SquireDante wrote:

... you hear the sound effect but the carriage isn't moving. 

​That seems to be a fairly common thing, and I've often found that the 'sound' used for the typewriter isn't from the machine in the film - or it's been greatly modified.

​I watched "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" last night, a story loosely based on the history of National Lampoon. The film itself wasn't bad, but it was a gong show in terms of the typewriter models that were used as props in the film, which was sad given the film is full of typewriters. Either the prop master didn't have a clue, or he just didn't care, but it was so bad that I stopped paying attention to them.

Doug Kenney (played by Will Forte) fumbling with what appears to be an Adler J5. This particular machine appeared in many locations, at his office, at home, and even on set during a film shoot. That's what I call a portable typewriter.

 

Just got back from The Post with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. There were quite few typewriters of course in the newspaper room. I noted that in the first scene there was a Olympia SM3 or (SM2). Neat to see that as I have one. The SM3 was also the typewriter on Hank's desk in his home. I wonder if he had anything to do with the props.

Along those lines I have three machines going to a sound engineer this week who is recording the post-production audio for the typewriters used in a film that he's working on. To his credit he had me match the machines he'll be using to stills that I was sent of the actual ones that were used.

I agree that the sound difference between two manual portables would not be worth worrying about, but in this case the film features IBM Selectrics in an office, an Olivetti Studio 44 in a house, and a '60s 6-Series electric, also in a house.

I wonder if even those without our keen interest in typewriters would sense something odd about watching someone use a Selectric to the soundtrack of a manual portable?

Not entirely sure if this was posted about before, but I was recently recommended by a friend to go see Wonder Woman.  While I’m not at all into superhero’s or anything of the sort, and tend to dislike their butchery of traditional Greek mythology (the Thor franchise) I found it to be a really entertaining movie.  But this isn’t a review.  I was bothered by one tiny tiny continuity error.  The movie takes place in World War One, which we all know lasted from 1914-1918, but in the scene in the British war office where the secretary is on the phone with the protagonists, a Royal 10 is seen in the background...with a single pane of glass.  Wait...what?!
That machine couldn’t have been made before 1921, and that rubbed me the wrong way throughout the entire film.  Yes, I understand how hard it is to film such a large production and keep it 100% historically accurate, and yes, the machine has mere seconds of screetime and is no plot element, but still.  It bugged me.  Oh well, nothing I can do about it.