Can someone explain why special effects (namely digital ones) are so expensive in many movies? It seems many films have monstrous budgets due to their large number of special effects.
Lummie
15th Mar 2005
General questions
12th Mar 2005
Frasier (1993)
Revealing mistake: After Niles tells in front of everyone at the party that he loves Daphne, you see Frasier in one shot standing near the guests by the front door. You can see the set wall ends above the fireplace and a black wall is behind it.
11th Mar 2005
The Simpsons (1989)
Skinner's Sense of Snow - S12-E8
Continuity mistake: When the Hamster rolls through the glass of Flanders car it breaks it near the bottom middle of The Front windshield. Later on when Flanders and Homer are taking the kids home you can see the break in the glass has now moved to about halfway up The Front windshield. On of the following shots it moves back to its original position and then moves back to being around the middle of the windshield.
11th Mar 2005
Law & Order (1990)
Old Friends - S4-E22
Continuity mistake: Whilst Stone is looking at the pictures of the mobsters (as he is talking to Ann Madsen), he is holding the photos quite close together. The shot changes to a wide shot of the people in the room and the space between the photos is considerably wider than before.
11th Mar 2005
The Simpsons (1989)
Continuity mistake: Before Homer sees his vision of Caesar Romero the day sign next to him says 9. After the Duff executives see him talking to nobody they decide to take him away and when they get down there the sign now says 12 with the president of Duff confirming it in his speech. Doubtful it took them 3 days to get down to him and not much reason for Homer to take 3 days off the sign seeing as he was almost passing out from the lack of food.
11th Mar 2005
The Simpsons (1989)
Continuity mistake: As Bart is forced to show Marge the item (picture frame) he is hiding, he pulls it out of his jacket and he hands it to Marge. As he pulls it out you can see there is nothing in the frame or on the border of the picture frame. After Marge's reaction to the photo we see a close up of the frame and there is now a picture in the frame and some colorful decorations around the frame. Whilst the frame could have been the backside when he pulled it out he never turned it over when handing it to her, and Marge never turned it around when looking at it.
10th Mar 2005
Closer (2004)
Continuity mistake: When Clive Owen throws most of the money at Natalie Portman a bit after he keeps trying to find out her real name, she is putting the money into her handbag. As she is putting the money in her handbag she is holding it up near her chest. The following shot she is still putting the money in her handbag but it is now close to or resting on her legs.
1st Mar 2005
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Question: I'm not sure if this is a mistake or not, but shouldn't Greg be wearing a yarmulke during his wedding? He and his family are Jewish so why would he not be wearing one?
Chosen answer: Wearing a yarmulke is a custom, not a religious law. There are orthodox jews who don't wear them, as well, since it's a cultural thing.
Not so. Many Jews don't wear yarmulkes, but Orthodox male Jews do-as a religious law, not a custom.
27th Feb 2005
King of the Hill (1997)
Next of Shin - S3-E5
Continuity mistake: Before Cotton puts down "8 the hard way" on the craps table, there is a beer on the table next to him. After he loses, he gets onto the table and you can see the beer has disappeared and he is not holding it. Even in the final shot through the security camera monitor, the beer is nowhere to be seen even on the floor. Also, Hank was holding a beer before Cotton leaped onto the table and in the security monitor footage he has not put it down on the table and is not holding it as he puts both hands on his head.
27th Feb 2005
King of the Hill (1997)
Next of Shin - S3-E5
Continuity mistake: As Hank is having his discussion with Cotton in the Casino you can see Cotton's red (playing) chips in front of him. In one shot Hank stands up and the angle shows Cotton from over Hank's shoulder and the red chips look black and badly damaged. The next shot from the same angle the chips are back to being red and completely fine. (00:19:55)
26th Feb 2005
The Simpsons (1989)
Trivia: In New Zealand when the show was being shown on the TV2 network, the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons over a period of time were continually edited to try and remove as much violent content from them as possible. However around 2000-2001 the network edited out every single Itchy & Scratchy cartoon making the cartoon almost non-existent in the show despite some of the cartoon's content not being as objectionable as the rest.
25th Feb 2005
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Continuity mistake: When Elle is talking to Bill after killing Budd, she is packing the money away in the suitcase. When she tells Bill "She put a black mamba in his camper", all the money on the floor to her right is gone and the only money left to pack is on the small table to her right. The next shot she is taking money from the floor to the left (her right) of the suitcase, and there is a considerable amount of money still on the floor. (01:10:35)
25th Feb 2005
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the diner owner sees Beatrix walking towards the diner after getting out of the graveyard, you can see a CLOSED sign in the window and is pushed to the left corner of the window frame. When Beatrix is walking in you can see the same sign in the left window but is right up against the right of the window frame. You can actually see by the green pipe outside the diner that they have changed the sign's location. In the first shot the green pipe is outside the window. In the following shot where you can see the sign in the left window, the green pipe is outside the right window. (01:00:10)
25th Feb 2005
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Continuity mistake: When Beatrix is putting Elle's head into the toilet bowl in the fight you can see Elle is holding the toilet basin near the left edge with her left hand very tightly (you can tell its hers by the black sleeve). In the next shot she is bringing her hand up from below the basin around the middle of the left side and grabbing Beatrix's arm. Even if she dropped her hand there was not enough time during the shots for her to drop her hand from the basin and bring it back up. (01:13:20)
24th Feb 2005
Finding Neverland (2004)
Continuity mistake: As Barrie (Depp) and Frohman (Hoffman) are sitting in the theatre shortly after Barrie seeing all the sets being removed from the theatre, there are a number of guys removing what look like set doors. The first two guys that walk behind Barrie make a large distance between seeing them and walking down the hall. A few seconds later two more guys just walk past the back of Barrie and in the very next shot they have disappeared. (00:15:40)
14th Feb 2005
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Continuity mistake: As the bikes are chasing Banderas in the car, you can see the sky is overcast. In a following wide shot of the car and the bikes the sky it is a perfect blue sky with only a few small clouds in the background.
13th Feb 2005
King of the Hill (1997)
Continuity mistake: When Peggy is leaving for her guitar recital, she is getting in the car and is wearing a pink sleeved shirt. Then there is a quick shot from behind the car, when Peggy is getting into her car, but her shirt is now a sleeveless green one.
11th Feb 2005
King of the Hill (1997)
Continuity mistake: Before Hank fires Leon he is seen in the showroom foaming from the mouth and there is a door to his right. In the next shot when Hank is being talked to by Mr Strickland, there is now a bulletin board to Leon's right and the door has disappeared.
10th Feb 2005
Chappelle's Show (2003)
Revealing mistake: During the dinner scene where Dave is thinking about Arsenio Hall eating cheese, Arsenio starts complaining about how good the cheese is. After punching one guy, he goes up to another and slaps him in the face. When he slaps him you can see he misses the guy's face by a good inch or so.
7th Feb 2005
One Hour Photo (2002)
Continuity mistake: As Sy is watching tv (just before he turns onto The Simpsons) there is a glass of coke on the sidetable sitting on a napkin. The next shot its moved a bit to the left almost next to the napkin. (00:17:05)
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Chosen answer: Digital special effects are expensive for a number of reasons; to get good believeable CG (computer graphics) they need to use a very good, fast, computer and a fair amount of software - each computer could cost about $10k or more. Multiply that by the 40-50 odd computers that a SFX company may have and that's a LOT of money, so the SFX company needs to make that investment back, plus there are the 50 odd staff needed to actually use the computers, and they tend to be highly trained in a particular area or program, and so they tend to charge a fair amount of money per hour. Plus you would probably find that big movie studios pay the SFX companies incentives to work on their next big budget film as opposed to a smaller film.