Day 216 - Ugly Reflections

Day 216.

No film is perfect. Julie & Julia is especially not perfect. But once one puts the narrative, character development and pacing problems aside (something difficult quite to do), one can say without a doubt that this movie looks pretty good, as in you know, it's filmed well. It has aesthetically pleasing shots and a nice color palette, not to mention that it does a good job of highlighting the contrasts between the looks of 1950s and present-day.

Don't get me wrong--all of that visual level stuff is great, especially if you only see this movie once or twice. But for me... well, let's just say that on the 216th viewing, every little thing that's out of place starts to bug the hell out of you.

Visible camera lens reflection

Visible electrical equipment reflection

Visible sound recording equipment reflection

Visible boom mike reflection

Just click to enlarge these screenshots if you can't quite see the film set equipment in the various reflections. They're definitely there. And once you see them, you can't really unsee them the next time you watch Julie & Julia. In fact, they take you right out of the movie, which for me, is a great thing.

These are all relatively small goofs and gaffes in comparison to the glaring script flaws and broad characterizations of bloggers, but hey, if I'm going to have to write about this movie 365 times, I'm going to point these dumb little shooting mistakes out.

And though I'd like to take credit for catching all of these revealing shots/errors myself, I did get a little help from my buddies at the Julie & Julia IMDB page. No "boom in the shot" ever gets past those guys.

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Julie & Julia Quote of the Day: "Hey, you."