Things that bother you or make you laugh about moviemaking

[Sharingan]

When the hero is in a fight against seemingly impossible odds, it never occurs to the bad guys to attack the lone hero simultaneously. Instead, they go at it one at a time, allowing the protagonist to handily deal with them one by one.

In real life, all it takes is one well-placed punch or kick to the head for someone to go unconscious. In movies, major characters can last 10-15 minutes being pummeled in the head with fists, bottles, furniture, bats and other weapons and remain unfazed.

[Harrison]

- They never shoot the baddy in the head, always in the chest. Why? If I wanted to make sure someone was dead the head is the logical target.

- Someone is involved in a serious accident or fight that really smashes their face up, but in the next scene they have a small cut on their lip, maybe a bloody nose or a black eye. WTF?

- Why don't the good guys ever pick up the bad guys weapons and use them?

[demusse]

squeaky tires on a gravel or dirt road...
the sound of bullets ricoshaing of concrete or brick or even wood surfaces...

[woody.cool]

Car jump scenes where the car jumps an astonomical length.
You know damn well that the car or bus or whatever vehicle it is wouldn't make that jump in real life .... it's against the laws of physics! (eg. Speed with Keano Reaves & Sandra Bullock .... no way would that bus have made that jump!)

[Harrison]

- carrying on from the car jump one. When the vehicle makes a jump, but is obviously launching from a much steeper angle than the road it was on. Looks silly.

- In older films, when the hub caps would fly off the car as it took a corner, but were then all magically on the car again in the next scene.

- missing rear view mirrors. How many times has there been a shot of two people sat in a car from a bonnet cam, and the rear view mirror is missing? For me it ruins the illusion.

[demusse]

Indeed, the rear-view mirror is often a problem for film-makers.
I own a classic chevy belair '63 and it was used in a promo-film for windows95 when it was launched in europe.
A very educational venture it was for me and the chevy both.
The film-maker was not impressed with the car's age and only cared for the look, so he wanted to strip the mirror and the front wind-shield. They wanted the car to pull out and stop with screaming tires. The muffler had to come off for the sound-effect.
They polished it as it never was before though and the luster stayed on for about 6 months.

Being part of a film-set was an adventure and an opportunity to see the illusion being created. Meeting the director(an a-hole!) and the actors(several a-holes!!) and seeing how streets and back-roads were altered and remodeled by a hard working crew(top-guys!) to fit the needs of these strange people was quite a hoot!

[Harrison]

The directors I've ever met have all been complete A-holes, so your experience was not unique. They have all been completely arrogant with an air of self importance, and have the belief that they are the only important element within the film making process.

I loved the time a Director told me to setup some technology for a shoot and I had to correct his storyboard and direct him on how it needed to be filmed. That was funny. You should have seen his face. But more importantly the faces of those around him.

[Sharingan]

People in movies cocking their gun for dramatic effect. I mean, what the hell? If you're going to walk into a potentially deadly situation, you're damn well going to make sure your gun is ready to shoot!

The most ridiculous instance of this is in Matrix 3, where Morpheus, Seraph and Trinity confront the Merovingian in the club to negotiate the release of Neo. After a brief altercation with the Merovingian's henchmen, the three end up in a standoff situation where everyone has their guns aimed at each other, and Trinity has hers aimed at Mero's forehead.

After some more dialogue, where the Merovingian provokes Trinity a little more, what does Trinity do?! Yup, she proceeds to cock her gun, as well as saying something along the lines of 'Either you release Neo, or we all die here now'.

Um, right. Had the gun already been cocked, perhaps she might've been able to follow through on that statement, but as it was, the bad guys could've blown her head off without her being able to do anything.

[demusse]

i think it's safe to say that most of the hollywood mainstream films are ridiculous pulp...
it's a matter of tuning down your common sense and just enjoy the fantasy.

[Shoonay]

actually all movies are like that, even the documentaries are generally setup for months to film 10 different scenes of one animal doing something that matches the script or some theory.