Did anyone ever notice

You can squeal tires on dirt, just not that kind of dirt. Think hard packed clay.

Zooming around with images in the back window while the PRNDL Stick is clearly in Park.

Also, that weird knocking noise that movie/TV cars make when they stall. I have never heard a car make that in real life.

NickD wrote: Also, that weird knocking noise that movie/TV cars make when they stall. I have never heard a car make that in real life.

That sound is real. It is the sound a worn out gasoline engine makes when it diesels after being shut off on a hot summers day. Sometimes the only way to kill the engine would be to pop the clutch with the brake on.

They must have made one recording and have been using it for every movie and TV show.

That is what it is. They have a pretty standard bank of sounds they draw from. One of the famous over used ones is the Wilhelm Scream, which has been used for many years. The standard laugh track was originally recorded in the 50's sometimes.

Some of them care though, when they shot Mr Holands Opus, and he had a Corvair he gave to his son, they realized they had no Corvair sounds, so they recorded them. How do I know? My roommate at the time was a sound editor for the company doing the sound for the movie and he had the use my car for the sounds.

A bit of trivia about those sounds, the motor I had in the car at the time had an Isky cam I it that are known for creating a lot of valve noise. I was never able to get rid of the tapping (which drove me crazy). You can now, and forever here that tapping (a bit) in the movie (argh). So, I have done my part to create the mis-characterization that Corvairs have noisy valve trains. Hard to say how many times those sounds will be re-used.

I saw risky business a while back and noticed that the sound of the 928 was very well done. It bothers the e36m3 out of me that people who dont know or care about doing their craft well. The people who judge the physics of how things happen are epically misinformed too. A driveshaft breaks and pole vaults a achoolbus 30' in the air? Wtf?

The driver looking at the passenger instead of the road.

I have a DVD set of the original Hawaii 5-0 I love the scenes where McGarret starts off in a 2 door dark Mercury, it changes to a green 4 door LTD and then arrives as a 4 door dark Mercury. You know, a lot more crimes would have been solved if he didn't spend so much time in the body shop, changing colors and adding doors. Book 'em, Danno.

McGarret was always squealing his tires in the middle of pineapple plantations as well.

If you watch episodes of the Rockford Files, Jim Garner's Pontiac would often change years in the middle of a car chase.

Also don't forget the older cars that upshift while driving. Eight or nine times...

aircooled wrote: he had the use my car for the sounds. A bit of trivia about those sounds, the motor I had in the car at the time had an Isky cam I it that are known for creating a lot of valve noise. I was never able to get rid of the tapping (which drove me crazy). You can now, and forever here that tapping (a bit) in the movie (argh). So, I have done my part to create the mis-characterization that Corvairs have noisy valve trains. Hard to say how many times those sounds will be re-used.

I gotta admit that's pretty awesome.

In reply to iceracer: Ice racer I agree drivers never ever look at their passengers while driving today. Nor do they look at the road either! What I usually see is the driver and the passenger/s texting. Are they texting each other?

I often go to restaurants where I see couples sitting across the table from each other. The difference today from when I was that age is, they don't ever actually look to see each other across the table. Each is so intent on their phone they never look up. If they did, they'd only see the top of their date's head! Are they texting each other too?

I was watching fast 5 last night on tv and it always amazes me when they downshift for the end of a dragrace. Im no expert but in 80 or so passes on a track ive never did any downshifting.

If you did, the engine never would again.

Speaking of a library of sounds, I remember reading once that the engine revving at the start of The Beach Boys' 409 was in fact a 352 Ford.

I am guessing missing windows and eyeglass lenses are an attempt to control distracting reflections. As far headrests, I am guessing someone decided they didn't like the having them as background for the actors faces.

Also, the mean sounding Trans Am from the 1977 movie Smokey & The Bandit got its roar courtesy of the big Chevy in Richard Ruth's '55 from Two Lane Blacktop and later American Graffiti fame. sorry...sound geek here

Ok, drifting a bit astray here, but I live in the SF Bay Area. Every time a movie is shot in the East bay they show an overhead shot of the protagonists car driving to San Francisco. When I first saw the graduate, Dustin Hoffman drives his Alfa West across the bay bridge to get to Berkeley, which is on the East side. I saw the movie in a Berkeley theater and the crowd was yelling "stop! You're going the wrong way!" Although the same thing probably happens with Manhattan and The Bronx as well.

Carro Atrezzi wrote: Speaking of a library of sounds, I remember reading once that the engine revving at the start of The Beach Boys' 409 was in fact a 352 Ford.

The reality is not quite that blasphemous. Per both Brian Wilson and Gary Usher, it was Gary's '59 Chevy with a hot-rodded 348, and they apparently quite irritated the Wilsons' neighbors by recording Gary blasting up and down the street in front of the Wilsons' driveway

Wall-e wrote:

Is it just me or does it look like the guy with his hand on the roof caught his wang in the sliding door, and or the guy in front of him is doing him, ahem, "a favor"?

Rupert wrote: In reply to iceracer: Ice racer I agree drivers never ever look at their passengers while driving today. Nor do they look at the road either! What I usually see is the driver and the passenger/s texting. Are they texting each other? I often go to restaurants where I see couples sitting across the table from each other. The difference today from when I was that age is, they don't ever actually look to see each other across the table. Each is so intent on their phone they never look up. If they did, they'd only see the top of their date's head! Are they texting each other too?

Actually yes they are. In our current society of political correctness social rebels are forced to text each other when they want to poke fun of other patrons at restuarants lest they be caught pointing and laughing.

Appleseed wrote: You can squeal tires on dirt, just not that kind of dirt. Think hard packed clay.

Regular central MN gravel roads get tire squeal and you can do long smoky burnout that leave black marks, too..

In reply to D2W:

I've done that in a White Castle one night but more because I didn't want to get my ass kicked than out of political correctness.

The OP's headrest thing bothers me too. Also, how about the Prime Directive of driving in Los Angeles: Always get out of your car with the driver's door window down, and leave it that way as you walk off to the next shot. Apparently LA air is so great nobody uses air conditioning, and everyone is too busy texting to steal cars any more.

As for continuity, I can't be totally sure (since I've only seen it once) but I think Blue Bloods last night had a surveillance in two Crown Vics at the same time. One had a beige interior and the other's was gray. Very sneaky, and it's no wonder the guilty party looked directly at them from half a block away and never noticed a thing. But that's nothing: wily ol' Commissioner Reagan frequently gets into an Excursion and gets out of a GMT800.