Car switching on TV/Movies - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

larrybuck · 08-12-2012, 07:01 PM

I don't know about you, but during a show, or movie in which there are car scenes, it REALLY bugs me when suddenly they will switch entirely to a completely other car in a different scene.

I could understand the economics when they want to show a car going off a cliff, rolling over, and over as it explodes into flames, but common switches
pains my intellect like fingernails on a chaukboard. (along w my spelling)

Last night I was watching an old Adam 12 show current for '71 with that year
Plymouth Sattelite's when they cut to a night scene clearly showing them in
the same but a '68 model which is much boxier. I know most non car people who watch are clueless in this, but it really bugs me.

I have some step nieces that several years ago, when they were early
teenagers, couldn't on the fly tell the difference in the movie Bullit between
the '68 Charger, and the '68 Mustang.

I realize these were average people who could get fooled easily by a switch.

Are/were you enough of a car freak to memorize cars well enough, that you could bet your life on telling someone EXACTLY what year, and make a car is at a glance???

I admit to being old school. My main memory lock is from about '53 to the early '80's. When I saw a '64 Chevy, I KNEW it was so!!!

When we got into the '80's with black rubber log crash bumpers, and more plastic everything; my interest level severely dropped off.

Nowadays my non car ( in their heads ) immediate family will remark on some cool older car they saw, that they thought I would have enjoyed seeing, and they they try vainly to describe same to me, so I can try to translate in my mind to what it was.

Never enough adequate input! Really funny, and sad at the same time.

Usually, I'll try to ask something like are the headlights mounted separate
from the front fenders; questions like that, or what is the basic shape of the taillights?

SoobieOut · 08-12-2012, 07:31 PM

I agree with you on this constant problem in movies. There is a person, who is suppose to catch this on movie sets, not the viewers! In the future all cars in movies will be CGI, so then we can just blame the programmers!

NachtRitter · 08-12-2012, 09:21 PM

Quote:

In the future all cars in movies will be CGI

Gosh, I hope not!

NachtRitter · 08-13-2012, 03:38 AM

Apparently I'm not as much of a car nut as I thought... I never noticed any car switching going on in the movies. Part of it might be that I never 'clicked' with the old American made cars... might be because I grew up outside of the US and always scoffed at the inefficiencies of the 'big' V8s ... twice the cylinders, twice the displacement, but half the horsepower?!? WDF?? Maybe not that severe, but it turned me off to them. And because of that I never noticed the subtle differences between years of the Mustang much less a car like the Plymouth Satellite.

larrybuck · 08-13-2012, 07:53 PM

Nach: I appreciate your honesty! Who says you are not a car nut. It's just that your realm, or metron is post modern vehicles.
My time lock started in '72 as an average car happy 18 year old at least in my mind.
Then I simply memorized backwards, and forwards.
I just thought American cars interesting, because way back yonder, nearly complete face lifts were done on cars almost every year, and for me; it was just fun to track.

NachtRitter · 08-13-2012, 08:21 PM

One thing I do remember being able to do when I was younger was to tell make/model of a car at night time based on the number of headlights, the spacing, and the location of the blinker/marker lights (as well as some key reflections off the front grill)... I think that was mainly a result of wanting to identify without question and without fail the Crown Vics and the Chevy Caprices as early as possible...

CigaR007 · 08-13-2012, 09:17 PM

I noticed the same, but with airplanes ! It really bugs me..

War_Wagon · 08-13-2012, 09:21 PM

How about the end of Vanashing Point? What person that went to see that movie wouldn't be able to tell that crash car was a Camaro and not a Challenger? Don't get me wrong, I am glad they didn't lunch a Challenger for the scene, but that is one that always bugged me.

There is a terrible movie called Out for Justice, it came out in the early 1990s. I only watched it because there was supposed to be a Buick GNX in it. Man I got ripped off! Some guy says "Take the GNX, it's parked at blah blah blah", then it just turns out to be a regular Grand National. If you are going to get that specific in the script to mention a car that they only built 500 of, you'd think they'd at least try to fake the real thing.

Bonus points to larrybuck or anyone else if you know what TV series actually featured one of the '55 Chevs used in American Graffiti / Two Lane Blacktop in one episode. To be honest, I can't remember myself, but there was a time when I knew this without having to google it lol!