Film bug

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A film error is a small detail in a film that is unintentionally found in the film and - if noticed - has an irritating, disruptive or amusing effect.

Types of film defects with examples

Typical film errors are connection or continuity errors, anachronisms or technical errors. With today's means, such errors can usually be retouched digitally relatively easily .

Film errors in the strict sense of the word are not considered to be if such details were intentionally built into the plot in order to achieve certain effects, or if they are necessary for dramaturgical reasons. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate, especially if the parties involved make false statements about the question “on purpose or not” for various reasons. A typical example is the film Fight Club : In the film, Tyler as the driver deliberately causes a car accident, but climbs out of the wreck on the passenger side. The narrator, who was in the passenger seat before the accident, is pulled out of the car through the driver's door. Such a contradiction represents a classic connection error; in this case, however, it is to be seen in the context that - as it turns out later in the film - Tyler and the narrator are the same person who has a dissociative identity disorder . Viewed in this way, the deliberate use of a connection error as a stylistic device seems plausible.

There are now fan communities who consciously look out for real or supposed film errors when they visit a film. The Internet Movie Database lists all reported film errors for each film. In the meantime, known errors are often corrected digitally before DVD recycling.

Connection error

Connection errors are the most common movie mistakes. They arise from the fact that scenes are not recorded in one piece, but rather individual shots are often filmed with a long interval and the sequence of different versions in the editing is subsequently changed. Correct adherence to all details is almost impossible. This ranges from changed postures, costumes or hairstyles of the actors to the disappearance of entire people or objects. Some examples:

  • Wounds of protagonists - often on the face - change or disappear in too short a time.
  • If a real candle , cigarette or the like is burning in the scene , its size changes several times between the cuts.
  • Costumes that were barely wet or wrinkled appear freshly ironed (e.g. Michael Douglas's coat towards the end of the Wall Street film ).
  • In the film Casablanca , Major Strasser's shoulder boards disappear and reappear.
  • In the movie Pretty Woman , Julia Roberts wears the handbag under her left arm and a few seconds later under her right arm.
  • In the movie Critters - you are there! the farmer's daughter April goes into the barn with her boyfriend . She is barefoot . When she flees from the Critters a little later, she suddenly wears shoes and stockings .
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , Harry sits down clearly recognizable after the selection on the right side of the house table, thus next to Ron and opposite his brother Percy. After a small take where you can see which dishes are served, Harry can now be seen on the left side of the table with the same camera angle, opposite Ron and next to Percy.

Film technical errors

Film-technical errors let the illusion that the film is supposed to create see through.

  • The sound is often recorded using a boom . Every now and then a part of the microphone appears at the top of the picture. In the movie The Spy Who Came in the Cold, the microphone even hits the lead actor Richard Burton on the head. This phenomenon is parodied in Kentucky Fried Movie .
  • Cable or headlights are in the picture, such as in Torn Curtain of Alfred Hitchcock is seen in a camera setting down a hill, the studio ceiling with spotlights where.
  • Cable carriers or other workers on the set can be seen. Like in Death on the Nile , when a cable carrier can be seen in the mirror.
  • You often see elements that do not belong in the film in reflective props (e.g. in shiny cars, in glass panes or in sunglasses).
  • They can be recognized further away when the camera and cameraman are facing each other. In order to save costs, since the scenes do not have to be successfully shot several times, the corresponding cameras and the operator are then hidden as much as possible. However, this type of error almost never occurs due to its infrequent use.

Content errors

Errors in content are about details that contradict the situational context of the film, in particular the location and time of the action. For example, it could be that in a film set in the Middle Ages, the temperature scale of Celsius is used, although this has only been in use since 1742. A content error is also present when films that are based on real events differ from reality. An example of this is the use of lions with manes in the film The Spirit and Darkness , because the real " cannibals of Tsavo " were Tsavo lions, the males of which had no manes.

In contrast, very fictitious substances do not fall under this type of error or only to a limited extent.

  • In Love Vegas , Jack hits the jackpot on a slot machine with a quarter-dollar coin. According to the machine label, however, two coins are required to play.

Logic error

This is a type of mistake that fans criticize as particularly serious, because it can destroy not just a scene, like film-technical or connection errors, but the message or credibility of an entire film. Often these errors arise with unplanned sequels or prequels . This can be done by changing a team of authors or simply by carelessness of the film staff. An example: Terminator 2 - Day of Reckoning # Chronological classification

Anachronisms

This film error includes errors in relation to the year or epoch of certain - mostly technical - details. These can range from obvious to partially so fine that only experts and connoisseurs can recognize them. The appearance of Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger in a story around 1888 would be recognizable as a mistake by every viewer, while in a story that is set around 1940 - i.e. a good two years before production - only connoisseurs would be aware of this as a mistake.

  • In The Red Corsair with Burt Lancaster , an ocean liner can be seen in the background during the pirate attack.
  • Protagonists move through corn fields, although there was no corn cultivation at the place in question.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End , a child who is hanged wears braces that didn't even exist at the time.
  • In Blanche , the lord of the castle smokes a pipe, even though the film is set in the Middle Ages, i.e. before America was discovered and therefore before tobacco became known.
  • In Gladiator , leaflets are distributed in large numbers to announce the event , although back then there was neither paper nor printing press and papyrus was far too valuable to be distributed for free.
  • In airplane! (German title: The Incredible Journey in Airplane! ) is in a flashback to the year 1973-74, a Visa - credit card to see. Before 1976 this was called BankAmericard .

Further examples

  • In the film James Bond 007 - Diamond Fever with Sean Connery , the car drives into an alley on the two right wheels during a chase, but suddenly out on the left wheels in the next shot.
  • In Paper Moon , Tatum O'Neal turns off the radio once by turning the button to the left and then by turning it to the right .
  • In The Invisible Third Eve Kendall shoots the main character Roger Thornhill in the cafeteria on Mount Rushmore. However, a little boy in the background covers his ears before the shot (because he is expecting the loud bang).
  • In Spiel mir das Lied von Tod , the main character has harmonica ( Charles Bronson ) bright blue eyes; in the important flashback, which is supposed to show him as an adolescent boy (Dino Mele), he has deep brown eyes. Since both actors are shown in close-up often and for a long time, this “color change” must be very confusing for attentive viewers. In addition, the harmonica is rotated three times. Once this has no dent, after a cut the dent is lower right and later with the next cut it is upper left
  • In Wanted, Angelina Jolie drifts to the right with her red sports car and to the left in the next camera shot.
  • The three Sissi films from the mid-1950s are also a treasure trove for film bug hunters . There, for example, in the first part - it takes place in 1853 - cars can be seen (when Sissi climbs out of the window and is observed by Colonel Böckl). Elsewhere, cones fall (“All nine!”) While the ball is still far from them; or a letter with a seal in one shot suddenly has two of them. You can also see an electrical lead to a lantern at one point. In the second part a modern matchbox lies on the table in front of the cigar smoking Duke Max (scene with Magda Schneider in the garden of Possenhofen Castle). And repeatedly in the film series of " Starnberger See " is mentioned, although it was still called "Würmsee" in Sissi's time.
  • Plan 9 from Outer Space by Edward D. Wood was just because of his countless goof for cult film .

See also

literature

  • Gregor Jochim: Lexicon of the film breakdowns. 3. Edition. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-378-01050-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What Happens in Vegas (2008) - IMDb. Retrieved October 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Airplane! (1980) - IMDb. Retrieved October 9, 2019 .
  3. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052077/goofs