This sort of thing just drives me crazy. So they have this thing on heroes where people will abilities are kept under control by some sort of wire device that is up their noses. I have no problem with this. Great! Do it! BOOM! Win!
But as it turns out, the prop they used for this amazing technology, is nothing more than a phone cable with a normal RJ11 connector on the end. Sound stupid? It’s even worse in practice. (As seen in the latest episode. The screen cap above is taken right when it is yanked out.)
You can’t find another household item that might look a bit more convincing? Ugh. Not sure what’s worse. Stuff like this, or the fact that stuff like this bugs me so much in movies and TV.
Any other good examples of this sort of thing?
@ peruchito
zoolander.
One odd prop thing i did notice recently was on 24, one guy opens up a safe to retrieve something high tech, and in the safe was a label maker. Looks a bit high tech, but why lock up a label maker? Was the FBI going crazy with it?
Point 1:
Anyone remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? The walls of the Satellite of Love interior are made of randomly placed objects, such as a toy of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars to the bottom left of the Hex-field, a Star Wars Darth Vader action figure holder, a plastic reindeer cut in half and glued over the theater door, plastic toy trumpets, silverware trays, bundt cake pans, and extra bowling pins that would have served as Crow’s beak. The majority of these objects were kept on the walls of the Satellite even after the set was rebuilt to mark Mike’s replacement of Joel.
Point 2:
Just watched the episode in question again on Hulu. Definitely an air-hose.
But here’s the thing that gets me. Scott, no offense man, but do honestly think the producers can rent an ambulance, but can’t find an air-hose?
LOL. Scott. You are 100% wrong. Since this end that I took the picture of IS one of the chest units from Heroes, that means that you are completely wrong and I am 100% correct. You = WRONG ; Me = CORRECT.
All kidding aside…I can see where you might think that this thing reminds you of something in your daily life but keep in mind when the tv show asks for some medical looking device, the prop shop would be hanging themselves if they showed up with something like a phone cord to be inserted into an actor’s nose. Seriously, this is the end of one of the real units. It is not a phone cord. Been a fun conversation. Thundercat337 is a friend and is trying to stir the pot….he also does gay porn on the side.
I remember an old episode of “V, the Series,” when the good guys were being followed by a generic squad of bad guys in red uniforms, sunglasses, and ball caps. The lead bad guy was holding a communication device, and whoever directed him how to hold it (unless he took it upon himself) must have said “This is really important! Hold it out in fornt of you as if your life and you day’s scale payment depended on it!” Occasionally he would make an official report into it, holding it at arm’s length as if his own breath might somehow disrupt the signal.
The “com device” was none other than the P.K.E. meter from 1984′s “Ghostbusters.”
Nice job, prop guys.
medical tubing: the solid colored line is for radio-opacity, so you can see the tube and its placement on an x-ray. Sorry :S
As far as terrible props, I like how in Jurassic Park, when the fat guy is talking to the guy on the docks, the “camera” to the docks on the computer is just a video playing in Quicktime, complete with progress bar.
Hey! I did gay porn…. DID!!!!! I told you that in confidence!!!!! How dare you bring that up! But seriously…. yeah postmortem01′s pic is correct! That is the nose plug of that unit!
Is anyone else very excited at the fact that Heroes has gotten so good again that in order to find something wrong, it has to be a prop used in 2 seconds of air time? The Heroes version of trekkies can have fun picking this apart, but to be honest…at least were not dealing with an annoying immortal or storylines that make no sense whatsoever.
Yeah. The other thing to keep in mind about the props on tv shows is that they literally have a day to go from a crappy drawing with some half-assed notes to a working painted assembled prop. If the writers could write a little fast rather than fucking changing their shitty writing at the last second, maybe the production end of things would have a better chance to make higher end props at a lower cost….just my two cents worth.
Heroes could be as shitty as “Lost”… I agree….not a bad show for a weekly show.
ok nail in the coffin!!!! I took a better screen cap and have postmortem’s pic right next to it! Now if anyone still thinks these are not the same….. well….. your dumb!
http://www.imperialoutfitters.net/images/nosething.jpg