This is a question regarding all films. I know that in a lot of films the image is reversed for some reason for particular shots and that you can usually tell this because, for example, something on the left side of someone's face will be on their right side, etc. But I don't understand why?
Craig Bryant
25th Feb 2007
General questions
25th Feb 2007
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: Is it known why the TF followed the orders of Palpatine (when he looks like the emperor)? I believe that they set-up the blockade and invasion to try to get Amadala to sign the treaty to joint he TF. But still why would they do it just on his orders?
Chosen answer: Palpatine (or Darth Sideous as the TF call him) is a master of using people to further his plans. The leaders of the TF are greedy and unscrupulous. Palpatine needs to destabalise the workings of the Senate enough to maneuver his way into being elected as Chancellor, so he presents the TF with a chance to make a lot of money by exploiting Naboo, knowing that the resulting conflict will generate sympathy for him in the senate, as a Naboo.
25th Feb 2007
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: What is the relationship between the Trade Federation and the Senate? I mean I know that the Senate is supposed to be made up of representatives from planets in the Republic. But the TF also have representatives there. But the TF isn't just one planet is it? I thought that it was a company/organisation as such that encompassed lots of different planets (like the Federation in Star Trek)?
Chosen answer: The Trade Federation started out as a loose confederation of merchants and shipping providers who banded together to ensure that they had effective control over trade routes throughout the galaxy. Under the leadership of the Neimoidians, they took precautions to maintain that control, including a substantial military to protect their interests. This ultimately gave them enough political clout to achieve representation in the Senate at the same level as a member world.
25th Feb 2007
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
25th Feb 2007
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: How did the droid in the beginning of the film know that Qui-gon and Obi-wan were both Jedi?
Chosen answer: Because word had arrived that two Jedi were arriving to handle the peace negotiations. When the two delegates then arrive, and both of them are wearing the distinct Jedi robes, with lightsabers in their belts, it is not exactly a difficult conclusion to draw.
25th Feb 2007
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: I have read that this film was not received well among SW fans. I first saw this in the cinema and thought it was great and even now I still consider it a really good film and I love all of the films as a whole. I am just wondering why it is considered not as good as the rest?
Chosen answer: A lot of people felt that the more political nature of the film was inferior to the more swashbuckling feel of the original trilogy - after all, a trade dispute isn't inherently as entertaining as a rebellion against an evil Empire. They felt that the dialogue was rather clunky and delivered in a somewhat wooden fashion, which is in many ways a not unfair point, although the scripting accusation applies equally to the original trilogy (Lucas simply isn't a good writer of dialogue). In the end, the main problem was that, over the years, the original trilogy have gained an almost mythical status and have a substantial nostalgia factor, to the extent that a number of fans at the time were quoted as saying that the release of a new Star Wars film was to be a defining moment in their lives. The expectation levels were so high that it would have been impossible for any film, no matter how good, to live up to them - disappointment was inevitable.
12th Jul 2005
The Parole Officer (2001)
Revealing mistake: When Kirsty breaks them out of the police jail with the van she stole, you can see the fake wall created, as it built out of line with the real wall.
12th Nov 2004
Troy (2004)
Question: When Brad Pitt and the Prince fight outside Troy and Pitt is the victor, is there any reason why they began with spears and then when they went, they used their swords? How come they didn't just use their swords to begin with as you see in many movies of the same genre?
Chosen answer: Homer describes the fight as having taken place in The Iliad using spears, not swords - they threw spears at each other in turn, and with Athena's help Achilles (Pitt) struck Hector (Bana), killing him. The movie uses swords to make the fight visually more exciting, but features spears as a nod to the original.
Also in those days the spear was the primary weapon that was used to fight with. The sword was always a secondary or back up weapon. This is often misrepresented in movies.
Question: I am wondering if anyone could tell me about the wigs always worn in these sort of movies? Like the big curly one the governor wears and the military men. Does anyone know how this came about? In courtrooms today they are still worn. Also the governor's wig is brown to begin with, then after the 8 years has passed, he now wears a grey wig, is there any reason for this?
Chosen answer: In the 18th and early 19th century, it became fashionable for men to wear wigs. This was for the practical purpose of hiding their own poor hair (due to poor diet and lifestyle) but it also became a symbol of status. Namely, the better quality of wig you wore, the higher your social standing. The brown to grey change is because wigs changed colour to match the natural greying of the real hair.
21st Jun 2004
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Question: Could someone please explain to me the different ranks onboard the ship? Like there were the men in uniform, the kids in uniform, then the other guys who had no uniform?
Chosen answer: Traditionally aboard any type of Royal Navy sailing vessel you would have a heirarchy of officers. Beginning with the Captain (technincally not a real rank, Post Captain was the real rank. Post Captain meaning you had commanded a vessel three years or more and had shown yourself of distinction worthy of promotion), then going down through Lieutenants 1st through 5th. The younger boys were juinior officers, or non-commissioned officers, and thus had the lowest rank of any officer, Midshipman, meaning they had command authority in the event of the death of another officer or if it was bestowed upon them in the absence of a higher ranked officer. The non-officers seem to be a mix of ensigns and hired hands. There were also Marines aboard (guys in red and white uniforms), with their ranks usually including either a Lieutenant or Sergeant Major, his subordinates, and a number of infantry units, usually corporals or privates. The Marines were ususally at platoon strength or higher, meaning about 12-20 Marines. There were also what appeared to be Corpsmen (military doctors), but I couldn't really tell if the doctors on board were all civilians, or a mix of Corpsmen and civilians.
21st May 2004
La Confidential (1997)
Factual error: During the interrogation room scene, it is very bright in the room looking into the interrogation room, and it is dimmer inside the interrogation room. Although this would mean that the suspect would be able to see everyone watching as for him to just see a reflection, it needs to be bright his side, and darker the other side. True the glass could have been slightly reflective on one side, but the laws of optics still apply.
16th May 2004
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Question: During the medley at the beginning of the film, does anyone know what the first song is that Deloris begins to sing? It sounds like it starts off "Starlight..."
Chosen answer: The first song is "Love Child" by Diana Ross and the Supremes. The first words in the medley are "I started life".
14th Apr 2004
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Question: What does Whoopi mean at the end when saying she is a 'headliner'?
Chosen answer: A headliner is someone who receives top billing for a show or concert. She is the main attraction, and probably has a lesser known band/act perform before her, or "open for her".
24th Mar 2004
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Continuity mistake: When Teal'c walks into the Goa'uld force shield on the planet, he is forced off and he almost does a backflip. You can see that he would have hit the floor head/neck first. But when the shot changes, you see him land on the floor sliding on his back, as though someone had just pushing him over.
16th Feb 2004
The Sound of Music (1965)
Continuity mistake: Just before the Captain is about to sing Eidelweiss to the children, Max, Maria and the Baroness, the Baroness says to Max "Well why didn't you tell me, I could have brought along my harmonica." She has a glass of champagne in her hand and is about to take a sip but the camera cuts back to the Captain starting to sing and the glass is back resting in her hand. (01:21:30)
5th Jan 2004
Red Dwarf (1988)
Continuity mistake: After the future Kryten cuts off The Inquisitor's hand with the chainsaw, he kicks the glove which lands about 7 feet away from Lister. In the next shot Lister simply bends down and picks the glove up from in front of him. (00:13:45)
24th Dec 2003
Crossroads (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Ben, Mimi, Kit and Lucy are in the waffle house talking, you see Ben is eating a sandwich, in some shots he is holding the sandwich, then it is on the plate, then he is holding it again.
24th Dec 2003
The Sound of Music (1965)
Trivia: When filming the sound of music in the scene where Liesl is dancing in the gazebo during the song 'I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen', where she dances from bench to bench, she actually went through one of the panes of glass on the first jump and sprained her ankle because there were two pairs of shoes she had for that scene (one with rubber grips and one without). The ones with rubber grip were meant for the actual filming not the rehearsal but she had been rehearsing with the ones without rubber grip and someone forgot to change them. She was OK but she had to do the dance with a bandage on her ankle.
24th Dec 2003
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Other mistake: Carter says that the chance of depositing the heavy element inside the Katow sun while the element is en route is about 1%. However, hypothetically speaking, the actual chances would be infinitely smaller, in fact it would be near impossible. Simply consider the distance from earth stargate to the Katow stargate, the diameter of an average sun, and the time it takes for an object to travel through the gate (about 12 seconds). Taking the closest star to us (Alpha Centruri), at a distance of 4 light years, this means that the wormhole takes ~443ns (0.000000443s) to pass through the sun (using our sun diameter). Similarly, taking the diameter of the Milky Way as the distance to the furthest star in our galaxy, ~100000 light years, meaning the wormhole takes ~17ps (0.000000000017s) to pass through the sun. This means that the SGC would have to shut down the gate within a a maxmium of 443ns or a minimum of 17ps time gap. As we have previously seen, the stargate takes far longer to shutdown than these miniscule time lengths.
24th Dec 2003
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Touchstone - S2-E14
Plot hole: When half of SG-1 return to Medrona to detonate a charge aimed at the gate, why didn't they just go to another planet? As when they went to Medrona, there was a blizzard going on and they also had the natives saying they will arrest them as they still hadn't returned the Touchstone. Could have just saved themeselves some hassle.
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Chosen answer: The most likely explanation is because when it comes to editing it may look better when flipped, or because it was not possible to shoot a shot from the opposite angle at the time of filming. Also if shots are edited together from different sequences, the director may need to match the direction of movement, so has to flip one set of shots in order to maintain obvious continuity (at the cost of smaller things).
Scrappy