Find Mistakes in Movies

Whether it's continuity, plot holes or a crewman walking past the camera, all movies have mistakes and bloopers in them, and sooner or later, someone's going to spot them. If you want that someone to be you, read on and find out how to find mistakes in movies.

Steps

  1. Select a film to look for mistakes in. Older films are usually filled with bloopers and mistakes, so selecting an older movie may prove to be fruitful and is definitely good practice because you can check your powers of observation against lists people have made for older movies online. Looking for bloopers while watching a film in a theater is probably not the best place while you're a novice, although if you're really detailed minded and analytical, you may find that you find mistakes innately. As you find you're better at spotting the errors, move on to newer movies.
  2. Play the film and note in your mind or on paper names, plot details, minor details and facts which may arise again in the future. Be sure to notice everything and don't be surprised if you have to play a scene again to confirm a suspected blooper.
  3. Begin looking for mistakes. Whether it's someone calling a character by the actor's real name, a door sitting ajar in one scene, but closed in the next or a microphone falling or dipping into the screen, there's bound to be a mistake somewhere in the film. Be observant and be aware the more rewarding mistakes are often harder to find. The types of mistakes to look for include:
    • A lack of consistency and/or plot holes. Bad timelines, omissions that are needed to establish whereabouts or current events, forgetfulness about a character's background, things happening without reason, etc., are a common film error but most people don't think too hard about them. However, once you focus on them, this can really throw the film's credibility for you! A lack of consistency can apply to a person's age, character (unless intentional), and historical aspects of the situation.
    • Continuity problems. These are a big part of movie mistakes, found both within and between scenes. They may indicate scene cuts, fierce editing, or just a lack of noticing by anyone. For example, a spilled item may have mysteriously moved to somewhere else during a movie, or disappearing and reappearing parts of costumes and changes in position of characters occur. Other lacks of continuity can include makeup that hasn't been applied accurately to represent an injury, scar, particular feature of a character etc., height changes, scenery stuff-ups, doors opening the opposite way, glasses refilling, cigarettes suddenly alight again, etc.
    • Slip-ups: These are outright errors, like real hair showing from under the wig, clothes not getting dirtied by falling into mud, etc., using the actor's real name and not the character's, an object actually hits a person or bounces in the wrong direction when it isn't meant to, a prop is shorter or taller than it is supposed to be, a personal item of jewelry or a watch can be seen when it doesn't belong (also anachronistic, see below), car number plates that belong to the wrong state or even country, etc. (and changing ones on supposedly the same car, also continuity), and so forth. For the grammatically inclined, look at written parts of the film to spot spelling and grammatical errors; they do happen!
    • Train to Be a Knight in the Society for Creative Anachronism. These are things that simply couldn't have existed at the time the story is set. To spot these, you're might have to be either a very good history buff or very knowledgeable about the topic in question but basically you're looking for things that couldn't have existed at the time the movie was said to be set in. Look for objects, dates, names of companies/countries/products, etc., that didn't exist in the time the move is set. For example, in Titanic, Jack tells Rose that he went ice fishing in a lake that was man-made 6 years after the Titanic sank![1]
    • Specific errors relating to a profession or trade. There are many errors of a specific subject-matter nature that you can spot if you're knowledgeable of the area. For example, there are many online lists of science, technology, medical, aircraft, and legal errors in films (and many other subjects). Whatever your profession, training, or background, it's likely you can spot things that would never been done at your place of work, hobby, or research! For example, most movie scenes featuring medical elements show CPR being performed too slowly, with an incorrect ratio between chest compression and ventilation, using a defibrillator when it is not going to work, and declaring the patient dead before reanimation would be given up as no good in real life.[2]
    • "As if" moments. These aren't so much mistakes or bloopers as unrealistic character actions or assumptions. They can be fun if you're a good student of human nature. These link back to inconsistencies or plot holes.
  4. Note down the mistakes as you go along, as well as the precise time they occur in the film. This will prove a lot easier if you have a video or DVD player, as it's likely you'll want to go back over the scene in question to double and triple check you're not missing anything.
    • If you're a screenwriter, director, or film editor, lists of mistakes and bloopers are something you should avidly read and learn from! There is a wealth of material you can learn from and it will all point to good research, being very careful, and concentrating on the small details.
  5. Replay the movie if you've come up with very little or nothing. You may find that you've watched the whole movie and found no mistakes, so you can either move along to the next film or replay your current one.
  6. Consider posting your results to one of the many online movie mistakes sites. These sites have communities of people who place the mistakes they've found online to be read by all. Some are free, but others may require registration fees. And it's probably a good idea to check that your error spotting hasn't already been noted; if so, perhaps just join in with noting you've spotted the errors too!
  7. Have fun with this. Spotting errors in movies is not supposed to be a perfectionist's opportunity to gloat; pride comes before a fall. Errors happen in all things, and movies aren't immune. Many people spend hours trying to ensure that the movie is good as a whole and too much analysis of the errors will ruin your enjoyment of the movie. Instead, treat movie error-spotting as a fun game to indulge in now and then, something for a good laugh, but not a reason to stop enjoying your movie-going experiences.



Tips

  • You could keep your blooper spotting to only certain genres of films, such as romance or drama. For some people, blooper spotting makes coping with horror films a little easier!
  • If you want practice, find a movie which has been greatly known for multiple errors (for example, 'Plan 9 from Outer Space') and try to identify them. You'll slowly spot errors in even the greatest of films!
  • If you're a fan of the film, errors in films can make the film seem even more endearing to you.
  • If you like movie bloopers, consider branching out to photo-shop fails in advertisements and other photos. These can be just as much fun to spot.
  • Finding obvious and outrageous mistakes is an excellent way to amuse yourself and others - if you find one hilarious why not invite your friends and family over to show them the mistake? However, don't constantly do this because people may begin to think you are a bit eccentric or nerdy and may become tired of your constant film factoids.
  • Consider going online before watching a film to see if the movie hasn't already been scoured for mistakes by other blooper-finders.

Warnings

  • Movies are meant to be enjoyed! Endlessly searching through films for mistakes can ruin a movie-going experience for both you and others and it's hard to not look for bloopers once you've started. While fun on a small scale to spot film mistakes, be sure to enjoy films rather than seeking to tear them apart all the time; it will only prove to others that you're joyless and picky otherwise.
  • Mistakes are awesome on their own and in small doses. A movie filled with obvious mistakes, bad acting, a dreadful plot, and poor filming techniques deserves the roasting it's likely to get. By the same token, finding mistakes in bad movies is nowhere near as much fun as finding them in good movies because you already expect a lot less of a bad one!
  • Some directors don't care about lack of continuity and some even play with it for subliminal effect. Also, some editors are aware of discrepancies but rely on the speed or action of the film to cause the discrepancy to be barely noticeable. There are also sites where people spot the mistakes movie makers put in the movie on purpose. It doesn't pay to over-analyze things sometimes!

Things You'll Need

  • A film to watch
  • A DVD or Video player
  • A pen and paper or laptop/computer
  • A comfy seat

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.hecklerspray.com/top-13-movie-mistakes/200813000.php
  2. ↑ http://listverse.com/2011/04/25/5-common-medical-errors-in-movies/
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