Rather belatedly, tonight Darling Husband and I watched "Mad Men" for the first time (we have DVR). Loved it, but there was a howler that really bugs me. A character mentions that Dick Nixon is campaigning for president, and one of his rivals is John Kennedy. So that means it's 1960; and judging by the light clothing it's maybe midyear.
But then there's a close-up of one of the secretaries typing on an IBM Selectric--which wasn't introduced until 1961. It took me all of 30 seconds to research that on Google. Couldn't the set designer have done the same?
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Gary and I went to see Talk to Me last night. There's a scene where Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor are in a public restroom. Inside the stall you can clearly see a modern oversized toilet paper holder. A minute's thought and a screwdriver could have fixed that. Or even a little CGI work.
We had a saying in film school -- "If that's what the audience is paying attention to, we have bigger problems than [xyz continuity error]."
Occasionally something is so glaring that it can't be missed, but it's pretty shocking what people will gloss over if the story is engaging enough. It's the slower moments when eyes are wandering that will get you!
It's all in the details, baby. Nothing like a misplaced prop to yank you out of the story.
My neigbour's son is a set designer, and he raids her house regularly for fifties style radios and such.
Actually "one of his rivals' is also wrong. Nixon as a Republican ran against republicans in the primaries but by the time he was running against Kennedy it was just the two parties. "His rival" is correct.
But, don't mind me; I can't find my car keys or remember my name today, but by god I can remember stuff that happened 47 years ago like it was yesterday.
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