Inappropriate cars.

[Junkman]

Hey Fred, if you need a scruffy early-90s E-class Merc, I'm your man. Once I get the bugger mobile again...

 

Yeah, for a post-apocalyptic British Mad-Maxesque action flick. Last of the turbo-dizzlers...

[Mash]

It is pretty annoying when TV gets the cars wrong but to be honest most of the people watching are not massive pedants like us.  Budget and location and timing play a big, big part in it.  I've had fun on the sets I've been on but the deadlines and changes sometimes mean you just have to lump it.  By the end of Heartbeat though I did think it had become laughable and they obviously couldn't give a stuff about any kind of period detailing.

 

On a more positive note, I went to see Rush the other night and I thought it was fucking brilliant.  To have assembles full grids of period cars and dressed the sets like they did took some doing.  There were a few minor inaccuracies but the whole was so well portrayed that I didn't mind that for example, Hunt had his proper Hesketh in 1973 instead of a March.

[FredTransit]

Don't get me on Rush. The main supply messed me about royally with the mobile library. Then stopped answering his phone (again). All this added to the time he had me crewbus out and returned it without the valid tax disc and door key, plus pissing off me mate who did get his cars  in Rush (came back without some docs that were in em, bits missing and other minor damage) I doubt I will work with him again.....

[Junkman]

It doesn't bother me in telly series or soaps (I don't watch those anyway), but I find it severely annoying in major productions, especially when the film is targeted to a car loving audience, like e.g. American Graffiti etc., or when it can be expected that a proportion of the audience is historically knowlegable, like e.g. war movies etc.

[simmo]

Don't get me on Rush. The main supply messed me about royally with the mobile library. Then stopped answering his phone (again). All this added to the time he had me crewbus out and returned it without the valid tax disc and door key, plus pissing off me mate who did get his cars  in Rush (came back without some docs that were in em, bits missing and other minor damage) I doubt I will work with him again.....

I was going to ask you about Rush, I was working at Blackbushe and took some photos of the motors that were on set, a couple of Mk 1 Trannys and at least one D Series plus other stuff. Unfortunately seem to have misplaced the phone card with them on. The vehicles left on site did look a bit vulnerable.

[DVee8]

 Rush  

[FredTransit]

the 'D Series' was in fact a Cargo with a D cab slapped on it. It was seen out on the road. The Cargo had a wider track than the D. Carlos Fandango of the truck world. Comedy......

[Tayne]

Rush looked rather cheaply done, it seemed obvious that most of the race tracks were shot in the same place.

I was also surprised to see all the Hesketh team cars (including the Rolls Royce) at "Watkins Glen".

[sheffcortinacentre]

american graffiti was done on a very low budget, inc getting the shops to leave there lights on to help with the street scenes actors doing thier on make up, etc to keep costs down.

[HillmanImp]

Rush looked rather cheaply done, it seemed obvious that most of the race tracks were shot in the same place.

I was also surprised to see all the Hesketh team cars (including the Rolls Royce) at "Watkins Glen".

 

But its geek mode. 99.999999% of the world know no no no no no, no no no no no no, no no no no better. 

 

I don't know the film yet, or was there at the time but whats the Watkins Glen reference? *

 

 

 

* I used to drink with James Hunt at the Lamb Inn, Rustington.**

 

** but am obviously not geeky enough.

[Madman Of The People]

The 1975 Film "Cooley High" was set in a Chicago high school in 1964.  However, in a number of street scenes, you can clearly see 1970s cars driving past.

[Tayne]

HillmanImp - Watkins Glen is a US race circuit which was used for F1 back then. In the movie it looks like almost all of the other tracks because they were almost all filmed at Blacbushe Airport.

The vehicle issue come down to me assuming that in the 70s the team wouldn't have shipped over every vehicle it had.

[RichardMoss]

Who of you has actually ever experienced working* with TV or Film people?

I will now only speak for myself, but since I did, I am no longer asking myself why everything displayed on a telly screen is about as intelligent as a plank of wood. This is the best they can come up with as a collective effort. The grade of daftness of those I have encountered is beyond anything you have ever imagined being humanly possible.

I did - I worked as "liaison" for a Dubai based film company who were shooting an advert for a Saudi mobile phone company in our flight simulator. They visited in advance, measured everything up, consulted me about uniforms etc and they were very keen to get facts right wherever possible.  On the day they wanted it to look authentic and kept asking "does this look right?" or "would the captain do that?" and so on.

 

In the end, they actually asked me to play the part of the Captain because I "looked right" - well, it IS my job!

 

As for cockups - take a look at the number plates on the film "Killer Elite" - Jason Statham/Clive Owen

[Wilko220]

In the end, they actually asked me to play the part of the Captain because I "looked right"

YouTube link?

[Junkman]

As for cockups - take a look at the number plates on the film "Killer Elite" - Jason Statham/Clive Owen

 

This kind of films unfortunately are way beyond my intellectual capability.

[FredTransit]

I clearly remember watching some 'Carlos the Jakal' thing set in 70s Paris, and seeing a silver Mk6 transit pass the end of the street (blocker anybody?). Twice.

[Junkman]

Just watching 'Der Untergang der Pamir', a 2006 TV production about the German 4-mast bark "Pamir", one of the last commercially used sailing vessels. Its sinking in a hurricane near the Azores in September 1957 became infamous for its unusually high loss of lives (only 6 out of 86 survived, most of the crew were young Merchant Navy cadets only 16-18 years old), despite it triggered the biggest seach operation in seafaring history hitherto.

 

I found the following things inappropriate:

 

- Fendt Farmer II Tractor, which was launched in 1960.

 

- Opel Rekord P1, which became available end of August 1957, shown in a scene that takes place before the Pamir set sail for Buenos Aires on 01-06-1957.

 

- BMW Isetta with two-stroke sound dubbed in.

 

- 1970s BMW /5.

 

- Pre-war Mercedes 290 W18 in implausibly good condition for 1950s West-Germany. There was no 'classic car' movement in those days and such a hardy survivor would have looked rather battered. It also sports an Allied Occupation Zone numberplate, which were obsolete since June 1956.

 

- Ford AA lorry - same as the 290 above.

 

- Vespa PX.

 

- VW Typ 2 T1 with post-1963 front indicators.

 

Still, these were three well spent hours, highly recommended.

[RichardMoss]

YouTube link?

I'll try to find it later when I have some time.

[Station]

King Kong, filmed in 1914, during the scene where the big ape is in the jungle trying do that woman, features not only a misplaced 2002 Cadillac Catara, but also a billboard hoarding utilising a http web address, nearly 80 years before it was invented!

[FredTransit]

/\ Dont you mean set in 1914? It would be a miricle if it was filmed in 1914 and had modern stuff in it! Maybe Dr Who was in the crew?

[John F]

I suspect it might be a joke since there don't tend to be many billboards in the jungle...

[Junkman]

King Kong, filmed in 1914, during the scene where the big ape is in the jungle trying do that woman, features not only a misplaced 2002 Cadillac Catara, but also a billboard hoarding utilising a http web address, nearly 80 years before it was invented!

There probably weren't any 100ft tall Gorillas in 1914 either.

[John F]

Bloody Victorians had probably shot them all...

[e287yba]

Regards Quadrophenia, surprised no-one's mentioned Brighton Marina which can be seen in some of the beach shots and wasn't built until the mid-'70s. Then there is the Mk II Austin 1100/1300 in the scrapyard (when Jimmy is after some blues and has thrown a sickie). And the non-continuous scenes (bikes and crowds) before the riot, where they are flitting around half a mile of Brighton like they are being teleported here and there every few seconds.

 

Mind you, the chase with the Minis in The Italian Job isn't continuous either (they drive down the steps outside the church, then drive across the weir towards the steps they've just driven down, for example).

 

Still damn good films though, both of them .

[Brent_Crude]

The 1999 film 'Essex Boys' starring Sean Bean, got it badly wrong using a T-reg ('99) P38 Range Rover for the infamous triple shooting scene as well as being on the main promotional posters, where as the actual vehicle involved was an '89 'Classic' shape Rangie. With the specific car so closely associated with the events that took place being all over the national news etc. they really ought to have got that right.  

[Ghosty]

In The World's End, in every close-up shot involving a car in the village (except the semi-relevant knackered Granada Ghia), all the cars are blue or green Vauxhall Amperas . Yet there's loads of times they just didn't bother and there's things like a Mk3 Golf lying about.

I've also never seen a blue or green Ampera.

[Taff]

holy thread resurrection etc

 

Is there an IMDb side page for vehicles? They have one for firearms which highlights the facts and errors.

 

Vehicle-wise, most American-set programmes which involve heavy armour will have British tanks masquerading for US kit (this is part of their gun laws, believe it or not - The current series of The Walking Dead is the most recent example).

 

Also, didn't one of the Anglias in Heartbeat have the accurate but highly unlikely reg number of COP105E or did I dream that?

[Asimo]

http://www.imcdb.org/movies.php

 

Internet movies car database

[daveb47]

That's not the only inappropriate vehicle in Withnail & I. There's a whole row of 80's stuff as they drive round a roundabout at the start of their mistaken holiday. I'm with Tayne, though, it's such a good film I'm willing to forgive it, and the fact that it's always the same few period cars with them on the motorway. 

 

 

Never heard of it but i have just downloaded it so thats my viewing for tonight sorted.

[Taff]

http://www.imcdb.org/movies.php

 

Internet movies car database

 

that's my evening ruined! thanks!!