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28-1-2018 13:01:42  #71


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

Saw a 1929? Remington Portable in the 2013 The Great Gatsby. At one point Nick's typing on it and you hear the sound effect but the carriage isn't moving. 

 

28-1-2018 15:35:22  #72


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

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.

 


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

29-1-2018 17:12:31  #73


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

Recent releases - "The Post" about the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers (1971-72). And on Netflix - "Good Girls Revolt". This is a movie about the 1970s Newsweek mag and its women employees organizing and eventually suing to becoming reporters, copy editors, etc. Lots of typewriters.

 

04-2-2018 00:02:41  #74


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

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.

 

04-2-2018 01:11:44  #75


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

Uwe wrote:

SquireDante wrote:

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

​That seems to be a fairly common thing..............
 

It would be extremely time consuming and difficult to balance the high-pitched clack of a typewriter with dialogue and other ambient sounds on the set and record them all together at once.  Thus the TW sound (passing train etc) is added later in post.  That raises the immense problem of syncing the sound with the actor pressing keys.  People who know their stuff will allow for that, and the mismatch should be unnoticeable through clever angles and editing.
  I have never met any set dresser who knew a typewriter from a bar of soap in terms of type or period, or who bothered to get an assistant to check, so mistakes are likely.  Young Bobby Hamburger from Minnesota won't care either way - and he's the general touchstone of how much effort to spend on such things.


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 

05-2-2018 10:29:44  #76


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

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.


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

05-2-2018 11:19:31  #77


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

Uwe wrote:

Along those lines ...

Good heavens! 
- and good for him.  Though, oddly enough, I should have thought the distinctive sound of one machine rather than another would be the very last thing where a mismatch would be noticed by anyone at all - even one of us.


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 

06-2-2018 09:18:41  #78


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

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?


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

22-2-2018 11:28:01  #79


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

So, not technically a movie in the normal use of the word, the music video for “The Kill” by 30 Seconds to Mars features a few shots of the lead singer using a late 1930’s/early 1940’s Erika 5/Tab5/M/S. The whole video is sort of a tribute to/imitation of The Shining.


There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. -- Ernest Hemingway
 

22-3-2018 00:23:02  #80


Re: Typewriters in the Movies

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.


Typewriter Service Tech (and avid nerd)
 

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