We’ve all seen it. Sitting, watching a pleasant or distracting film or TV show, when suddenly something from your area of expertise is featured, and it’s so ludicrously wrong – or just wrong enough to annoy you – that enjoying the rest of the programme becomes a chore.
It happens to me every now and again when I see journalists in action on the big or small screen, but increasingly I see ridiculous security scenarios played out – particularly detectors with conveniently visible laser-type beams to avoid, often found protecting huge gemstones in museums.
One of the most common technically ambitious tasks seen in films, and often in TV shows like CSI, is the never-ending zoom, and the infinite number of pixels. An image that looks dark and blurry will be ‘cleaned up’ within a matter of seconds. And while I realise things have improved recently in the megapixel area, these super-zoom incidents have been happening for years – notably in Kevin Costner Pentagon flick No Way Out, from 1987.
And I saw idiotic Denzel Washington movie Deja Vu earlier this year, but I am still unclear as to exactly what it was about. I think it had to do with CCTV cameras that see into the future – or maybe the past? Rubbish, anyhow.
I’m keen to hear of any instances that you can think of where security on the screen, big or small, has been just plain wrong.