The Science of Perception and Film Continuity
NPR Carefully examine this x-ray. See the gorilla? In a test, most trained radiologists missed it. One of the most important jobs in movie and television production is Continuity, making sure that the actors and sets appear exactly the same from scene to scene. This job requires someone who is detail oriented in the extreme, very meticulous in approach, with a good visual memory. And yet some amazingly distracting continuity flubs slip through. Harry Potter's T-shirt abruptly changing from a crew neck to a Henley shirt in 'The Order of the Phoenix,' or how in 'Pretty Woman,' Julia Roberts' croissant morphs into a pancake. Did you catch these continuity errors? Probably not – until they were pointed out to you. An example that nearly ruined a classic movie for me occurs in the classic flick Casablanca. I must have watched the movie twenty times before I caught it, and once I did, I haven’t been able to watch the movie without thi...