Production Mistakes I think they Made on the Movie

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am still pissed they cut my scene! My fingers were brown for a month standing there with that sopping wet coffee filter.  I wished I had ordered a hundred post cards now.

You should've. You could sell them postcards a Brokeback Mountain for a lot a money, now. Maybe even clear enough to get out a friggin'-cold Wyomin'. Maybe go some place warm, like Mexico. 

[ifyoucantfixit]

   With all the memoribilia madness now.  You should have kept the coffee
filters,, probably got something out of them too....and your little holywood obligatory sunglasses too.... maybe even some of jake and heaths butts....the cigarette variety of course...   anything with dna                                         janice

[Toast]

I hate to admit that there are production errors in Brokeback Mountain, but there are some.  I think it's unfair to say the it's loaded with errors.  If we pick any other movie from the video shop and scrutinize it the way we do Brokeback, then I think we'd be amazed at the errors in these other movies.  We just don't give a damn about most of the scenes or props in most of the movies we see.

However here's one production error I haven't seen presented.

The scene at Aguirre's trailer in the opening sequence:

When Ennis arrives at the trailer (which seems to be facing east) the sun is about 60 degrees overhead - more like 11 am as far as I can tell.
When they enter the trailer the sun is almost overhead, casting shadows straight down the front of the trailer, barely shining on the window sill inside.
When they exit the trailer the shadows are higher (as they should be) and the front of the trailer is almost in its own shade, with little or no direct rays entering the windows.
However - and this is the real production error as far as I can see - while they are in the trailer the sun is pouring into the front windows and crossing the trailer at a 45 degree angle as Annie Proulx described.
So the interior scenes were shot earlier in the day - substantially earlier - than the exterior scenes.

Solution:  Simple - when Ang called "action,"  the least the sun could have done was to assume the correct position.

[moremojo]

I hate to admit that there are production errors in Brokeback Mountain, but there are some.  I think it's unfair to say the it's loaded with errors.  If we pick any other movie from the video shop and scrutinize it the way we do Brokeback, then I think we'd be amazed at the errors in these other movies.  We just don't give a damn about most of the scenes or props in most of the movies we see.

Very true. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been seen dozens, even hundreds of times by many, many people since its 1975 release, and it's brimming with the kinds of continuity errors that have been remarked upon in this thread. The errors have gained such notoriety precisely because the film has been watched so extensively and so often. And The Rocky Horror Picture Show was made on a budget only slightly exceeding one million dollars (very modest funding for a commercial feature, even in 1974 and 1975).

It is the rule rather than the exception that a film will have at least a few errors, and by and large I find them negligible from an artistic point of view. Rather, they serve as reminders that the film in question is a work of artifice, and such reminders do not generally bother me.

[Front-Ranger]

Solution:  Simple - when Ang called "action,"  the least the sun could have done was to assume the correct position.

Chortle! At least OUR sun follows directions on the Performance Thread!!

[jpwagoneer1964]

In just viewing the scene. I don't think there was any mistake in the jars of peanuts. Only the outer layers fell, leaving the majority still standing.

[delalluvia]

I don't think BBM has any more mistakes than any other movie.  A bigger budget isn't a guarantee of anything.

Geez, just go to Amazon and look up 'Pirates of the Carribbean' and just peruse the enormous list of goofs and gaffs and historical anachronisms present.

None of which detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.

I just watched 'Cast Away' with Tom Hanks, a Zemeckis directed film. on TV and there are scenes where it's painfully obvious that a single scene is filmed during differnt times of the day because of shadow and location of the sun.  They can't argue that they were a low budget film and couldn't afford to reshoot for continuity's sake.  That happens in movies from "Lethal Weapon' to "Glory" and probably hundreds of others.  It normally just comes down to the fact that the director like the way the actor looked in this scene in this light better than another.

As for the same cars being parked across the street from Aguirre's trailer a year later when Jack goes back to look for a job...well, I guess my car is a goof too.  I've been working for my company for years and I park in the same spot every day from year to year, too.

I agree with JP, the outer row of peanut jars fell, not the inner ones, so that's not a goof.

[RossInIllinois]

I hate to admit that there are production errors in Brokeback Mountain, but there are some.  I think it's unfair to say the it's loaded with errors.  If we pick any other movie from the video shop and scrutinize it the way we do Brokeback, then I think we'd be amazed at the errors in these other movies.  We just don't give a damn about most of the scenes or props in most of the movies we see.

However here's one production error I haven't seen presented.

The scene at Aguirre's trailer in the opening sequence:

When Ennis arrives at the trailer (which seems to be facing east) the sun is about 60 degrees overhead - more like 11 am as far as I can tell.
When they enter the trailer the sun is almost overhead, casting shadows straight down the front of the trailer, barely shining on the window sill inside.
When they exit the trailer the shadows are higher (as they should be) and the front of the trailer is almost in its own shade, with little or no direct rays entering the windows.
However - and this is the real production error as far as I can see - while they are in the trailer the sun is pouring into the front windows and crossing the trailer at a 45 degree angle as Annie Proulx described.
So the interior scenes were shot earlier in the day - substantially earlier - than the exterior scenes.

Solution:  Simple - when Ang called "action,"  the least the sun could have done was to assume the correct position.

Also the trailer itself is so not period 1963 more like GE mobile Office rentals circa 1980s 

[RossInIllinois]

I don't think BBM has any more mistakes than any other movie.  A bigger budget isn't a guarantee of anything.

Geez, just go to Amazon and look up 'Pirates of the Carribbean' and just peruse the enormous list of goofs and gaffs and historical anachronisms present.

None of which detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.

I just watched 'Cast Away' with Tom Hanks, a Zemeckis directed film. on TV and there are scenes where it's painfully obvious that a single scene is filmed during differnt times of the day because of shadow and location of the sun.  They can't argue that they were a low budget film and couldn't afford to reshoot for continuity's sake.  That happens in movies from "Lethal Weapon' to "Glory" and probably hundreds of others.  It normally just comes down to the fact that the director like the way the actor looked in this scene in this light better than another.

As for the same cars being parked across the street from Aguirre's trailer a year later when Jack goes back to look for a job...well, I guess my car is a goof too.  I've been working for my company for years and I park in the same spot every day from year to year, too.

I agree with JP, the outer row of peanut jars fell, not the inner ones, so that's not a goof.

FYI Lighting issues can be easily fixed by adding lights to counter act loss of sun light or light angle.

[Marge_Innavera]

Yes all movies have mistakes but this one seems to be loaded with them.

The low budget is a partial explanation for that. But on a trip to LA for a reunion of old classmates in February, I had a long conversation with a Warner Bros. techie who gave me another reason for bloopers being allowed to remain in movies:

There are lots of incidents during movie shoots where the actors in the scene get it exactly right - just right on the button for what the director had in mind; BUT there's some continuity detail that's out of sync, a scarf on a costume is slightly askew, etc. So the director has to make a decision: do we keep re-shooting hoping that lightning will strike a second time or do we run this shot that's perfect in every other detail and just live with the minor blooper? As often as not, they take the second option because acting - and for that matter, technical art such as lighting - is a chancy, mysterious thing. The scene could be re-shot a half-dozen more times, with the consequent increase in production costs and possibly frayed tempers on the set, and the most essential elements still wouldn't work as well.