Hollywood distances?

[Janx]

Sure: There's no big mystery here. Hollywood just doesn't check continuity very well. Just like they'll show a science paper with a title, "The Mitosis Phase of Cell Division". They just don't care about that level of detail.

I don't think Continuity is the right word. That word generally means that what has happened before isn't contradicted by new information they present in the scene. thus, if I kill Bob in Act 2, scene 3, then unless it's a flashback, Bob can't be shown giving me advice on how to defeat the BBEG in Act 3, scene 2.

This is a whole different problem, namely technical fact checking.
For SotW, if this was a D&D game, the GM would have figured out how fast the party can travel, picked a point 6 days away, and said, that's where you have to go. It's over 40 leagues, and 6 days away, due to the harsh terrain.


Because GMs take the time to get basic facts and terms correct and still fit their end plot goal. Considering the parallels in the job, we could have hoped script writers would do the same courtesy.

Oddly enough, that's another reason why story-driven RPGing is good. Because a narrativist GM is still better than a hollywood script writer.

 

[Umbran]

they actually explained the Kessel Run thing -

And they do it badly. Their explanation is pegging my bogon* detector at maximum flux. They simply invoke another fancy word ("black hole") and try to shift the magic to that.

But, your bog standard black hole has roughly the mass of a star. At even modest distances, a black hole is gravitationally indistinguishable from a star.

So, what they are saying is that standard ships cannot approach within a couple of light years of a star! How in Yoda's name do you do interstellar travel, when your FTL drive can't get you within a few light years of a star?!?



* Bogon: the quantum particle that carries bogosity. That which emits many bogons is entirely bogus.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think Continuity is the right word.

There are many forms of continuity. You seem to be thinking of plot continuity, but there's other forms, like continuity of set dressing.

First they say it is 300 leagues, then they say that it takes two weeks. Since medieval-style land conveyances can't go 300 leagues in two weeks, both statements cannot be true. So, the latter contradicts the former, and it is a continuity issue.

 

[Morrus]

Via Hadrian's Wall, apparently.

I don't remember Hadrian's Wall? I remember a wall, but I don't recall them naming it. Is it just because they filmed there?

 

[NewJeffCT]

I don't think Continuity is the right word. That word generally means that what has happened before isn't contradicted by new information they present in the scene. thus, if I kill Bob in Act 2, scene 3, then unless it's a flashback, Bob can't be shown giving me advice on how to defeat the BBEG in Act 3, scene 2.

This is a whole different problem, namely technical fact checking.
For SotW, if this was a D&D game, the GM would have figured out how fast the party can travel, picked a point 6 days away, and said, that's where you have to go. It's over 40 leagues, and 6 days away, due to the harsh terrain.


Because GMs take the time to get basic facts and terms correct and still fit their end plot goal. Considering the parallels in the job, we could have hoped script writers would do the same courtesy.

Oddly enough, that's another reason why story-driven RPGing is good. Because a narrativist GM is still better than a hollywood script writer.

good point - maybe because I'm pretty thorough about travel over longer distances in my D&D game the two movie distances in question stood out to me as wrong. (I'd award you XP, but I need to spread it around more first)

(on a side note, one otherwise pretty decent D&D module (not from WotC) was almost ruined to me because the map distances were not realistic - the home base town where the PCs started was surrounded by 5 good sized goblin tribes that all lived within like 5-7 miles of the town... so, I changed it to within 5 to 7 days of the town instead of 5 miles. Five miles and somebody could take a wrong turn and be in goblin central in minutes.)

 

[Janx]

There are many forms of continuity. You seem to be thinking of plot continuity, but there's other forms, like continuity of set dressing.
QUOTE]

set dressing problem is still a time-centric problem (to which i maintain that's what Continuity relates to). If you show up in the next scene wearing the wrong outfit, that's a set dressing continuity error because the past shows you wearing a different outfit than the current scene.

Continuity errors are contradictions of fact because of sequencing of events within the work(s) of fiction. If the prior scene didn't exist, it wouldn't be a continuity error.

terminology and mathematical errors aren't contradicted by a prior scene. They are contradicted by being technically wrong on their own merit within the scene itself. thus, they are not Continuity errors.

I suppose one could claim that real life events outside the fiction occurring before the fiction that define certain facts (like how long a League is and how many can be traveled in 6 days was defined ages ago) and that establishes Continuity. But I don't think that's what the word means in the realm of errors in fiction.

This is just me quibbling, but you write as if you're usage is correct, and to my knowledge (as backed up by the entirely authoritative Wikipedia) it is not.

regardless, factual errors suck, and it is annoying that writers appear to be so lazy or ignorant to do any minimal research.

First they say it is 300 leagues, then they say that it takes two weeks. Since medieval-style land conveyances can't go 300 leagues in two weeks, both statements cannot be true. So, the latter contradicts the former, and it is a continuity issue.

because speech is linear, technically, one statement must be made before the other. The problem in this case isn't a contradiction in continuity, its a contradiction in fact. you can't travel 300 leagues in 2 weeks. They said something stupid.

Had they said at the beginning of the trip that it was 300 leagues or X weeks (X being the correct number), and then half-way through, said "we're on schedule for the half way mark, only 400 leagues to go!" then that would be a continuity error.

 

[Croesus]

The last I checked, one league is almost 3.5 miles and over 5.5km.

From Wikipedia: "The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour."

Assuming level ground and no obstacles, we're talking 2 to 2 1/2 miles per hour for the average person. Given the terrain they were traversing, a distance of 30 leagues would be more reasonable for six days.

But can you imagine the reaction of a modern audience to "it's 30 leagues away"? The average person has no clue just how difficult overland travel was 900 years ago, and that the average person never took a journey of 30 leagues during their entire lives. 300 leagues just sounds better.

 

[Dioltach]

How about in Gladiator, when a wounded Russel Crowe climbs on a horse and races right across Europe, from somewhere in Germany to Spain?

The one that always gets me, however, is how many towns/ranches/US army forts seem to be located within about 20 minutes' ride from Monument Valley.

 

[Jhaelen]

(on a side note, one otherwise pretty decent D&D module (not from WotC) was almost ruined to me because the map distances were not realistic - the home base town where the PCs started was surrounded by 5 good sized goblin tribes that all lived within like 5-7 miles of the town... so, I changed it to within 5 to 7 days of the town instead of 5 miles. Five miles and somebody could take a wrong turn and be in goblin central in minutes.)

Well, the whole Eberron setting suffers from a bogus scale, and the population figures are equally messed up.

Anyone remember the KotS scale and pop numbers? Same problem.

And to add something to the 'Hollywood distances': A friend of mine mentioned a wtf moment he had when watching one of Transformers movies (I think the second?). Apparently they conveniently moved all of the Egyptian tourist features into a single place to get properly wrecked by those giant robots or something.

I thought it was an interesting reaction, considering the kind of movie that Transformers is (... don't get me started!); but despite that nit-pick he actually enjoyed it - go figure!

 

[Mark Hope]

I don't remember Hadrian's Wall? I remember a wall, but I don't recall them naming it. Is it just because they filmed there?

Yes, I'm being a bit uncharitable here, heh. They filmed there but didn't name it.

By the same token, I suppose I should also moan about Nottingham Castle apparently being in Carcasonne. But that would be stretching it a little, I think