are all screenwriters idiots?

[Alpo]

Movie. Good movie. Woman started a business in Brooklyn. The business has grown so quickly that the investors have been pushing her to hire a CEO. The guy she's interviewing is in San Francisco, so she flies out to San Francisco to talk to him. Then she flies back to New York.

 

The next morning she needs to talk to him, so she walks into the office and tells her secretary to get him on the phone.

 

Brooklyn is 3 hours earlier than San Francisco. If she arrives at work at 8:00 in the morning, which would be normal I guess, it's 5:00 in the morning in California.

 

I would not be real happy to get a call at 5:00 in the morning, even if they were going to hire me. What kind of moron is this that wants me to work for him? What other idiocy does he plan on doing?

 

Apparently the screen writer thinks that New York City and San Francisco are in the same time zone.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

It would seem so .......

[Ozark Huckleberry]

Kinda thin on context -- I'd say whether it was realistic or not would depend on the business, the pay, the expectations, the reason for the call.

 

Walking into the NY office at 8 a.m. and putting a call through to the applicant in CA  to assess the applicant's reaction to getting a 5 a.m. phone call from the boss could be as much a part of the hiring screening as asking him or her to think about all previous leadership positions, and tell you about the biggest disappointment and how was it handled.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Evidence of one screenwriter being an idiot is not sufficient to say that all are.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Maybe she learned in the original interview that he was an early riser?🤪😜

[Cholla]

Directors, editors, and producers rarely follow what is written. In some cases, the script is rewritten on the spot with zero input from the original writer.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

It's actually listed as a job requirement on the Screen Actors Guild web page for writers to have an IQ below 80.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

It isn’t just screenwriters!! Nobody making a movie let’s facts get in the way!

How many on here constantly complain about inaccurate guns? My pet peeve is bad geography! They set a movie in a location that’s NOTHING like where they’re filming.  Do they think no one has ever been there? Filming near mountains when there are none in the supposed location is so common it’s ridiculous! Im are everyone here has seen THAT!

[Rye Miles #13621]

1 hour ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

It isn’t just screenwriters!! Nobody making a movie let’s facts get in the way!

How many on here constantly complain about inaccurate guns? My pet peeve is bad geography! They set a movie in a location that’s NOTHING like where they’re filming.  Do they think no one has ever been there? Filming near mountains when there are none in the supposed location is so common it’s ridiculous! Im are everyone here has seen THAT!

Gunsmoke is an example of that! 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Happens in real life.   Why shouldn't it happen in movies?

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

I always get a kick of a Pickup Truck crossing in the background of the scene.  Or a Styrofoam Cup of coffee.  Usually set in 1879 or so.  Like 1892 Winchesters and Colt SAA in 1867.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Doesn’t say what time of morning she walked into her office. Maybe it was 11:00?

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

20 minutes ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

I always get a kick of a Pickup Truck crossing in the background of the scene.  Or a Styrofoam Cup of coffee.  Usually set in 1879 or so.  Like 1892 Winchesters and Colt SAA in 1867.

 

  ..... and don't forget the power lines.  🙂

[Subdeacon Joe]

I just realized, the guy works in San Francisco!!!  That means he has to be up by 0400 to be at the office by 0800.  Unless he can afford to live in San Francisco. 

 

[Trailrider #896]

Continuity people should spot such things. But often they don't, or too late to reshoot a scene without huge costs. One that always got me was in the movie, Cheyenne Autumn.  Beautiful scenery shot, with a clear blue sky...and a beautiful jet contrail going across the Old West sky! Oops!

 

Another one that always got/gets me is where someone draws a sixgun, cocks it, but decides not to shoot, so uncocks the gun, and returns it to the holster, with the live round now under the hammer, instead of rotating the cylinder to put the empty chamber under the hammer.  In the past, before CAS, most people wouldn't notice it.  I think the reason they don't do it right is it would take too long, and would disrupt the flow of the scene. But, still...

 

Happy Holidays, Pards!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

6 hours ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

It isn’t just screenwriters!! Nobody making a movie let’s facts get in the way!

How many on here constantly complain about inaccurate guns? My pet peeve is bad geography! They set a movie in a location that’s NOTHING like where they’re filming.  Do they think no one has ever been there? Filming near mountains when there are none in the supposed location is so common it’s ridiculous! Im are everyone here has seen THAT!

You'll recognize one of my pet peeves the next time you watch a western and see various landscapes from Utah and Arizona regardless of where the action is suppose to happen just boldly showing up.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

You'll recognize one of my pet peeves the next time you watch a western and see various landscapes from Utah and Arizona regardless of where the action is suppose to happen just boldly showing up.

My point exactly! Extreme geography mistakes!

[Sixgun Seamus]

8 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Gunsmoke is an example of that! 

Matt Dillon will be picking up a prisoner and riding through Saguaro cactus. Hey kids, Matt's territory ain't that big and there are no Saguaro in Kansas.

[Eyesa Horg]

8 minutes ago, Sixgun Seamus said:

Matt Dillon will be picking up a prisoner and riding through Saguaro cactus. Hey kids, Matt's territory ain't that big and there are no Saguaro in Kansas.

Matt may have chased them there! He seems to wind up in Mexico a lot too!

[Texas Jack Black]

19 hours ago, Alpo said:

Movie. Good movie. Woman started a business in Brooklyn. The business has grown so quickly that the investors have been pushing her to hire a CEO. The guy she's interviewing is in San Francisco, so she flies out to San Francisco to talk to him. Then she flies back to New York.

 

The next morning she needs to talk to him, so she walks into the office and tells her secretary to get him on the phone.

 

Brooklyn is 3 hours earlier than San Francisco. If she arrives at work at 8:00 in the morning, which would be normal I guess, it's 5:00 in the morning in California.

 

I would not be real happy to get a call at 5:00 in the morning, even if they were going to hire me. What kind of moron is this that wants me to work for him? What other idiocy does he plan on doing?

 

Apparently the screen writer thinks that New York City and San Francisco are in the same time zone.

 YES

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

10 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I just realized, the guy works in San Francisco!!!  That means he has to be up by 0400 to be at the office by 0800.  Unless he can afford to live in San Francisco. 

 

 

I lived in Vallejo when I worked for BofA in San Francisco.  Something like 31 - 32 miles door-to-door - if I drove, which I seldom did.  My average daily commute was usually over 5 1/2 hours total.   

 

On top of an average 50 - 60+ hour work week...  

 

Oh - and I knew people whose jobs were linked to East Coast companies and who really DID start at 0500.  

 

 

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

Not just screen writers.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada - Pacific time.

I had an interview with a corporate executive based on the East Coast; scheduled at 9 am.

 

My phone rings at THREE AM.

I recognize the number; so I quickly put on my best voice (which ain't that great under the best of conditions - less so at 3am)

 

"Hello..."

(teensy bit bleary and obviously a bit annoyed)

 

"Good morning Daniel, this is Blah blah blah - you scheduled an interview this morning at nine.  Are you ready?"

(condescending little pr!*#)

 

"At nine o'clock, I would certainly be ready; but...  It is three in the morning here - you've caught me a bit unprepared."

 

"That's very rude.  I made a special effort to come in at 6 am this morning to accommodate your 9 am interview request.  Do we need to reschedule?"

(Yeah, reschedule this...   and the horse you rode in on)

 

"Ahh, no.  I don't believe I need to reschedule.  But, tell you what - If you figure out where this all went wrong - give me a call me at nine."

 

Oddly - I never received that call at nine.

[Eyesa Horg]

When Texas based SBC bought out our nice little telephone company in Connecticut, they decided our business office should be based in California!! Now when our guys came in to work at 7 AM we had to wait until 11:00 our time to get order issues resolved! It was brilliant! Took almost 3 years to get it straightened out. My office was at the top of a mountain in an industrial park. My group was installing DSL at the time. We had a blizzard going on and a few trucks already stuck in the snow banks, it was nasty out! I called Texas to ask that they hold all but "out of service" orders due to the storm. They put a manager on who in no uncertain terms told me  "it's 93° out and if I wanted to keep my job I'd get my trucks rolling immediately", idiots. I told the crew to put them in the bank gently and call Texas for a wrecker! Around noon, they called my boss and told him to keep our trucks off the road!!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

13 hours ago, Sixgun Seamus said:

Matt Dillon will be picking up a prisoner and riding through Saguaro cactus. Hey kids, Matt's territory ain't that big and there are no Saguaro in Kansas.

Saguaro cactus only grow naturally in the Sonoran Desert mostly south of Phoenix.

[Rye Miles #13621]

19 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

I always get a kick of a Pickup Truck crossing in the background of the scene.  Or a Styrofoam Cup of coffee.  Usually set in 1879 or so.  Like 1892 Winchesters and Colt SAA in 1867.

 

19 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

  ..... and don't forget the power lines.  🙂

I've never seen either of these!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

We used to see westerns with stage coaches or immigrant wagons coming down a canyon while Union Pacific Big Boys and Challengers were in the background double heading loads out of Ogden back up over the pass to Wyoming....or coming back down the other way.

 

Highways and con trails were fairly common, too.

[Trailrider #896]

When I worked for an aerospace firm in California which supplied things to the Navy on the East Coast, we got in at 0730, which was 1030 on the EC. If we needed to call them, we needed to call them by 0830 our time because they broke for lunch at 1130. They might be back by 0930 our time.  Since they bailed at 1630 (4:30 PM), if we didn't get them by 1:30 PM Pacific Time, you could forget it until the next day!  

 

If you live in the Mountain time zone and want to call someone in Arizona, when we go on Daylight time, we are an hour ahead of them. When we go back to Standard time, we are on the same time...I think! 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

On 12/25/2025 at 11:20 AM, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

I always get a kick of a Pickup Truck crossing in the background of the scene.  Or a Styrofoam Cup of coffee.  Usually set in 1879 or so.  Like 1892 Winchesters and Colt SAA in 1867.

 

On 12/25/2025 at 11:42 AM, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

..... and don't forget the power lines.  🙂

 

9 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I've never seen either of these!

 

9 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Highways and con trails were fairly common, too.

If I'm not mistaken, in "Tombstone", when they are making the trip from Tucson to Tombstone, an airplane can be seen. 

Most of these anachronisms are hard to spot, being in the far background of a scene while you're watching the action down lower on the screen. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

11 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

When I worked for an aerospace firm in California which supplied things to the Navy on the East Coast, we got in at 0730, which was 1030 on the EC. If we needed to call them, we needed to call them by 0830 our time because they broke for lunch at 1130. They might be back by 0930 our time.  Since they bailed at 1630 (4:30 PM), if we didn't get them by 1:30 PM Pacific Time, you could forget it until the next day!  

 

If you live in the Mountain time zone and want to call someone in Arizona, when we go on Daylight time, we are an hour ahead of them. When we go back to Standard time, we are on the same time...I think! 

Arizona is too sophisticated to mess around with PC time switches.  We don't recognize Daylight Savings Time, though some of the reservations do.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

19 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

When I worked for an aerospace firm in California which supplied things to the Navy on the East Coast, we got in at 0730, which was 1030 on the EC. If we needed to call them, we needed to call them by 0830 our time because they broke for lunch at 1130. They might be back by 0930 our time.  Since they bailed at 1630 (4:30 PM), if we didn't get them by 1:30 PM Pacific Time, you could forget it until the next day!  

 

If you live in the Mountain time zone and want to call someone in Arizona, when we go on Daylight time, we are an hour ahead of them. When we go back to Standard time, we are on the same time...I think! 

childsplay! I had to coordinate wih Europe and Australia.

[Jackson Haller]

 The one that gets me now is the reflections of camera crew (especially boom operators holding the pole with the mike!) in mirrors and windows.  Recently caught both in a series set in NY in the 80s.   Tracking shot in  a western TV series had nearly the entire camera crew reflect in a storefront window as the characters walked down the main street.  Continuity errors also are a pet peeve; people not standing in the same spot or holding the same position, eyeglasses on, then off then on, on different takes, drinking glasses on a table empty, then full, then empty due to different takes, it goes on and on.  A lot of these come out of older series.  I've found that newer series with bigger budgets, and I assume more expensive/experienced technical crew seem to do better these days.

 

As for script quality,  I've seen some really fine writing and acting recently in older TV programs.  I don't watch much current run stuff; what I have seen, though, looks a little weak compared to the best in those older series. It helps to have some finely skilled actors to whom the script writers can then tailor their work to; they can write to the strengths/style of the way the actor presents his/or her  character. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to happen much now...

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

I'm not sure that Hollywierd WANTS to make Good movies anymore. Most of them seem to be more about the "message" than the story. 

Take Disney/ Marvel/ Lucas, for instance. They take great pains to NOT hire people that have any kind of background with the source material. Anyone that has even READ a comic book can't get hired for Marvel. I believe that it's the same with Star Wars. They have to make sure that they include lead characters that are gay, trans, or mouthy girl bosses to even have a chance at getting a movie made. Then, when nobody goes to see it, because that sort of thing isn't what the audience wants to see, they blame the audience for not supporting them.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 

 

  .... sounds like the 'ditzy twits' when it was "so unfair" 'cause no-one was playing or buying their music .....