Drumline (2002) - 37 mistakes

Continuity: When Shawn is teaching the new drummers not to look at their drums while they play, he and Devon play together until Shawn drops a stick. At this point, Dr. Lee comes over and starts playing with Devon, until Devon drops a stick. The drum stick falls from Devon's hand and bounces around on the field. In the next shot, Dr. Lee is talking to Devon, neither has moved, but now Devon has both sticks in his hand.

Audio problem: In most of the drumming scenes, the drumming usually doesn't match up, especially during closeups with Devon. This happens throughout the movie.

Continuity: When the Morris Brown band is playing in the stands during one of their games, the first shot shows the band director wearing a purple suit to match the band uniforms. In the next shot, his suit is blue.

Continuity: When the Panthers are marching out for the first football game, you can see the track is wet. When the camera switches to the cheerleaders the track is dry. Then the camera switches again and shows the wet track again.

Plot hole: In the scene of the first game, the camera pans across the fans at the game. They are mostly dressed in sweaters, coats, sweatshirts, etc. Also, the breath is seen coming from the mouths of the band during their performance. The setting however, is Atlanta, Georgia. The first football game of the season is always in late August or early September. Average temperature during the day is about 90 degrees. This scene was shot somewhere during the winter.

Factual error: When Devon gets a package from his father, the stamp on it reads "Atlanta" when it should be New York, where Devon's father is from.

Continuity: When Devon is paying for Leila's food, Leila says something and has this big smile. Then they focus up on Devon's face and in the corner of the screen you can see Leila, but she's not smiling. After the closeup, they show Leila again, with the same smiling face as before.

Continuity: When Donell challenges Jason for the spot in the show, you can see the Drum majors. You can see that one of them has braids, but when the camera angle switches, you can see that neither of the drum majors has braids. Then when the camera angle switches back, the guy with the braids is back again.

Continuity: After the band's first performance, they are shown in a cafe and the one guy is eating a large hamburger very quickly. He takes a large bite of a sliced pickle. Two shots later, the pickle is sitting on the plate, whole.

Factual error: When Devon receives the tapes from his dad, the zip code for Brooklyn is 11258. The 11258 zip code is actually for Massapequa.

Continuity: When Dr. Lee is watching the tape from the first game, as you watch Devon perform, you can see that his playing on the tape is not the same as it is at the game.

Other: The guy that fights Devon at the homecoming game is playing a snare drum but later on at the BET classics the same guy is playing a trumpet.

Factual error: At the graduation in the beginning, the percussion section is playing on concert snares, but they sound like marching snares. The two have distinctly different sounds.

Continuity: In the scene in the cafeteria where Ernest is pigging out, Ernest is shown eating half a burger, then the shot changes to his friends watching him. When the scene changes back to Ernest he's shown taking a bite out of a whole new burger, but only a few seconds went by. When did he have time to get a new burger?

Continuity: When Jason and the other bass drummer are about to challenge each other, Sean lifts his hand up to signify the unit to stop playing. When he does that signal, he drops his hands behind his back with his drumsticks. Then, in the very next shot, when Dr. Lee is talking, you see Sean's hands right back on his drum as if they were there the whole time.

Continuity: When Dr Lee is teaching Devon to not look down and to follow him, he starts to move backwards and Devon takes a step or two forward. Before he drops his stick, he is ahead of the rest of the line. When they show him from the side view, he is parallel with the rest of the line. He should have been standing outside the line.

Continuity: When Ernest is inducted into his fraternity, Devon, Jayson, Charles and Deidre congratulate him after his induction ceremony. As the camera switches back and forth from Ernest, the position of his scarf changes. The markings are even when comparing the left and right side of the scarf, then they are uneven, then even again, then finally uneven for the remainder of the scene.

Continuity: During the beginning of the drum-line tie breaker between MBC and Atlanta A&T, the section leader for the snare line for MBC starts the band off, then holds his hands up in air and looks around and behind him at the drum-line as they do a roll. In the next shot that pans across the snares, they are all rolling, including the section leader. but in the next shot of the cymbal players spinning their cymbals for effect, the snare section leader is just standing there kinda messing with his sticks, moving them around the rim of his drum and turning them around, butt end forward, front end, etc.

Continuity: During the first half-time performance by Atlanta A&T, during one shot of the band, the scoreboard is shown with 13 minutes remaining for the half-time performance. The problem is that the clock is standing still.

Continuity: When Ernest is inducted into his fraternity, Devon, Jayson, Charles and Deidre peek through the bushes and see the ceremony. One shot shows Jayson and Deidre together looking through the same opening, then Devon and Charles are seen side-by-side looking through another opening. The next shot, from behind, shows all four characters looking though separate locations along the bushes. The following shot shows Devon and Charles looking through the same opening again.