Shite car casting decisions in films

[AnthonyG]

George Gently - the police show set in the 1960s with Martin Shaw - has his sidekick's MGB (on a B plate) breaking down and being referred to as an 'old banger' despite being less than a year old - there are various references to the year being 1964.It also gets put up for sale for £100!

[Richard]

In the first series of The Grimleys it's supposed to be 1973 but a teenager in the street has an old dog of an HC Viva, three years old at the most, that he is always working on. Again, it was possible for a Viva to become a driveway ornament within three years.

[FredTransit]

I find this is the biggest sticking point, not getting nice or even passable stuff to be passed as 1,2, or 3 years old, but stuff that's now 25 years old to pass as 10. It's either all or nothing. You get private owners saying "mines not good enough to be on camera" then some companies dragging out some real crufts rejects and passing them as 2 years old. Also as many Art Dept assistants are fresh out of college they don't grasp the concept of how things aged in the past.

[garethj]

Also as many Art Dept assistants are fresh out of college they don't grasp the concept of how things aged in the past.

Fair enough, but why don't they have a quick look at some street scene photos from that year and see what was about? There's some cracking stuff on youtube from Pathe news, a quick look would show you that plenty of motorists from the early '60s were driving knackered old cars from the '50s and earlier.

[Jon]

I worked on an ITV drama called Unforgiven last year (broadcast Feb IIRC) which fell into this trap. Had some scenes set in 1993, which called for older stuff. They did really well with a J reg Mk3 twin wheel transit police minibus (that was in great nick, too) but not so well with the updated Mk3 Astra which had the wrong grille, clear indicators, smoked rear lenses and black plastic rear panel (and not police spec steel wheels). I did feel a little pedantic, so said nowt.However, the real clunker was a Mk1 Senator police car, which I thought would have been stretching it by 1993, since they were only just still making its replacement. But then to make it look newer, they stuck a K plate on it! Of course, my (albeit slight) grumblings to the props and art department fell on deaf ears. Again, just a case of wanting what looked old, not necessarily correct. I hadn't found Autoshite back then and absolutely loved the sound of the Senator, though most on set just thought it was a crap car. There was me thinking I was alone.....

[Guest]

TV people! Would there be much call on these old shows for an 1982 X-reg Datsun Stanza in full black/white taxi setup? I've got all the period accessories - Feu Orange air freshener, reflective door protectors, roof bar for the taxi sign to go on, all that business. Not painted yet, but it needs so much paint doing that I might as well just do the entire thing, might give it a new lease of life.

[warren t claim]

In the first series of The Grimleys it's supposed to be 1973 but a teenager in the street has an old dog of an HC Viva, three years old at the most, that he is always working on. Again, it was possible for a Viva to become a driveway ornament within three years.

There was a FHC E-Type around the corner from me when I was growing up that became a driveway ornament at less than SIX years old! Stayed there for the next 15 years until it was swept away.

[FredTransit]

Also as many Art Dept assistants are fresh out of college they don't grasp the concept of how things aged in the past.

Fair enough, but why don't they have a quick look at some street scene photos from that year and see what was about? There's some cracking stuff on youtube from Pathe news, a quick look would show you that plenty of motorists from the early '60s were driving knackered old cars from the '50s and earlier.

there is just no telling some of em. Went to Dream Team Retro, set in 1985, took one of the lutons blocking. Tried to be helpful with the number plates for the dressing cars, but when I said they needed a Y reg on one of the cars, the kid in charge of the plates literally threw the plates at me and told me to do it! Well, when one of the cars (a Talbot iirc) trotted into view with a Y at the beginning of the plate (90s) I said nowt. Revenge is sweet.....

[Jon]

TV people! Would there be much call on these old shows for an 1982 X-reg Datsun Stanza in full black/white taxi setup? I've got all the period accessories - Feu Orange air freshener, reflective door protectors, roof bar for the taxi sign to go on, all that business. Not painted yet, but it needs so much paint doing that I might as well just do the entire thing, might give it a new lease of life.

It would probably be best left in the 'paint scheme' it's in - beige and primer or something similar? You could probably still fit taxi signs on it and it'd work....And another thing is the new size font of plate on period dramas set any time in the 20th century. If only there was a job as a period car consultant/guru.

[FredTransit]

Thank god art directors are not so pedantic to worry about the font on number plates. So long as they don't have any wildly inaccurate details as GB signs on them they don't care.

[Jon]

You 'inbetween jobs' at the moment too Fred?

[FredTransit]

yeah, will be back on Ashes with the amby soon, might get some fire engines in on it too

[Guest]

It would probably be best left in the 'paint scheme' it's in - beige and primer or something similar? You could probably still fit taxi signs on it and it'd work....

Might work if it's meant to be set around 1995 and/or they use an incredible amount of soft focus! Looks a right heap.

[barrett]

good god this forum gets better by the day, i thought i was the only one who got irritated by this! infact i get irritated by any continuity errors in films but cars annoy me the worst.

off the top of my head, someone mentioned the odessa file earlier, well the film version of 'day of the jackal' is even worse, it's set in the mid 60s but in every street scene theres loads of 70s tin about. obviously its a budget issue to change EVERY car in Paris city centre but ya know...

 

another one that gets me a bit is the scene when barton is being driven back in the original solaris, it's supposed to be Russia in the near-future but it's clearly filmed in Tokyo! again, its obvious that there was nowhere as 'futuristic' as this in Russia at the time and i totally forgive it as it's possibly the greatest sequence ever put on film blah blah tarkovsky etc.

plus for non film students and lovers of Russian arthouse cinema, you get a shedload of top quality J-tin!

 

watch it here:

 

also the latest episode of curb your enthusiasm had one of the laziest 'flashback' sequences i've ever seen, set in '62 with a '63/'64 dodge polara and a '67/'68 chevy (malibu?) and EVERY OTHER CAR being totally wrong! again, who cares it's funny as hell

here: http://www.curbx.net

 

 

edit: I might mention that I am fully aware of the rules of punctuation and grammar, i am just a very lazy man. This applies to all my posts.

[Pete-M]

 

Anybody remember The Bank Job? Set in 1971/2 there was a character who had just come out of jail. He had done 5 years, and during that time the Governor must have been kind enough to allow him to order a Mk3 Cortina, which he must have had delivered directly to storage, as on the day of his release he drove it, still covered in dust and looking a right dog with missing bits.

The E-type that he was selling also made me laugh at the time, How many back street garages would of been selling a brand new E-type back then?.

 

In 1976 my dad had three e-types in his showroom, the youngest was a V12 roadster that was three years old, max. One of his mates ordered a brand new MkIV Cortina 1.6L and it cost more than the V12 E-type was for sale for.

[retro80sboy]

George Gently - the police show set in the 1960s with Martin Shaw - has his sidekick's MGB (on a B plate) breaking down and being referred to as an 'old banger' despite being less than a year old - there are various references to the year being 1964.It also gets put up for sale for £100!

I saw that episode, made me cringe. very poor research.

[retro80sboy]

Ashes to Ashes p****d me off in one scene outside a post office it had a mk 4 Escort parked up, the mk 4 wasnt released until 1986.My friends just think im sad and didnt see the problem - glad I found this site now to prove im not the only one! ha ha.

[FredTransit]

Ashes to Ashes p****d me off in one scene outside a post office it had a mk 4 Escort parked up, the mk 4 wasnt released until 1986.My friends just think im sad and didnt see the problem - glad I found this site now to prove im not the only one! ha ha.

As I didn't see that, I assume that was series 1, though I did see the P reg Rover in one shot of the bullion van, and was told it wasn't in shot......

[retro80sboy]

Ashes to Ashes p****d me off in one scene outside a post office it had a mk 4 Escort parked up, the mk 4 wasnt released until 1986.My friends just think im sad and didnt see the problem - glad I found this site now to prove im not the only one! ha ha.

As I didn't see that, I assume that was series 1, though I did see the P reg Rover in one shot of the bullion van, and was told it wasn't in shot......

yeah think it was in series 1.how many times did they use that Granada Police car and the Dolomite! Sometimes you would swear the police only had 2 vechicles!

[FredTransit]

Again, if that was in series 1, I didn't see much of it. The company that did series 1 were er, noted for taking the piss! Which is why they didn't get series 2.....

[Guest]

In a very convoluted twist, a friend of a friend in Bristol wanted to use my Amazon. In a film that was going to be set in 1951. 'Yeah' they said, 'But it's an old car innit? It'll be spot on.'Bear in mind that they're all history students, and I told them to fuck off, you can probably work out how it ended.

[FredTransit]

History students? Would it really kill em to find out what car came in on what date? Now to be fair, I am not sure when the Amazon came in (I am guessing mid 60s) but if I was going to put it forward for anything, I would find out. it's not hard, there is this thing called Wikkipedia, it's on the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t, you know the thing you get facebook on

[j-j]

 

 

Dogs fucked the Pope... no fault of mine.

 

You're not Portuguese, man!

 

Never watch that film whilst drunk.

-" Never.....turn your back.... on a drunk"!

 

"where did you get that big fuggin blade man"?

 

- "room service sent it up"

 

Fave film and novel

[AnthonyG]

another one that gets me a bit is the scene when barton is being driven back in the original solaris, it's supposed to be Russia in the near-future but it's clearly filmed in Tokyo! again, its obvious that there was nowhere as 'futuristic' as this in Russia at the time and i totally forgive it as it's possibly the greatest sequence ever put on film blah blah tarkovsky etc. plus for non film students and lovers of Russian arthouse cinema, you get a shedload of top quality J-tin!

To be fair, to the average Russian in 1972, contemporary Japan would have been like the future. The standard of living certainly was!

[Guest]

History students? Would it really kill em to find out what car came in on what date? Now to be fair, I am not sure when the Amazon came in (I am guessing mid 60s) but if I was going to put it forward for anything, I would find out. it's not hard, there is this thing called Wikkipedia, it's on the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t, you know the thing you get facebook on

Nooooh, the Amazon first came out in 1956, but we didn't really start getting them properly until 1960 as that was when the first Volvo UK organisation was set up. Before that it was private consessionaires and they were pretty expensive. Availability in RHD was quite patchy too up until 1960. You could buy LHD PV544s as well. Amazons were actually made until 1970, with the 140 being released in 1968.So even if they'd somehow managed to get a pre 1960 Amazon (they do exist, but they have different front ends and boot garnishes, and 1600 cc engines with 6 volt electrics) - a 1959 RHD one turned up in a yard down south fairly recently - they're still 5 or 6 years shy of when even the earliest Amazons were available in Scandinavia. And my car is from 1966.Bell ends.

[Pete-M]

George Gently - the police show set in the 1960s with Martin Shaw - has his sidekick's MGB (on a B plate) breaking down and being referred to as an 'old banger' despite being less than a year old - there are various references to the year being 1964.It also gets put up for sale for £100!

Other than the 'old' bit, and it being overpriced, I really can't see a problem with this

[FredTransit]

History students? Would it really kill em to find out what car came in on what date? Now to be fair, I am not sure when the Amazon came in (I am guessing mid 60s) but if I was going to put it forward for anything, I would find out. it's not hard, there is this thing called Wikkipedia, it's on the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t, you know the thing you get facebook on

Nooooh, the Amazon first came out in 1956, but we didn't really start getting them properly until 1960 as that was when the first Volvo UK organisation was set up. Before that it was private consessionaires and they were pretty expensive. Availability in RHD was quite patchy too up until 1960. They were actually made until 1970, with the 140 being released in 1968.So even if they'd somehow managed to get a pre 1960 Amazon (they do exist, but they have different front ends and boot garnishes, and 1600 cc engines with 6 volt electrics) - a 1959 RHD one turned up in a yard down south fairly recently - they're still 5 or 6 years shy of when even the earliest Amazons were available in Scandinavia. And my car is from 1966.Bell ends.

Fairy Snuff, like I said it's not rocket science to look it up!

[Richard]

I finally got round to watching Micro Men last night and spotted Chris Curry driving to the BBC in an XR2 that was -3 years old.

[Noam]

Anachronistic cars in films? Trust me, it's much, much worse if you know anything about trains...

[FredTransit]

Thank god I know bugger all about trains then! Also aircraft and boats. If fact sometimes it's easier if I wast costume dramas, cos we don't do horses. Problem with that is I find Jane Austin so slow I want to slash me wrists.....