Have you ever wondered why...

Also, in films, when someone is doing something on a computer it is accompanied by lots of sound effects - beeping, chirping, babbling and lots of binary code/fax machine-type sounds!

And of course the elaborate graphical animation of what is going on, zooming in on rotating 3-D animations of something that in reality would require a simple line of text!

I can't help it, I always check the time on clocks in the background, anytime a mirror appears I check it to see if someone accidentally allowed it to reflect the coffee and doughnuts table, stuff like that. It is amazing how often pens appear in front pockets and disappear.
It's all make beleive. If counting the gears is entertaining, I say count away.
I have had to learn not to point out the changing level of the water in the glasses while my wife is trying to listen to the dinner conversation, it kind of ticks her off.

Back to the camera sounds- I seem to get asked to take shots for strangers alot, I am sure many of you do too. I remember one day in particular that I must have had a dozen people ask me one after another, based solely on the fact that I had a big camera and did it for the other couples and families before them. Anyway, Does anyone else feel a little ripped off after being confronted by a total stranger to take a shot of them with a camera you have never handled, quickly trying to surmise what they want, trying to quickly check ISO, aperture, green box, whatever, making sure that you don't have a finger over the lens or flash, trying to get a decent composition and a steady hold, and then pulling the ripcord and not getting any feedback from the camera?
I hate the silent shutter effect. I would probably sell a camera that made absolutely no noise, I much prefer the mirror clunk sound at least, and a viewfinder that went dark for a split second would be even better.
I always have to ask people that hand me a quiet camera if it did it's thing, and they sometimes look at me like they think they might have just asked the wrong guy to take their snapshot for them. I feel like such a dinosaur.

...or whenever they show at what the photographer is looking through the viewfinder and that person is using AF, it focuses in and out for a second or two, slowly, with a lot of noise. (Although they usually have cheaper Nikons, so I don't know if that is an issue with cheaper Nikon lenses; I have never had that happen with one of my lenses, however.)

Or when they try to fake a musical instrument, especially a guitar. The actor should learn a few chords at least, or the editer should keep the neck out of the shot. My daughter is a trombonist and goes crazy when they try to fake her instrument. I get a kick out of how aggravated she gets.

Same with Art Wolfe's "Travel to the Edge". Always the sound effect of a camera shutter when they switch from video to still shots. I guess they want to make sure that the viewer knows that the view of the TV screen is not moving.

Maybe its because they can't find another soundtrack to use and just keep using the same one over to save on costs?

I easily suspend my disbeleif for most movies, but one (cost saving ?) false note really bus me when they use flat glass in eyeglases. Even optician's display models are not normally flat. I also suspect they worry about reflection of camera crew etc. - anyone know? - getting a bit off topic but at least it's about lenses!

The ones that really bother me are when someone is touching or moving a gun and it starts making noises. As an example, in the movie Tombstone, when Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday are at the Faro table and Ringo is spinning his gun around. It is making all kinds of noises. If I had a gun that made that much noise when handling it, I sure wouldn't want to shoot it!

And I always laugh when watching America's Wildest Police Videos and they are showing a chase from a helicopter. It's always the same guy talking and for some reason you can hear the sirens and tires squealing. You can't hear anything in a helicopter, let alone sirens and tires squealing on the ground. They even dub in the "reporter in the helicopter" so they can make him say whatever he wants.

The talk above about "Bullitt" got me searching for how the famous chase scene was filmed - here's a really interesting description:
http://www.classicmust​ang.com/bullitt_Motor_​Trend.htm

Another one I always love is the resolution shown on some of the cameras, the can blow up a picture from a digital camera to show almost anything. One show had them enlarging a picture taken by a tourist to show the crook in the reflection on sunglasses which were at least 15 feet from the camera. I want one of those, better resolution than an H3 Hassy and smaller than a cigarette pack.

To change the subject a little, if those who replied have not seen the 60s film "Blow Up" get it tonight. It's a really well done film centered on Photography. David Hemmings was the star and I remember pop photo did an analysis of his use of his Nikon F and concluded he knew what he was doing. Also the scenes where he continuously enlarges an image are fascinating and should be very illuminating and interesting to someone who never set foot in a darkroom.
Everyone who commented is correct. Extend your comments to newspapers and tv news. They know very little or nothing about anything technical.

mike_d wrote in post #9369265
I've found that pretty much any time Hollywood shows a subject I have more knowledge of than the average person, they get it completely wrong.

I was a hard hat diver in the Navy and while "Men of Honor" was a reasonably well done film about a true story, there were parts of the movie that made me cringe. The whole part about the recovery of the missing nuke was historically inaccurate and the encounter with the submarine was pure Hollywood...

Gipetto wrote in post #9370213
Add any of the TV crime solving shows to this with "zoom and enhance". THIS IS NOT BLADERUNNER, DAMMIT!

But it at least spawned a nice retort by the folks at Red Dwarf: http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU

LOL!

hawkeye60 wrote in post #9371097
It's Hollywood where all phone numbers begin with 555, tires squeal on dirt roads, and all the laws of physics cease to exist.

There's a good reason for the 555 phone numbers. Part of the 555 prefix has been purposely set aside for fictional use. This way phone numbers can be used in the movies with having someone's actual phone number seen by the entire movie-viewing public.

birdfromboat wrote in post #9371384
Back to the camera sounds- I seem to get asked to take shots for strangers alot, I am sure many of you do too. I remember one day in particular that I must have had a dozen people ask me one after another, based solely on the fact that I had a big camera and did it for the other couples and families before them. Anyway, Does anyone else feel a little ripped off after being confronted by a total stranger to take a shot of them with a camera you have never handled, quickly trying to surmise what they want, trying to quickly check ISO, aperture, green box, whatever, making sure that you don't have a finger over the lens or flash, trying to get a decent composition and a steady hold, and then pulling the ripcord and not getting any feedback from the camera?
I hate the silent shutter effect. I would probably sell a camera that made absolutely no noise, I much prefer the mirror clunk sound at least, and a viewfinder that went dark for a split second would be even better.
I always have to ask people that hand me a quiet camera if it did it's thing, and they sometimes look at me like they think they might have just asked the wrong guy to take their snapshot for them. I feel like such a dinosaur.

Much as I dislike all the little itsy-cute features that come in P&S cameras, I had to turn on the artificial shutter sound in my G5 so I could tell when it took a picture, especially when I was using the wireless remote. Some of that stuff is ridiculous... I mean, who wants a camera that barks like a dog when you take a picture?

One scene I love was the enlargement of the photograph in Mel Brook's "High Anxiety" to show the he was riding the elevator in the background. It's so intentionally absurd that it cracks me up every time.

On CSI the evidence technicians shoot their evidence pictures with dSLRs without looking through through the viewfinders. They alss use the popup flash instead of a ringflash.

Of course, these same technicians go out on busts and participate in suspect interrogations too which seems strange. They can get DNA evidence turned around in a matter of hours and their office seems to have a limitless budget for every single case.

JeffreyG wrote in post #9373738
On CSI the evidence technicians shoot their evidence pictures with dSLRs without looking through through the viewfinders. They alss use the popup flash instead of a ringflash.

Of course, these same technicians go out on busts and participate in suspect interrogations too which seems strange. They can get DNA evidence turned around in a matter of hours and their office seems to have a limitless budget for every single case.

Those shows are absurd, all the techies look like they just stepped out of GQ or Playboy. My nephew is a forensic dentist, I asked him how many of these people he meets look like the people on the shows, he just laughed.