Despite them being fictional and for fun, some people can't get past movie magic and logic. Well, their lack of logic. It's one thing to have a zombie apocalypse, it's another for a character to survive a serious blow to the head. Overused movie tropes have become so normal to see that all filmmakers just use them with reckless abandon, regardless of how silly and unrealistic they are.
Redditor u/jay_rode asked people about unrealistic things in movies that annoy them. People responded with examples of cinema's biggest sins.
20. Unbelievable gun play
"Guns. On small hand gun that fits ten rounds can shoot ten million rounds, and then run out when the plot demands it. Plus, low caliber guns seem to break through anything that exist as the plot demands it, even breaking the laws of physics to do so. And gasoline getting ignited by gun fire? Maybe with incinerary rounds that only the military is allowed to gave, but most people don't have access to those rounds without acquiring them on the black market. Also, I don't care who you are, no man, woman or child is going to take a gun shot to any part of their body and NOT be in pain."
19. Everyone's a YouTube Influencer
"when they caught something on tape, and then they upload it to youtube and it gets millions of views i'm 5 seconds. when in reality most people would just think it's fake."
18. Harmless explosions
Giphy"Explosions, if an explosion is in within like 15 feet of you consider yourself ******. Second degree burns, trauma all over your body, nearby shrapnel and hitting the ground. Not fun"
17. Expository dialogue
"The weird dialogue that makes sure that we as the audience understand context that just doesn't feel natural. 'I know you're my mom and all but-' Or 'I know you miss your dad' Or just randomly calling their sibling by their title (sister/brother)
It just takes me out of the story and breaks the immersion a little"
16. Fake musicians
"Bad musicianship. I am watching the Netflix series 'Sex Education' right now and when the Swing Band played something, the clarinet player they zoomed in on wasn't moving her fingers at all, yet she was clearly playing a moving passage."
14. In case you missed it, here's a bicycle
"Every time a bicycle enters frame in a film, it happens to ring its bell. WE GET IT THERES A BICYCLE"
13. Masters of speeches
"At the end of the movie, the protagonist gets on stage to make a grandoise speech, hesitates for a few moments, before throwing his speech notes on the floor. Then proceedings to 'speak from the heart without any notes. Every. Single. Time."
11. Blunt shattered glass
"I don't get annoyed by this per se, but my mom does. Whenever someone jumps through glass in a movie, they are left completely fine, whereas in real life, you would be extremely cut by the glass."
10. Trials aren't that easy
"Attorneys pacing around during a trial and attorneys approaching the Judge without asking.
My personal favorite is when a new, damning piece of evidence or witnesses is presented in the middle of trial to the complete suprise of the opposing party. Like sorry buddy but discovery deadline was a month ago. You should know this."
9. This very sneaky trope
"People climbing through ductwork to get in between rooms. Most ducts are not big enough for a person to fit in."
8. No one can plan a last minute vacations
"Always being able to take off work to go on last vacations and always having the money for last minute flights."
7. And then the audience braces for a crash
"People taking their eyes off the road for like five seconds"
6. Poser mechanics
"When ever someone is working on a vehicle they are quite often using a pipe wrench or huge crescent wrench. Neither are going to get you too far working on a vehicle."
5. Serious injuries are nothing in movies
Giphy"Blows to the head knocking someone out for exactly as long as is convenient for the plot with no long term consequences whatsoever. Even otherwise "realistic" shows and movies are guilty of this. In reality, and blow to the head strong enough to knock you out is likely to cause brain damage or even death."
4. Audio engineers who suck at their jobs
"Walking up to a microphone and it squeals feedback. Always. (In reality, that shouldn't happen unless the sound person is a moron)"
3. Maybe movie characters do a lot of hand exercises
"Grip strength. People hanging off of anything, one handed, for long times, holding on to other people, pulling themselves up. General population can't do a pull up."
2. Casual self mutilation
"when people slice the palm of their hand open for a drop of blood. That shit will take FOREVER to heal, just prick your finger, damn"
1. Definitely never noticed this!
Giphy"Next time you see two characters having a conversation in the front of a car, pay attention to the rearview mirror. More often than not, it's been removed for a cleaner shot of the characters."
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Plus they're typically easy to find. They tend to be the last ones people go for unless they've got an allergy - for obvious reasons.
Honestly, you'd be surprised how much movie magic you can work with stuff you grab off a drug store shelf. It's one of our favorite tidbits of industry knowledge - but certainly not the only one.
Reddit asked:
People who work in the film industry, what are some of the inside secrets, insights, fun trivia, etc. that you could share?
This thread turned into Reddit Pop-Up video, with bits of trivia and factoids flung all over the place. Love it. 10/10. Would recommend. Five Stars.
Bored To Tears
God it's boring. Actors have the most boring job on Earth. They just hang around all day, they're on their phones or their laptop, just bored out of their minds.
Then they have to go into makeup and that takes hours. I mean, even for a really natural face, cos God forbid the Key Make Up Artist isn't happy with every damn pore. And the actor isn't in much of a hurry so that trailer is just a black hole of time sucking. SFX make up? Oh God just take the whole morning. We'll be hanging around on set just waiting, whilst the DP bitches to anyone who's forced to listen. DPs are just the crankiest, most negative people, just huge pains in the ass.
And then the scene starts and the actor has to go from 0 - 100. From basically being horizontal with boredom to this whole animated other person. That's when they earn their money, cos God knows I couldn't do it.
Or not - more actors are actually kinda sh*t at that energy than great. They're a lot of people treading water cos they're in their 40s and never finished school and literally have no other option.
But some really try their best to absolutely explode when needed. It's really hard though. I never ever once envied them, even the rich ones. It looked to me like a really shitty job.
Then in between takes there's the touch ups. And the resetting. And more hanging around. And more bitching from the DP. And shouting from the 1st AD.
I had to get out, everyone else thought it was such a cool job but I was bored out of my skull.
Oh and in terms of secrets? Nobody ever cries on cue. Or cries real tears. They either blow crystals into their eyes just before Action that irritates the membranes so its basically an onion-cutting situation, or dab Tearstick on their fingers, so halfway through a scene they can raise their fingers to their eyes and BAM! their eyes start watering like mad.
Megan Was Telling The Truth
GiphyMichael Bay laughed like a maniac after a boom tech passed out due to heat exhaustion. He passed out as a result of Bay demanding that the crew water trailer be moved ten miles out into the desert because the edge of the hitch was visible in one of his shots.
I'm really glad I'm not in that business anymore for lots of reasons, but he was a real piece of work even in that world.
Lighting
Once you realize that a LOT of lights go into making a shot's lighting look good, you start analyzing the lighting in every shot you see. Ex: Does the moon reaaally give off that much light? If the only lamp (that we see) in the room is to the right, then how is the actor's whole face lit? Hmm...
- tallente
One of the fascinating details about media personalities working from home during the pandemic is observing how the production companies prepared their home studios. Some just set up a webcam and a laptop with room or natural light. Others clearly have a professionally lit green screen backdrop, a couple of softboxes (map lighting off the eyeball reflections), and a 4k camera. Some of the uplinks are high quality (apparently Stephen Colbert has a satellite truck parked in his driveway) while others use local network infrastructure.
If anything I bet a lot more media personalities are going to want to work from home after this is over.
Hurry Up And Wait
There's a lot of sitting around and doing nothing.
I'm a Script Supervisor, which means the majority of my work is done days before shooting starts, and then I watch the shoot with the directors to catch continuity errors, and then after wrap I have reports to write. During the entire process of scene transition (which is the most time-consuming part), there is nothing for me to do. I don't mind this, because I like downtime and am really good at entertaining myself. Also film sets usually have at least a few cool crew members to shoot the bull with (I almost always make friends with the sound guys).
And then its reversed if you're a grip or camera assistant. Busy as hell during setup, but as soon as rolling starts (unless you're operating a dolly or otherwise directly assisting the director of photography) theres nothing to do but hang out, eat snacks, and be super quiet if you're anywhere near the set.
There's a joke motto for film sets: "Hurry up and wait." And it's so true.
Drew's Tips
GiphyThe Price is Right is actually super easy to win. Drew Carey would actually brief the audience on a few tips, plus there's a few patterns that he's openly talked about that'll make things easier for you on the price guessing. It turns out there's just a lot of morons.
The Intern
I once saw an intern forging our main actors autograph on like 200 posters as per the producers request. It was on a very popular show too.
- Baker88
Racism
I work as a background actor. The amount of a$$ kissing and racism in this industry is astounding.
We were setting up for a classroom scene and one of the PA's asked me to leave and said "don't take this personally". He essentially kicked out most Asians and left one or two in the scene lol.
The industry works by promotion, so that means the people at the lowest (PA's and background actors) tend to be nicest to the people above them and b!tchiest to the people at the bottom. If you aren't famous, don't even think of being talked to by anyone.
It's kinda funny to watch when a celeb will say a small joke and everybody laughs like it was a Stand-Up show. Also the producers treat us like animals. I've seen people pass out because we had to wear winter clothes while it was summer. (Fun fact: seasons in movies doesn't mean it's the same irl). They basically make you sign something so you can't sue them.
Smoke Sesh
Some movies have a tremendous amount of smoking in it. As a rule, nicotine-free herbal cigarettes are used. Otherwise, in order to shoot one scene where a character smokes, where many takes are often needed — it would do significant harm to the actor's health.
Forgotten Expensive Stuff
GiphyMy friend who works on set stages for TV shows found and copped a free DSLR camera from one of the sets he was working at, so I guess people just leave really expensive stuff around and forget about it.
Exaggerated Body Language
High school friend went on to become a "professional extra" in university as he was studying film and wanted behind the scenes experience. A lot of the times those extras you see in the background of movies and TVs are just mouthing phrases at each other, like "peas, corns and carrots" and "a pink and purple elephant".
They can't talk because the background sound gets added in post. If they are required to talk, they have to talk in low murmurs but not whispering as whispering gets poorly picked up on the mic. He said for the most part, directors want tneir extras to use slightly more exaggerated body language to show a conversation is taking place.
Setting The Setting
Movie sets are often built two or three times for different occasions or events. For example one set is built standard but another is built on scissor lifts to be lowered into the ground.
Crew On Crew Action
A lot of crew members hook up with a lot crew members. Not me, but from what I witness/heard it was common. Think about it, a lot of us spend 12+ hours for numerous days/weeks/months together, we gain numerous friendships but others get much closer.
G'Day Sound Mate!
Can't remember his name but there is a top quality sound effects engineer who works on top budget films from a small shed in the Australian outback.