Tweet I'm Being Followed By a Boom Shadow

1. Robert Benchley, Whilst Teaching His Puppy To Roll Over In How to Train a Dog (1936), Has The Penumbra Of A Mike Play Across His Back
2. Edmond O'Brien, In The Opening Minutes Of Shield For Murder (1954), Overlooks A Shadowy, But Fairly Obvious, Eyewitness

3. Clifton Webb, in Cheaper By The Dozen (1950), May Have To Set A 13th Dinner Plate (For Sound Man E. Clayton Ward)

You can barely see a boom or camera shadow in the opening scene on the veranda in Gone With the Wind. Since they filmed this scene over and over and over a period of several months--I try to overlook it

Boom shadows can be seen in a lot of 1930's Columbia shorts, for examble WOMAN HATERS (1934) and MEN IN BLACK (1934).

A very obvious mike boom shadow can be seen following Andy Clyde as he walks along a street in the 1941 Columbia short LOVABLE TROUBLE.

In DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, right after the intermission, a train goes past a parked train. You can see the shadow of the entire camera setup, which was on top of the parked boxcar.

You can barely see a boom or camera shadow in the opening scene on the veranda in Gone With the Wind. Since they filmed this scene over and over and over a period of several months--I try to overlook it

Oh, I'll seeing this film on the big screen next Wednesday, will have to look for it.

[Christopher Jacobs]

You can barely see a boom or camera shadow in the opening scene on the veranda in Gone With the Wind. Since they filmed this scene over and over and over a period of several months--I try to overlook it

Oh, I'll seeing this film on the big screen next Wednesday, will have to look for it.

There's another one in the track back with Scarlett as she exits the hospital. Can't recall any others off-hand, but in the long crane dolly back at the Atlanta railroad station it sure looks like some of the stretcher-bearers are stepping directly on some of the dummy bodies! Also, the shadows of Scarlett and Melanie on the wall in once scene don't quite match their movements, obviously performed by somebody else off-camera.

There's another one in the track back with Scarlett as she exits the hospital. Can't recall any others off-hand, but in the long crane dolly back at the Atlanta railroad station it sure looks like some of the stretcher-bearers are stepping directly on some of the dummy bodies! Also, the shadows of Scarlett and Melanie on the wall in once scene don't quite match their movements, obviously performed by somebody else off-camera.

I remember the 'shadows' scene, the shadows are all wrong but it still adds drama to the scene. They are with a dying solider, I believe. Looking forward to seeing GWTW on the big screen as have only seen it on TV.

Just saw CINERAMA HOLIDAY, and during the ice skating sequence, you can see the camera setup in a shadow on the ice.

There's another one in the track back with Scarlett as she exits the hospital. Can't recall any others off-hand, but in the long crane dolly back at the Atlanta railroad station it sure looks like some of the stretcher-bearers are stepping directly on some of the dummy bodies! Also, the shadows of Scarlett and Melanie on the wall in once scene don't quite match their movements, obviously performed by somebody else off-camera.

I remember the 'shadows' scene, the shadows are all wrong but it still adds drama to the scene. They are with a dying solider, I believe. Looking forward to seeing GWTW on the big screen as have only seen it on TV.

I did see this film on Wednesday as planned, and tried to remember all the comments from Chris but missed a few. What I did see though, was in the scene where Ashley was brought home by Rhett when injured and they were pretending to be drunk, Melanie picked up a lamp to show the way to the bedroom to put Ashley to bed and the lamp had an electrical cord coming out of it. I noticed the cord on the table and then Melanie's hand reached for it while she moved it. Opps!

Watch for a boom mike shadow early in the Stooges short CALLING ALL CURS.

[Danny Burk]

Of course it's an error. It's supposed to be during the Civil War. If it's OK to show electric cords during the Civil War, then it would be OK to show them driving cars, or ancient Romans wearing wristwatches.

I've seen so many boom shadows over the years, (movies but esp. TV) that my eye doesn't 'read' them anymore. I mean, in a way they are less intrusive than the makeup the actors wear, esp. the heavy makeup applied to actresses faces...or the amaziing way that the characters from a period film always have hair cut and shaped in the era the film was made.

Well, that still is deceptive in two ways. First, it's stretched horizontally. Second, if displayed properly, it would reveal itself as a 1:1.33 frame which, if matted to 1:1.85 as intended for theatrical exhibition (this was 1959, after all), the boom would not show. It's like the full-frame, unmatted video version of the scene in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure with the bottoms of the highway signs seen being pulled along a track.

How come I never ever seem to pick up bloopers in films? Only find them after someone alse has pointed them out.

How come I never ever seem to pick up bloopers in films? Only find them after someone alse has pointed them out.

Because you're too busy enjoying the show. Hooray for Hollywood!

Barefoot in the Park whilst the stairs in the building are being climbed boom is obvious.

If you want to see lots of booms than look at BBC Scottish-produced series, Mrs Brown's Boys. But then this is deliberate as is cameras being pushed thru the sets.

Effie Perine (Una Merkel) crosses to the office door,
to admit new client Ruth Wonderly (Bebe Daniels);
followed by a cut to Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez)
sitting at his desk, oblivious to the boom shadow
creeping up the wall behind him...

(Below, the film's poster, and a still with the boom shadow safely out of view)



P.S. At the Miles Archer (Walter Long) murder scene,
does not Sam Spade learn the identity, or at least, description,
of Archer's killer from a Chinatown merchant?

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) displays a prominent boom shadow in a scene close to the end with Harry Davenport and Arthur Hoyl.

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) has a memorable bit, not involving a boom, but in the scene where Patric Knowles discovered an injured Herbert Mundin and picks him up, there's a very nice red coupe passing by on a road in back of them.

On the photo below, that looks like a microphone about two feet above Mr. Arliss' head:

Warren William has a memorable sequence in the 1932 drama The Mouthpiece, in which he plays a lawyer. He’s in court, and intends to demonstrate that the poison his client supposedly administered to a victim is harmless -- so he drinks it, provoking a loud gasp from spectators. And of course, nothing happens. The punch-line comes when he leaves, rushes across the street, goes to his office and gets his stomach pumped.

There’s an impressive, high angle shot of Willam leaving the courthouse and striding across the street. Unfortunately, as he goes you can clearly see the shadow of the camera crane and the crew riding on it, sailing along a few feet away from him. Maybe they figured we’d all be watching the leading man, and no one would notice. I often miss this sort of thing, but in this case I caught it the first time I saw the movie.

How come I never ever seem to pick up bloopers in films? Only find them after someone alse has pointed them out.

Because you're too busy enjoying the show. Hooray for Hollywood!

I have a friend who's forever keeping an eye on the level of liquid in drinking glasses and the length of smoked cigarettes, and so on, looking for continuity errors in movies (and probably adding them to the IMDb's "Goofs" listings), but to me it seems like both a waste of time and a detriment to your enjoyment of the movie in question.

Then again, given some of the movies I've seen lately, I can understand why looking for continuity errors might be more interesting than what's going on in the picture itself.

How come I never ever seem to pick up bloopers in films? Only find them after someone alse has pointed them out.

Because you're too busy enjoying the show. Hooray for Hollywood!

I have a friend who's forever keeping an eye on the level of liquid in drinking glasses and the length of smoked cigarettes, and so on, looking for continuity errors in movies (and probably adding them to the IMDb's "Goofs" listings), but to me it seems like both a waste of time and a detriment to your enjoyment of the movie in question.

Then again, given some of the movies I've seen lately, I can understand why looking for continuity errors might be more interesting than what's going on in the picture itself.

The things I notice really distract from my watching the film, that is, I'm not looking for them

I have a friend who's forever keeping an eye on the level of liquid in drinking glasses and the length of smoked cigarettes, and so on, looking for continuity errors in movies (and probably adding them to the IMDb's "Goofs" listings), but to me it seems like both a waste of time and a detriment to your enjoyment of the movie in question.

It is...as well as evidence the poor boy needs a chat with his therapist.

I think most of us know how often D.W. Griffith poorly matched physical action in going from one shot to another so the action is repeated in both shots. One of the oddest shots I remember from about 40 years ago - the last time I watched BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) - occurs early in the film when Lillian Gish is looking through a shop window (at a doll I think). There's a shot of her taken from inside the shop where you can clearly see one of the crew's reflection in the window as he moves up and down. Why another shot wasn't used - I assume there must have been another shot - is a mystery to me.

The things I notice really distract from my watching the film, that is, I'm not looking for them

Oh sure, there's some stuff you just can't avoid, like mic booms (a lot of the time from mis-framed open-matte titles, but not always) or seeing a crew member (or the entire crew) in a reflection. But the level of obsession it takes to both note and bother to record some of the stuff listed under "Goofs" on IMDb is a bit frightening.

I think most of us know how often D.W. Griffith poorly matched physical action in going from one shot to another so the action is repeated in both shots. One of the oddest shots I remember from about 40 years ago - the last time I watched BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) - occurs early in the film when Lillian Gish is looking through a shop window (at a doll I think). There's a shot of her taken from inside the shop where you can clearly see one of the crew's reflection in the window as he moves up and down. Why another shot wasn't used - I assume there must have been another shot - is a mystery to me.

I've read (possibly apocryphal) stories of how Griffith would edit by simply holding lengths of film up to a light and making his cutting decisions that way (anyone know when the Movieola was introduced?). If this were true, it might explain how a detail like that might have escaped his view and made it into his cut of the film, and perhaps by the time it was assembled there wasn't a chance to go back and find some other appropriate shot to replace it. That's one theory, anyway.

I've read (possibly apocryphal) stories of how Griffith would edit by simply holding lengths of film up to a light and making his cutting decisions that way (anyone know when the Movieola was introduced?). If this were true, it might explain how a detail like that might have escaped his view and made it into his cut of the film, and perhaps by the time it was assembled there wasn't a chance to go back and find some other appropriate shot to replace it. That's one theory, anyway.

I believe it is a survival from magic lantern editing. At Edison, Life of an American Fireman shows that during the rescue sequence, the point of view shifts from the burning room after they leave through the window. There is a cut to the outside and time shifts back perhaps twenty seconds. I do not recall precisely because it has been some time since I saw it but it was very striking when I saw it.

Given the stories of Griffith constantly recutting during the road show tour, if he thought it was a mistake or even just a bit sloppy, he likely would have trimmed it during that time. Certainly, while supervising the sound release (in 1930?) it could have been trimmed. The fact that over a decade he never "corrected" this indicates that he didn't consider it an error. This was simply an aspect of editing that he was conservative in.

Bob

In Miracle on 34th Street (1947), the moving shadow of a motion picture camera
appears on the left foreground column/pillar as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn)
is escorted to the courthouse elevator, likely only worsening his delusions.

In The Great Dictator, a "film equipment" shadow
wanders across the back of the Barber,
as he checks out the sink
of his long-abandoned shop.