be very time consuming to digitally replace anyway), while the camera goof on the stairwell I'd comp out because it wouldn't take too long and it's something I think most will notice.
this is a great comment. Props for taking the time to share this.
I didn't notice the jacket but I did notice that the actor seemed to magically be teleported from a level crossing to the middle of a car park.
Not all scenes should take place in real time. Editing is meant to string along important moments of a scene. It's totally okay to jump ahead when necessary.
Same here. Did not feel right.
Exactly what Butt Boys said. You can jump ahead in space, there's absolutely no problem with that, it just implies that a person walked more than what we saw. The film is not forced to show you all the steps a human walks.
@@OKULTRACOMEDY Yes, but in this film, it's very poorly executed. The whole scene up until that point is patient and shot in real time. He's waiting and watching the train pass, waiting for the barriers to open, then slowly walking across the tracks, so it throws you off when he's suddenly inside the car park. Terrible editing.
@@oh-totoro Exactly this. If the scene had shown straight cuts that compressed time prior, then yes not showing all the walking is fine, but in the segment we saw that wasn't established and would be considered wrong or off. Of course we are only seeing a segment of the scene so I'm giving the editor the benefit of the doubt that he already established that type of editing dynamic.
For me, a continuity only really matters when it pulls you out of the film experience. The biggest example, which I note they've fixed for the blu-ray, is in Star Trek V. Kirk is falling from El Capitan, and wearing a blue vest. Halfway down the stunt double takes over and is just wearing a black jumper, and then we cut back to Shatner wearing the blue vest again.This wasn't for performance. They just didn't get the wardrobe right on the stuntman. If it doesn't draw attention to itself, then it's fine.For example, I don't care about the blue milk switching hands in Star Wars. I only notice it because people write about it.
THANK YOU! Just started editing my short film and some of my crew started pointing out these little things like a character switching hands holding a beer bottle too quickly, which was a conscious editing choice on my part where I sacrificed movement continuity for better rhythm, clarity and avoiding distracting movement in the shot. They said it's unprofessional while I actually feel the amateur films suffer a lot from committing to 100% continuity and dragging the scene forever with no rhythm. I felt bad anyway, but then I started reading "In the blink of an eye" and watched this video )) Now I don't feel crazy anymore.
I always thought there was something wrong with me because of all the critics on the internet who constantly point out continuity errors (check the "goofs" section on IMDB) but I rarely ever notice them. But, now that I saw this video, I decided I like not noticing them.
¿No tienes opinión propia?
It’s distracting for sure. Watching a film on the big screen and it tells out to you “look look they forgot …..” and you want to see that part again.
Nice spot. I managed to spot the train was different too!
Editors know how difficult it is to cut an emotional scene, or an action scene. People who watch films often assume editing is very easy. It's actually very difficult, I don't think anybody appreciates a brilliant actor as much as the editor. There is a nuance to editing and honestly when you break it all down continuity just doesn't matter in the same way to the story tellers.
Nice job explaining it.
ones like the camera man in the window are ok as you can easily mask him out/blur him slightly in post
When I notice a continuity error it takes me str8 out of the film.
Worst when I see a camera.
Yup, totally with you.
I think
*Clicks to watch film on continuity*
*Immediately treated to a montage of editing and blocking gaffs*
Er.... right
The train is incredibly noticeable. It wasn't until the scene was paused that you are talking about the jacket.
This channel is truly unique. While certain videos are made and remade by too many filmmaking channels, this one is a little different- and I love it.
Wait... what's the Wolf of Wall Street one?
I think it's that the position of Decaprio's head jumps about as the shot cuts back and forth.
It's Jonah Hill's position, he switches his leaning position from hand to elbow back and forth a few times. 2:46 to 2:54 hand 2:54 to 2:57 elbow then suddenly he switches back to hand again.
He switches from eating to drinking coffee from a cup
Nope I dont see none of that lol
I disliked the video because he didn't reveal it
The "Shutter Island" one - with the glass- isn't a mistake. It's done on purpose.
That's why you watch the whole video before commenting
I used to think that continuity errors were a bigger deal, perhaps because of how much people like to point them out. But now I see that as long as the scene and its message are conveyed effectively, a few minor continuity errors here and there do not truly hurt the movie as a whole.
I still like to point them out though.
dude i love your channel, your videos have this spark in them that keeps me watching without realising that the video is about to end lol. keep up the good work!
I saw the train first, didnt spot the jacket and only found the cup because i went looking for it after the video. Therefore jacket and cup are mistakes i wouldnt have spotted and dont bother me. Neither does the train though. Im sure i would have seen it but it wouldnt get more than a giggle out of me.
Same here. Though I feel like the colour palette with the other train could've been matched a bit better to the other shots
I think the fact that the train changes between two consecutive shots at similar angles makes the change more noticeable.
Also, the fact that, in my case at least, I was focused on the background detail because I 1) was looking out for a continuity error 2) like that sort of casual world-building detail and 3) was watching the clip out of context and so wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, so my eyes weren't focused on them. :)
It would be interesting to PURPOSELY load a film with continuity errors, then make it a kind of game to see who can spot them all.
I completely agree with Walter Murch and yourself, as human beings we are foremost, and naturally, emotional beings, the rhythm, pacing and construction of the story in an overall scene shapes our journey through a film, not a single defined moment. Emotion is shaped by a multitude of things all working at once over time, I never cut around continuity, I don't even cut around out of focus shots. Some of the best moments I've put in films is when a shot is out of focus, and it works.
The cameraman in 6:45 could have been easily fixed in post with a rectangular moving piece of gray. Had to fix a crew that could be seen in a windows in 3 shots recently and didn’t take too much time but made the scene way less distractive.
6:52 Can't you keyframe and draw a mask around the window, or key it out, or even use 10 min of after effects to remove it??
A problem I have with "continuity errors" is exactly as you pointed out in the "Shutter Island" example: especially when watching indie movies, filmmakers hide so many hints in the visuals, I start searching for the little details, and am often thrown off by genuine errors. I don't want to look for them, but feel I'm meant to, and then sometimes feel led astray.
Couldn't you just track around the window and mask it out?
I thought the same thing.
People who work in After Effects or software alike will always think about correcting things in a digital way
As opposed to who? Those cutting on film? That is such an easy fix. Its laughable and amateur to leave it in. Given the ability to fix it, would you honestly leave it there?
I'm not fond of a "we'll fix it in post" attitude, but things do happen. If they're as easy to fix as this is, I'm lost as to why they wouldn't.
we did during online,... 8 years ago :)
i noticed the train having ads in first shot & not in second, way easier than the jacket!! Working on my first short. Continuity not as easy as people might think. thanks for the video!! cheers
Not only the jacket also the 180 degree rule.
To me, it depends highly on the continuity error. If it's noticeable I think it's very much worth trying to find a good way around it in editing. The most important thing for me is to be careful on set with continuity errors, if you catch most of them while filming, then the ones that slip by usually aren't that big of a deal.
That scene though where the guy is walking down the stairs holding the kid and you can see the camera in the reflection, that would be super easy to remove in after effects. Just sayin.
4:35 - So cool! Tracking the eye movement of the audience!
If you have to try hard to find the error, does it really exist?
Jeremy Williams um, yes.
It`s art, not science. It is not supposed to stay true to reality, but to trick you into state of relaxation, when you just accept it as something that COULD happen. Otherwise we all would be going like: "There is a mistake! He is not a king. He is an actor Whatshisname" So if you really have to try to destroy this illusion of reality, it means it is working. Real mistakes are things, that are so stupid/obvious/whatever thay do not let you believe in this created reality. Therefore if something fits into the film and doesn`t spoil the mood (on the first (10) sight(s) ) it is not a real mistake. Take an example: actor A was sick, so he sent his identical twin brother - actor B to do one day at work for him. No one noticed, because they were twins. Mistake? Maybe? But what if it`s done on purpose? Or what if actor A was an inanimate object and his identical twin brother - actor B was the identical inanimate object? Could it be a mistake? How do you tell those identical inanimate twin brother actor objects apart? You have to go to the set, do some lab research and voila! Now you have a proof, that director is fucking liar and used a diffrenrt object in this one particular scene.
Love these analytical-type videos. This one particularly! This is such ha big lesson for first time filmmakers. We often have a saying on our sets "if they audience is paying attention to that, then we didn't do our job". This usually only applies to minor continuity errors and we still do our best, but the emotion is the most important factor.
Love your channel. Amazing breakdowns and analysis. Thank you for providing this content.
Excellent explanation of how editors deal with continuity errors.
Actually, I did not notice the jacket, because I already noticed the child was no longer holding the plastic cup with a straw. I thought that was the continuity error - maybe error No. 2 ...?
Just came across this channel as I am at the beginning of my own project. I am finding the videos extremely helpful. Thank you!
The crew member on "Pirates..", the hand on the velociraptor or the air bottles on "Gladiator" are NOT "continuity errors", check you facts before making a video about the subject. They shouldn't be seen, they are mistakes, but not continuity errors.
Yeah, he doesn't quite understand the definition of continuity error.
I'm working on my first feature and it's become a running joke on set about the number of continuity errors we're going to have. One of our big issues is blood after an action scene. We already know we're going to have actors going from bloody faces and clothes to suddenly clean faces and clothes and then back again. Ultimately we just decided "it's a movie, no one is going to care as long as they are engaged and entertained."
I think this is my first time commenting, but I really love your episodes. I've been an avid viewer for a few months now.
cool. thanks for commenting. former lurker :)
Hey Sven,
Just wanted to say that I like the new direction you took with this episode. Your firm delivery and faster-paced edit demands the viewer's attention from the very beginning and carries that consistency through to the end. There's a nice balance between examples and explanation that creates a question for the audience and promptly proposes a possible explanation. By doing this, you leave just enough room for the audience to still consider their own opinions-- THIS is respect for an audience. This balance in teaching is my favorite form of education and, quite frankly, the one I find most effective.
I definitely feel like the emotional stakes in this video are raised in terms of the edit. It makes me want to find an answer to the posed question as you ask it. Though the arc of each episode was well established independently in prior episodes, I definitely feel the emotional draw in this one. It's an inspiring and challenging episode.
Also, I love seeing the more emphasized inclusion of your followers' comments. It really shows that you're taking our thoughts into consideration and I appreciate that.
I'm definitely seeing the positive evolution of this channel and think it's something very worthwhile. Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Vinny
hey thanks! glad it's working for you.
Fair enough, I didn't notice the jacket. I was way to distracted by the train that was completely different. A good distraction as a more glaring continuity error, I guess.
Haha, I only spotted the jacket after you'd pointed it out, I was feeling too smug about noticing the train by that point.
I only noticed that because you'd said "watch this clip" on a video with this title, so I was on the lookout for a mistake somewhere.
you figured out my plan :)
Did you notice the child's smoothie disapearing as well?
You could probably do some form of scientific study that may show this scene makes viewers feel uneasy or odd, because even if you don't see the magical jacket appear, your subconscious does and probably raises red flags you may not even be aware of. Our brains don't like it when our physical environment acts/responds in unknown or unexpected ways.
There's that candid camera type thing where they have someone talking to a person and people carrying a board walk between them and they swap the actor with someone else completely different and the person usually won't notice.
Honestly, I'd never notice if you hadn't told me to watch out for something, and even then it was only the train. The jacket went straight out the window exactly because I thought I had noticed the thing you were thinking about, and therefore relaxed.
The cup.
Through The Veil Productions Noticed that but not the jacket lol
I didn't notice the train until much later, but it had me looking for more.
i noticed that too
i think the cup was on purpose. If you know what that movie is about, it seems like a hint. That one doesn't seem at all like an error.
I come from a theatre background, so I am often highly attuned when continuity errors occur in film; as they are so much more easily eliminated in film. Thus, when they happen, I often wonder, why?
I never noticed the jacket, but I noticed unicorn in the background.
ha!
Great insight! Little continuity errors never really bother me if I’m engaged in a scene
The child has a soft drink in his hand before crossing 🙃
Yeah, that is what i noticed too. The little shit probably threw it on the ground :)
NO SPOILERS: I just wanted to add: Shutter island's phantom glass stems from the fact that we shift between the point of views of the protagonist and the lady. Water is symbolic to the main character which he attempts to suppress, thus we don't see the water from his point of view, only the lady's.
Erasing the camera man in the window reflection would take an hour or less in after effects.
which movie thAT WAS?
@@skv8136 the train scene and mirror scene are just for RUclips purpose I guess, not from any movie
yeh but it seemed like a very amature film and amatures who film on iphones probably cant paint out a camera man in AE
I got both the train and the cup on the first watch, but not the jacket until you pointed it out. Strange how different people spot different things.
The train and the cup
This is related to "[in]attentional blindness"/"change blindness" as well. As we're focused on what's most important to the story going on, only more glaring mistakes will tend to be noticed without one actively trying to find them. The psychologist Richard Wiseman has one interesting video on it, with dozens of things changing from cut to cut, or from close ups to zoom-outs. I think it would be funny to see if someone can get away with changing the actor playing an unimportant character (like a salesman interrupting a dialog for a brief moment), as at least in real life, this is perhaps the most extreme thing people can be "blinded" to.
It's always bothered me when people point out tiny mistakes in movies. Who cares, just enjoy the film
some mistakes can be distracting. it would be like reading a book with bad grammar. yes you will get the same information in the end, but the impact of the message will be compromised if you're taken out of immersion and the flow is interrupted
@@codesymphony Yup, I rarely notice mistakes unless I am specifically asked to look for them, but there have been some that have been too obvious to miss and it really pulls you out of the film for a moment. I can't even remember which film it was now, but I remember one where a guy falls over a hand rail and down some stairs, and you can clearly see he lands on a crash mat. It really took me right out of the film, and I had to rewind to check that I saw it. It was so obvious and I couldn't believe it made it into the final cut.
HAHA! Same here. Noticed the different train, which was obvious, but not the jacket!
I'll settle this by saying, "Continuity errors ARE lazy planning and lazy awareness with lazy execution" I worked on a film in the pacific northwest back in the early 90's and continuity was taken care of with a polaroid camera. Nowadays when producers/directors/editors are CAUGHT with continuity they give the juvenile answer, " Oh I meant to do that"
Great video for filmmaking! I often stated that if you're caught up in the emotion of the scene you likely won't notice or care. Glad there's good examples here to back that up. My favorite example is in "When Harry Met Sally", when Harry and Sally are fighting outside the building after they ran into his ex-wife. On the cuts back and forth, Meg Ryan has crossed arms and then uncrossed arms - through several cuts. When I've pointed this out to people, they never noticed. Because the performance are THAT good!
I Totally Disagree, and consider this whole point of view to be an insult to the craft and art. now while i dont look for them Continuity errors, but there is this little thing in films called easter eggs or just hidden information/symbolism from the story or even simple darn ambiance so you dont just look in one particular portion of a screen, if that were what the director wanted they would've kept in close to the face. im sorry im not jut staring at eyes and teeth. on that one on the stairs with the kid you couldve easily just punched in the whole cut so that it was just the baby in his arms the lower shoulders blades of the mans back to the top of his head then a little head room with NO frame to the right WHERE THERE IS A REFLECTIVE SURFACE . or a simple digital mask over the window (replicating the solid black portions of the window). im still just seeing most of this a workers/artist being lazy. and way too content with themselves. while i agree that the best shot should be used. you always get that Neo in the matrix effect (when he notices his first glitch) when a continuity jumps up at you. the one that always catches me is scene cuts with different moving objects in the background. for example when 2 people are sitting at one of those outdoor cafes talking and you see a Mail truck behind them then later you see that same truck come into frame and park in that spot. your brain automatically goes from the story to what the editor as thinking. sort of like your shot of a white train with huge windows and writing on the side changed to a silver amtrak train, in a weird out of place cut away 0:08 . it was so jarring that i couldnt even notice the jacket stuff. thats what we are talking about. and the whole point is to immerse the viewer in the world NOT the flaws Of the production team, whether that be crew members standing in shots, the wardrobe department not remembering that 7 pieces of clothing between 2 actors (jacket,shirt,pants,shoes for the father. and shirt, pants, and shoes for the baby) , or editors and directors just calling it a night in the editing room and saying "well i dont care and 2 other people doing the same job as me doesnt care so F the other 7 billion other viewers." like really, you made a whole 8 minute video trying to convince the world that a continuity director is a waste. that knowing what is in your camera frame is useless (none of those crew members would be in the shots). that feeling like you are in a moment with a man and his child deeply enthralled in their turmoil and then you see some sweaty guy following them around all paranormal activity style. this isnt a reality TV show that is Real Housewives type crap. understand that you are humans WHO WILL ALWAYS MAKE MISTAKES. but "Strive for perfection" and never make excuses. as an experienced artist you have a responsiblity to all who see your work and watch this channel, dont go around propagating this horrible trope in film.
great video mate, something I always seem to pick up is continuity errors, but I think photographers tend to do this because we train our eyes to look for little things that may be a miss in our shots.
I am too of the opinion that even though I don't look for them, if I notice one it will bother the hell out of me.
This is the main reason I dislike The Wolf of Wall Street. It was full of obvious and in-your-face continuity errors that I never really got into the story. I was just sitting there noticing mistakes.
Happens in Scorsese films all the time. Shouldn't be that difficult to avoid, since someone is there to help avoid them.
That is why I don't put stock in the magic of Scorsese. He should be ashamed to have his name on a film with continuity errors.
That Shutter Island scene is more specifically there because (spoilers):
Andrew has a fear of water because that’s what his children died by so he is editing it out of his perception
I can't stand continuity errors, they are incredibly distracting, things like the levels of a drink, or the foam on a beer changing throughout a scene. I don't care what these editors say, I think it's lazy film making. The most common is the over the shoulder shot of someone talking but their jaw and face are clearly not moving. This is exacerbated when the character is meant to be yelling something.
UltraClue I agree, that is the most common mistake I see, they insert other dialogue but clearly the mouth was not saying those lines. The over the shoulder goof.
Sounds like a you problem
It must be hell being you. I'm sorry
I sometimes notice the unsynchronized movement but it seldom bothers me. If the editing benefits the emotional effect and/or the overall rhythm of the scene, then it's the right sacrifice to make.
Great video. Found the extra 2 mistakes. My favorite mistake is in the 1st Transformers when Bumble Bee is “broken down”, the car door is close then in a few shots later it’s open or vice versa Lol.
I thought the error was the cup the child was holding in one shot, then not in another lol.
Melanie Anne Ahern so did I. Lol
That eye tracking stuff is crazy... another sweet video Sven!
all thanks to Tim J. Smith
Nobody pointed it out becuse it looks like the drill sergeant pulls back with his left hand.
This is one of the things that I teach to my students. Filmmakers are supposed to love movies, but new filmmaker often hate everything they watch because they see mistakes everywhere. So I say to my students: If film school is going to make you hate films, then you better do something else.
well said.
wait i thought it was the train lmao
the scene in shutter island represents Dicaprio's characters fear of water. as his character has a fear of water, his mind creates a mental block when he sees the full glass, which is why we see it again only when the glass is empty and the water is gone.
The place to prevent these mistakes is often on set, not in the editing room...
3 errors in that scene, the first is the insert shot of a completely different train, the second is the jacket suddenly appearing and the third is how the kid is holding a cup in the first closeup, but the cup is never seen again.
Yeah, the emotional aspect of the back of his head as he walked down the stairs would have been difficult to recapture.
Sounds like BS to me. Refilm it without the cameraman im reflection.
With that scene with mark going down the stairs, I agree the scene works best when un-interrupted but at the same time seeing the camera in the mirror and again in the window when he reaches the bottom catches my eye so much it throws me out of it. Something similar happens at the start of American History X. When the kid is talking to the principle in the beginning you can see boom mics reflected in the glass behind the principle. It becomes such a distraction when it's noticed the acting really can't help it.
There are 2 kinds of editors in this world :
1 who work with directors Martin Scorsese Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick
2 who make youtube videos criticize others work n make nonsense
This guy's the latter
I noticed the continuity error right from the start and... The funniest part is that camera shake got more of my attention than that. Also, kid steals attention: kids and cats, as they say, are always a center of the scene. ;) I've also noticed single-frame at 5:55 from the start but it took me several attempts to actually discern it: getting sloppy then since I usually also can discern the shape at first glance. I love the message of this video essay about the emotion and performance being way more pivotal than continuity: it's been my guiding star through 12 years shoot of an ugly feature film which is about to hopefully end this year and it's nice to know more about theoretically, to cut more effectively. As I sort of edit along with shooting to fasten the process it's been a nightmare so far and continuity was one of the first corners to cut, which actually served for a lot of moments of creativity bot on-set and in the edit.
Scorsese and Schoonmaker very quickly made me not care about this. Obviously you want to avoid them pre-emptively, but being a stickler for it is pointless, and actually counter-intuitive. In fact, there's some science behind the idea that people experience time differently when watching a film. It doesn't matter if when you cut away, an actor's face is in a different spot, or whatever; in part because you have an instinct that superfluous seconds may have been lost, and that this is why their face has moved. Or to add in the sensation that you are watching a longer conversation that is not exactly playing out in real time.
I find it remarkable how well she understands the flow of the scene to not care about eyelines and head position. I bet she doesn't even see it as she cuts it, because she is totally engaged with the emotion of the scene.
The jacket, the train is different, the drink he is holding - all mistakes.
I like continuity errors, but only small ones. They're like Easter eggs.
Or i can fix the last footage for you for 50 $ , remove the cameraman :)
Watching it in 2019 :
0:11 The train in two separate shots are different : White carriages with advertising stickers on, as train enters frame from the right, and then a Grey train carriages, as it leaves the frame.
7:25 The woman drinks water from an invisible glass with her right hand, and puts a real glass down with her left.
In a RUclips video, Martin Scorsese actually showed a continuity error in one of his early films (Mean Streets, I think) where Harvey Keitel has different hair cuts in the same scene.
As long as you don't dilute the 58% of emotional connectivity, it's just a movie...
I caught 3 - 5 continuity errors in my first viewing of the opening sequence. I don't understand how you could have watched it 100 times without noticing the errors. I figured this was a piece of film to test how many inconsistencies there were. The three that stuck out like a sore thumb:
1) Different train coming than the one going.
2) The child is drinking a red slushy type drink out of a see-through plastic cup with a straw. Missing in the next shot.
3) The guy's clothes don't match from scene to scene.
4) This is iffy. I'd have to go back again to watch: the fence on the other side of the train tracks doesn't fit when the train is rolling out towards the left of the frame.
5) The lighting is different on the train in the second shot than the train in the beginning with the advertisements on it. It's a sunny day when we see the first train.
When I was 10 I noticed my first error in continuity in the movie JAWS. The boat's name painted black in one scene and white in another. (Also red, I discovered later.)
I don't agree with you that continuity doesn't matter. Egregious errors pull you out of your suspension of belief.
I was a photographer and lighting specialist in NYC (before becoming disabled), and I score hog l high on spacial math in intelligence tests, so I'm predisposed to looking around the frame. I'm not a fan of horror: I'm sure if I was my eyes would be staying right on the subject or thing at the "center" of the shot.
I've been studying films since art school (actually studying scenes, etc.). I watched SPLIT several times before noticing there's an up close shot of Betty Buckley where she's not wearing eye glasses. The camera changes angles to behind her, the lens on James McAvoy. At this point Buckley can be seen taking off glasses that she wasn't wearing.
This type of error was hardly noticeable and did not affect the viewing pleasure at all. I didn't notice it until I was specifically studying the cinematography.)
I have friends who work on film sets (gaffers, prop guy, set dressers, lighting technicians). I don't buy that continuity doesn't matter. It's someone's job to ensure that there's IS continuity.
(Sidney Lumet makes a great point, in his priceless MAKING MOVIES book, about Henry Fonda and his uncanny awareness of his body language, clothing, emotions, etc. , from scenes that were shot weeks earlier in 12 Angry Men. They were reshot to get the other actors POV.)
I'm not saying directors can't & don't use continuity to play with the viewer's mind, but egregious mistakes that have nothing to do with the plot do take away from the integrity of film (again: egregious ones).
I love what Coppola and Lumet say about continuity. I love their films and they were both sticklers for continuity.
ok.
Let's not forget that the Shutter Island example has the patient 'drinking' with her right hand but putting the 'glass' down with her left.
Continuity does matter. If the film editor says that it doesn't matter, then she's not doing her job well - what a poor excuse for not doing her job lol!
Also, there's a large segment of the population who *do* recognize flaws, and it ruins the scene. If you want to make a masterpiece, then do it right. Film makers and actors are getting paid millions to create a movie-going experience - do your job.
Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Hunter, and Walter Murch have edited universally acclaimed movies. What have you edited?
It's not their job to shoot the film. They can only edit the footage they are given.
Interestingly, in the very first scene from the railroad crossing, I noticed a much bigger mistake than the jacket. Immediately in the first shot. The train is white with advertising in the first shot, and when the camera rotate it is silver without advertising.
I was in a wildlife hide the other week (same one where my profile pick was taken) when I got talking to this guy about Steadicam. He told me many people are now using stills camera's for this. The following night I was watching Lindsey Sterling's Phantom of the Opera video and what did I see? That's right a Steadicam operator with what looks like a Canon 5D.
That reflection in the shot with the pillow.. throw that in the Fusion tab and it's out of there in 6 minutes.
im so hip i seriously didn't even know what a continuity error was before watching this video
This is a great video. Remembering what is important is important. Now to go edit!
Whoa! That Shutter Island clip blew my mind more than the actual twist!
I didn't noticed the jacket. What I found jarring was how they suddenly went from the tracks to the middle of the parking lot without establishing the path to the parking lot beforehand.
In the First Scene with the jacket - there are two different trains one white with commerical first and after that a grey train without any commercials.WOW!
Thanks for the video! I will also add that the train is a different train, but I didnt notice the jacket!