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People (often police detectives) visiting a hospital and managing to park directly outside the front entrance.
Also, when they get inside they will interview a dodgy doctor who will insist on continuing to walk though the corridors grumpily answering their questions while holding a clipboard. He will then tell them he's very busy and that the conversation is over. We will later find out he's a baddie.
On their way out they will encounter a helpful nurse (possibly also holding a clipboard) who will impart a vital key piece of evidence but is sorry that she can't help in any other way.
fire protection systems in buildings – how many times have all the sprinkler heads magically starting spraying water out even though there’s no heat anywhere near them🤷♂️
Depends on the system, we have ones at work that do that if you so desire.
Baddies hiring an elite force of ex special forces mercenaries to guard their top secret fortress lair only to discover they couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo
They covered that in Ronin!
Car crashes and occupants crawl from wreckage and hurry away before it explodes into a ball of flames.
It may have been a scene in Fitzcarraldo where a proper solid ball firing cannon, made solely of metal and wood fell off a cliff, rolled down a hillside and.........burst into flames as it rolled. They must have been transporting it full of gunpowder for safe storage, I guess.
Similar walk into a bar sit at bar and immediately asked what they want…no dank and distant “changin’ the barrel” or too busy washing glasses to look your way…
To be fair, that's my experience of bars in the US.
Car remote locking making a “Beep-Beep” noise.
To be fair, that's my experience of cars in the US.
Another good video here about how they do explosions in film:
I'm fast coming to the conclusion that there's no question which cannot be answered with a Tom Scott video. He's like the STW of YouTube.
Whenever there is a shot of a ship, there is a fog horn sound effect (even if it is bright sunlight)
In a standoff/gunfight, neglecting to try and goad the bad guy into emptying thier magazine so they can be picked off when forced to reload.*
*doesn't work if the guns have those special infinate magazines.
Instances where a character just needs to not be in the film anymore, so they cross a road... and get utterly wiped out by a bus or lorry. And none of the remaining characters are remotely bothered by this perfectly natural event.
I always wondered how many people have cooked slowly in a burning car because nobody would go near it, knowing it was definitely about to explode.
Yak
Full MemberThat stormtrooper effect – all sorts of armour and weapons, but no good.
So, they're in a universe with energy blasters that can just go through armour, and light sabers that can just go through armour... so armour's tricky. But white-armoured faceless stormtroopers are still going to be scary and intimidating.
Just look at fully kitted up police, especially in the states- it's not a uniform that's exclusively designed to protect, it's also designed to intimidate, de-humanise the wearer, and create a Wall Of Steel rather than a Bunch of Guys.
whenever there's a external countryside view, there's ALWAYS a Red-Tailed hawk calling somewhere nearby to show that they're outoors so you can hear birds
we don't have red-tailed hawks in europe. or asia, australasia, africa, maybe not even south america...
Whenever you see someone carrying a suitcase it’s obviously empty.
I wasn't party to it but our drama group once did a play involving loads of suitcases where, on the last night, some meany filled one with bricks just before it was to be carried onstage. 🙂
I smiley-face about it - in reality I'd be super-pissed if someone did that to me!
One of the things that distracts is the sounds they use for cars. WTF can't thy record the actual car and tailor it what the car is doing? Classic one last night (well, several) while watching "Stay Close" (despite the earlier poster feeling it was a pile of shite, we have been enjoying it. It's a drama and you ignore most of the stuff that's been described above because we all know it's not real life): Car pulls out of the drive, sound department provide car noise (wrong car) or car accelerating away, despite the act that the car barely accelerates and pulls over to the side of the road to stop.
Oh, and mortal humans (well, the heroic lead) that can evade fully automatic weapons firing straight at them yet can pick off a baddy several hundred feet away with a single shot from a pistol.
And..... 🙂
Been out on far too many nights with people that think drinks are free…
Perhaps they are regulars at Club Tropicana.
Instances where a character just needs to not be in the film anymore, so they cross a road… and get utterly wiped out by a bus or lorry. And none of the remaining characters are remotely bothered by this perfectly natural event.
Well known fact that you can never simply "move house" or "change jobs" in order to not be in a soap opera any more, you have to be killed in a spectacularly implausible set of events.
On which note, following said implausible set of events, there's never any news coverage of it. No wall-to-wall media presence camped by the train wreck / gas explosion / grisly murder scene / tragic parachute accident site.
It just gets discussed in the pub - after you strolled in and said "4 pints please"...
there’s ALWAYS a Red-Tailed hawk calling somewhere nearby to show that they’re outdoors so you can hear birds
see also: Northern Pacific tree frogs for "any" jungle and The Common Loon for when they need creepy bird sounds for that remote lakeside cabin...
Stupid things that they do on TV and films
I’d be super-pissed
Speak like this. Surely no-one uses phrases like this in real life?
Can we rename the entire thread? "Silent Witness: Episode plot lines."
I’d be super-pissed
Speak like this. Surely no-one uses phrases like this in real life?
I watched some cyclocross on Eurosport a few weeks ago. The American commentator added 'super' onto anything and everything in every single sentence, with no apparent irony that I could detect.
What winds me up is it is necessary to kill the family/favourite animal of the 'hero' at the start of an action movie to somehow justify all of the shooting that is to come. Whenever a movie starts and there is a happy family seen you do wonder who is about to die unnecessarily
Surely no-one uses phrases like this in real life?
To be fair, that’s my experience of oh I can't be bothered any more.
They never lock cars except when locking the car means a keyt character is trapped inside
Last time in the US, I did notice people didn't lock their cars. Might have been because it was Tennessee and if touched someones car there was a fair chance of getting shot or the noticeable police presence. In their brown/gold cruisers I thought only existed on TV
I’ve never left my car unlocked or my car keys “hidden” under the sun visor.
Standard means of returning our work hire cars in the 90's. Leave it outside the house with the keys on the visor.
Any film involving archery...always done badly 🙁
Except Brave of course.
Loose like this ....
Slight tangent but while watching (I think) the latest series of Star Trek / Picard, loads of the Romulans had Irish accents. If they were speaking English then what happens between now and the future for a planet light years away to have developed this? Does the Irish film industry grow massively, overshadowing Hollywood and so that's where they all learn the language much like many none native English speakers now speak with an American accent?
Or
If I remember from many series back, they have a universal language translator implanted in the listeners ear, who in the federation decided that the Romulans have that accent and why don't the Klingon have a high pitched Brummie accent? No one would take them seriously and they'd be far less terrifying.
Similarly, if there's no up or down in space, how come all spaceships fly in the same orientation?
I'm not the easiest person to watch a film with.
Any chase involving cars and motorcycles. Car can easily keep up with the bike. Any car being chased by a motorcycle is just silly.
It's not cut and dried which will be quickest. Have a look at stage times for the Dakar (on stages where the bikes and cars follow the same route), the Baja and the TT course.
On the Dakar Peterhansel used to set outright fastest times on tight stages (despite not having a co-driver and doing his own navigation) but was beaten by cars on more open stages - the cars were beaten by the trucks on dessert stages till they changed the rules as trucks beating cars was embarrassing.
On the TT course the bikes are quicker than any car so far - a 600bhp rally car.
So it all depends which bike is chasing which car over what sort of terrain.
My car used to make beeps when locked but I found a way to turn that and other "features" off.
If you are sick of silly implausible Hollywood nonsense try some Euro nonsense instead, it's generally lighter on silly beeps, computer graphics, explosions etc. and has more realistic sex.
One really silly thing is way too many characters smoke, one character in a series I've been watching is cast as a smoker who still chain smokes having survived cancer and losing a kidney. No other character has yet dared grab the cigarette, put it out and say "you know that's illegal in here you stinking polluting *****".
Scenes set round dinner tables, loaded with food, where no-one ever actually eats anything because they're too busy talking.
Related, scenes where people come down for breakfast, sit down, say 2 lines and then get up and leave again without actually eating anything and leaving an entire plate of food on the table/trendy kitchen island.
protracted gunfight where hero and anti hero are trying to kill each other. quite by chance they end up at point blank range, aiming at each other... and neither shoots.
Plot centric dialogue then ensues.
Any film involving archery…always done badly 🙁
Oh, yeah, this.
Jeremy Renner wouldn't need a bracer (other than Costume) if someone taught him how to hold his bow arm properly.
Crawling through air-vents, strong enough and big enough for a human with a map of their layout committed to memory, oh reaaaally
Lifts with hatches in the ceiling (which is 7ft up), hero somehow manages to climb up and hide, first has anyone, ever, been in a lift with a hatch? And secondly, why have no baddies seen any of the other million films where the goodie hides in the lift shaft?
The reason you don’t usually see Windows or whatever on computers is that the studio’s want Microsoft or Apple to pay for the product placement. If they did it anyway then they wouldn’t pay. When you do see a branded computer it’s been paid for. Apple did this in .oat shows and films for many years but have stopped recently. Same with cars, they usually have been de-badged and if they haven’t it features very prominently.
AFAIK Apple has never paid money for product placement other than supplying hardware and then they are fussy in what form it's being used or shown in.
Related, scenes where people come down for breakfast, sit down, say 2 lines and then get up and leave again without actually eating anything and leaving an entire plate of food on the table/trendy kitchen island.
Families that actually have time in the morning for a full on 3 course breakfast whilst they sit around talking and reading newspapers 🙂
Oh yeah. My first knowledge of MRI machines being somewhat less serene place than in films/TV was, obviously, in a real life MRI scanner…
GGGGGGHRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNGGGGGRRRRRRR etc.
Anyone fancy riding alone in the woods with cromolyolly?
Me neither….😱
You don't know what you're missing. I bring Chianti, we have picnic. You bring the liver.
I was shocked at how loud and noisy an MRI machine is, I thought it was going to blow up.
People having conversations in helicopters.
Believe me, in real life helicopters are extremely loud so you can't have normal conversations or even conversations with a slightly raised voice.
Crawling through air-vents
Imagine the noise that would make.
Another one is the discharging of firearms either close to someone's ears or in otherwise confined spaces. These weapons are extremely loud and will damage hearing at least temporarily.
a map of their layout committed to memory, oh reaaaally
Cavers, climbers, autotesters, rally drivers, hikers, geologists... get really good at that. It annoys Madame when she can't find where we are on a map let alone tell me where to go then I look for 5 seconds and don't need to consult the map again.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service just started. Aston Martin pulls away on sand with screeching tyres. Doh!
Jeremy Renner wouldn’t need a bracer (other than Costume) if someone taught him how to hold his bow arm properly.
Don't waste your time telling us, you need to get on to those Olympic archers and set them straight.
Another one is the discharging of firearms either close to someone’s ears or in otherwise confined spaces. These weapons are extremely loud and will damage hearing at least temporarily.
At least Archer gets it right!
None of them have to work to have money to spend.
No full time job and not working.
In the fight scene I have never seen someone stabbed in the eyes. FFS!
Also why not make sure the person is absolutely dead before moving closer? Few more rounds will do.
Cheesy sound effects!
the studio’s want Microsoft or Apple to pay for the product placement.
"product placement' rarely something the product / rights owners pay for - its more often the case that they charge for it. There are exceptions like The Shopping Channel (The Bond Firm franchise) but where theres not active promotion like that going on then everything you see has had to be 'cleared'. There have been instances where errors by the art department in failing to get clearance for stuff has cost hundreds of thousands later down the line - Film / TV producers have to seek permission to feature anything thats featured prominently and its quite a minefield to navigate - it costs money and requires negotiation (and it requires research as you need to track down the rights owner of every single bloody thing) and some brand owners want to influence how their 'thing' is seen. The reason Apple appears a lot on screen is because they are actually very free and easy about the use of their stuff and don't place any really conditions of productions using it.
Whats fun at the moment is one of the major players in Film and TV production also has a sideline as a massive online retailer so theres effectively two levels of 'clearance' - one with the rights-owners of all the hundreds and thousands of 'things' that are littered about every set and one with the commissioning broadcaster who spit their dummy out if anything on screen is something that is sold by one of their competitors. We had a bit a of show down with over the contents of a vending machine in the background 🙂
People having conversations in helicopters.
Believe me, in real life helicopters are extremely loud so you can’t have normal conversations or even conversations with a slightly raised voice.
Ah yeah this reminds me of the surprise helicopter! Where nobody knows it's there until it just comes up 15 feet and then oh wow it's like right there but nobody realised until it came into frame.
I can hear police helicopters (live in that there London) when they're 3 boroughs away so just no.
Riding horses everywhere at a gallop. Poor things would be dead in an hour.