40 minutes into the film, mayor Bob McIntyre puts a record on and dances with his wife to Blood Sweat & Tears 'You Made Me So Very Happy'. But BS&T recorded exclusively for CBS/Columbia at the time and the record on the turntable is clearly a red label Decca pressing.
shareSubmit it as a "goof". That's just the kind of silly trivia we all love!
shareWell that's where I wanted to put it, but couldn't see how to do it. Anyway, the great attraction of pedantry is using it to annoy people who find pedantry annoying.
shareglenn-299, if you go to the 'main details' page, down the bottom there is a message that says
'You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.'
There is an 'Update' button just above it. Click on it and when the next page displays, scroll down to 'Fun Stuff' where it has goofs, trivia, etc. You should be able to submit a goof there.
I have submitted the odd goof, quote, etc in the past which have been accepted and added.
Thank you sir (or Madam)....I have followed your excellent instructions and added my comments to the goofs section where I hope that IMDB staff will soon post the data live, leading to a recall of all copies of the movie currently in existence, a recall of the cast members and crew involved and a re-shoot of the scene (after, of course, someone has been sent to the nearest opportunity shop to purchase a 50c LP on the CBS label) followed by a cinematic release of the correct version with a DVD issue to follow. Possibly with extra features. And if you are, indeed, the result of a furtive liaison on the part of the Fuhrer then I am pleased that something positive has emerged from the disaster that was the Third Reich. Salut!
shareI'm not saying that you're wrong on this, but I'd like to point out that I used to be surprised occasionally back in the '60s and '70s by the number of artists that were signed to one label in the USA, whose records appeared on a rival label in another country.
Again, I'm not saying that's the case here, but that it's a possible explanation.
UVL is quite correct but in this case BS&T were never released on Decca. U.S. Columbia artists were usually on CBS in other territories (as BS&T were in Australia) or sometimes on Epic, a subsidiary label.
shareDunno if the American release has commentaries, but on one of the commentaries Jane Kennedy says that they originally wanted to use an Engelbert Humperdinck song, but they couldn't get the rights.
We're all in it together.
I used to be surprised occasionally back in the '60s and '70s by the number of artists that were signed to one label in the USA, whose records appeared on a rival label in another country.
Well, there are certain "reality's" of making a film. I.e. you have the
creative ones, where when at the time that they filmed that scene, they
needed to have a pristine copy of whatever music it was that the couple
were going to dance to so that it could be mixed in later on in post
production. So, it would not be at all realistic to think that the sound
recorder at filming time actually used the sound from that dinky little
turntable as the source of the audio that would later be mixed into the
scene. More probable is that they had already obtained the music rights
to that song, and during production they had it played back from tape,
CD for the actors to listen to as they danced, and used that same
recording in mixdown in post. Whatever record that was "seen" to be
playing is mostly irrelevant, unless the director wanted to really get
specific and show the album of the same music, which in reality is one
of those things that often slip through the hole when trying to piece
together the massive puzzle that is film making. I wish most folks could
spend a month watching how a film is actually put together, it's not
a linear thing where scenes are done in order of the final film, they
are done as both actors and locations are available, and to me it's
an absolute amazing process to watch a Production Designer try to
work all these variation's out into something that actually fits
together in the end! So, for all the hundreds of hours of film shot,
sound recorded, to possibly miss something like the wrong record
label being seen is such a minor thing that it's not worth trying to
even consider it being some kinda accident, or goof. It may be
to the audience, but the film maker had an awful lot more important
things to be worrying about at that moment... And as a long shot,
there are lots of scenes in films where folks are dancing to music
where there isn't even music playing at the time the scene is shot,
someone will just count out "1,2,3,4" and the actors dance around
in some basic time count, and the post audio folks then mix in
some music that fits in with the time count of the dancers. This
is very common in say a night club scene where you're trying to
record two actors conversing in what would seem a noisy club. If
you were to actually see it being filmed, the scene is absolutely
quiet, except for the two actors. It's actually very funny to
watch as the other folks in the scene are just mouthing words,
and dancing to unheard sound!! 99% of all dance and club scenes
are filmed this way, otherwise you'd never hear the actors.
It saves time, money, and makes life a lot easier for the sound
dept.
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d.
I appreciate what you say and I do have some understanding of the film-making process and the fact that a huge amount of audio is done in post-production. But this just looked so wrong to me. Having said that, I don't really lose sleep over it! It's just a but of fun.
shareWell, and to just add one last thing to this. I just watched that scene
a few minutes ago, and with the great editing that was done in the film,
the shot of the record player playing is just cut in to the larger scene
of them dancing. The record player is not even shown playing in the same
room as them. Actually, neither is the phone that is heard ringing actually
in the scene either, again most likely a sound effect added in post as
when the phone rings, the two actors look around in different directions,
not in the direction of an actual phone as you would expect. Editing is
like watching very good illusionists at work, by the way the scene's are
cut, they misdirect our attention to the larger issues away from the
smaller ones that are the "tricks". Having said all this, I would like
to say that I think this film is absolutely amazing in how hard they
worked to actually use the correct technical terminology when working
at the dish controls, etc. Even things like the power reading of the
antenna strength are realistic numbers. And likewise they did an
excellent job of using the proper types of equipment in all those
racks. There are a few glaring tech goofs in that Parkes did not have
the ability to transmit data to the guys in space, so when they did
things like update the "upload data buffer", that would not make any
sense as they were not uploading data to the capsule. That may have
been a response to trying to "fit" new dialog to original NASA radio
communications from the archives, which is pretty clever and adds
to the realism. A very, very well done movie that went to extraordinary
lengths to try and get the nuts and bolts of the moon mission from
the Parkes side as accurate as possible!! Also, to get really finicky,
I believe that there was a battery backup system between the facility
power and the generator, so in effect the system could not have been
brought down by the generator failing. When the power goes out, the
system transfer's first to battery's which keep it running until the
generator starts and stabilizes, which can take a few minutes. We
have a similar dish here at the Cowichan Earth Station, and that's
how there's works, and from the op's manual's at Parkes available
online, their's (at least in the current configuration) works the
same way. They are setup to NEVER loose power there, unless of course
they can't get a fuel truck in to keep the gensets running.
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d.
Also, to get really finicky, I believe that there was a battery backup system between the facility power and the generator, so in effect the system could not have been brought down by the generator failing.
Yes, this is pretty much the Parkes procedures. If you go to their site
and have the patience, and the will to read through all the tech stuff,
they have the complete operations manual for "the dish" available online.
It's makes for interesting reading if you're technically inclined. And
they also have the policy of running off generators in bad weather,
although they have the wind limitations. What's also interesting is
that they list all of the software that now runs the dish, as well as
all of the original utilities from day one, so you can trace through
to today the process of how much computing has taken over the manual
housekeeping, etc.
For our local earthstation here in Cowichan, the first time I went
out there to poke around they took us out to the "battery shed", and
it was, well, inspiring in terms of one of the largest darn UPS's that
I've ever seen. Something like 200 truck batteries stacked from floor
to ceiling, in four rows about 25 feet long! I believe they said it
could run the facility for about an hour, which considering how large
it is, well, very impressive. I never did see inside the generators
as they're all silenced and hidden away in another building. I'm
tempted to make the trip across Canada to the "twin" of the Parkes
dish we have in Ontario. Except for a smaller diameter outside
mesh skin, the buildings and dish are identical as they were built
by the same company and of the same vintage. I have to imagine that
they have also built some in this configuration in Europe. I've
seen the large Russian one that was "decommisioned" by axe at the
end of the cold war, it's been restored and is a work of art as well.
d.
The battery rooms for a large plant can certainly be impressive. Goonhilly had two main sets of battery supplies distributed on HUGE busbars: 50 volts the same as found in regular telephone exchanges, and a 28V system for much of the carrier equipment and other systems. Other supplies, such as the +/-80V for telex circuits, high voltage for klystrons, etc. were derived from motor-generator sets or solid-state converters.
I can't remember the capacity of the site generators we had at that time as that wasn't my section, but I did go over to that part of the site from time to time. There were three gigantic diesel engines, each with cylinders practically large enough to climb inside. I know that the entire essential load of the site could be handled by two sets, so that they had two generators always available while the third was being overhauled. The site had its own 11kV feed from the public grid, so the generators were also 11kV and could be synchronized with the incoming supply for parallel operation during a planned changeover. Total generating capacity must have been several hundred kVA.
I'm continually fascinated by the way, in life 'one thing leads to another'. Thanks fo Paul and Laserdoug I've learnt more about the intricacies of site generators and such than I ever thought possible. And all because I noticed a record label was wrong. It's a wonderful world, guys.
shareWell, glad that you found that bit interesting, it's the curious people
in the world that makes life interesting! If you're really up for a bit
of a challenge, and want to know more about the nuts and bolts that
Parkes is made out of, they have a great pdf. file that you can read
online or download. It tells the whole story of Parkes and the
Apollo program. I've posted the link for that elsewhere in the message
area here, but it's just as easy to just find the Parkes site via
Google and go right to it there. It's a little heavy on the tech stuff,
but there's enough human interest to make it worth reading for any
non-tech reader. It also gives more in depth descriptions of the events
covered in the film, and ones that weren't that I wish could have been
if time had allowed. Things like the guys there actually hand cranking
the dish through a few practice runs in case there was a drive or motor
failure!! It doesn't sound like much, but to consider they were moving
the many tons of the dish by hand, yet doing it with the accuracy to
track an object the size of a SUV at the surface of the moon is just,
well, it makes my brain hurt thinking about it! It's difficult to
imagine events of that scale being done now. Not to diminish the space
station or shuttle operations, but the Apollo was pulled off with just
a fraction of the technology that we take for granted now!
D.
Glenn, I'd just like to apologise. Your opening statement started one of the more interesting posts I've seen and your self-effacing response is a lesson to all us sarcastics. "Good on ya, Mate"
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