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Continuity errors

Continuity errors that keep turning up

A continuity error is a detail that changes between shots without a reason in the story. A glass refills, a jacket changes colour, or someone switches sides of the room without moving.

Here are eight common types and famous examples from film and TV. In generated video, the same problems can appear when each shot rebuilds the scene. Compare the frames, see what changed, then find and fix the breaks in your own video.

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01The kinds

Eight kinds, in rough order of how often

Each one with what it looks like on screen and why it happens on a real set.
A half-full glass of red wine and a cigarette smouldering in an ashtray on a cafe table01
Props
The glass refills itself. The cigarette gets longer. The book is on the other side of the table.
WhySomebody ate and drank through fifteen takes and nobody logged how much was left.
A dresser straightening the sleeve of an actor's tweed jacket while he fastens his shirt cuff02
Wardrobe
A collar changes colour, a jacket buttons itself, a watch swaps wrists.
WhyTwo shooting days, two dressers, one costume that was not photographed carefully enough.
A makeup artist combing an actress's fringe between takes03
Hair and makeup
The fringe is parted the other way. A cut on the cheek has healed by the reverse angle.
WhyHours between the wide and the close-up, and hair does not sit still.
A car driving left to right along a wet road on a grey afternoon04
Screen direction
A car heading left is suddenly heading right. Two people talking both look the same way.
WhyThe camera crossed the line between the shot and its reverse and nobody caught it in the edit.
A street corner after rain, half in low sun and half under dark cloud05
Light and weather
Overcast in the wide, hard sun in the close-up. Wet road, dry road, wet road.
WhyThe sun moved, or the second unit came back a week later.
An empty set with an armchair by the window and tape marks on the floor06
Where things stand
Someone is by the window, then by the door, with no move in between. Furniture shifts.
WhyThe set was reset by eye instead of from a photograph.
Two actors in profile looking into each other's eyes in a small kitchen in daylight07
Eyelines
He is talking to somebody roughly a foot above her actual head.
WhyCoverage shot separately, with a mark in the wrong place.
An autumn oak outside a window, with photos of the same tree in summer and in winter taped to the glass08
Time and season
A single afternoon that starts in summer leaves and ends in bare branches.
WhyA long shoot, a long story, and a calendar nobody drew out.

02Famous examples

Famous continuity errors in film and TV

Big budgets and full-time script supervisors still let these through. Each one is a textbook case of one of the kinds above.
Two frames of the same breakfast table. A croissant on the plate in the first, a stack of pancakes in the second, and the coffee cup has swapped sides.Shot 01 · 0:12Shot 02 · 0:15
A re-creation, not a still from any film. Three seconds apart, the croissant turned into pancakes and the coffee moved to the other side of the plate.
  1. 01

    Pretty Woman (1990)

    Props

    At breakfast, Julia Roberts picks up a croissant. In the next shot she is eating a pancake.

    Food is the hardest thing on set to keep track of. Every take eats a bit more of it.

  2. 02

    Pulp Fiction (1994)

    Where things stand

    Bullet holes are already in the wall behind Jules and Vincent before anyone fires at them.

    The set was dressed for the end of the scene, and a shot from earlier in it used the same wall.

  3. 03

    The Wizard of Oz (1939)

    Hair and makeup

    Dorothy's pigtails change length from shot to shot while she talks to the Scarecrow.

    Close-ups and wides shot at different times, with hair that never sits the same way twice.

  4. 04

    Gladiator (2000)

    Props

    A chariot flips over in the arena, and a gas cylinder is visible in the back of it.

    Rigging that has to be there for the stunt, and one angle that shows it.

  5. 05

    Game of Thrones, season 8 (2019)

    Props

    A takeaway coffee cup sits on the table in front of Daenerys. HBO digitally removed it after viewers spotted it.

    Not strictly a continuity error, more a prop nobody cleared. The same check catches both, though.

A script supervisor's binder open on set, the script page covered in handwritten notes, polaroids of every take on the facing page, a stopwatch and a radio beside it
The continuity binder. Polaroids of every actor and prop, so the next set-up can be put back the way it was.

03The cause

Why they happen in the first place

Nothing is filmed in the order you watch it. The wide shot and the close-up of the same second can be two days apart, and in between, everything in the room has to go back exactly where it was. That is why the job of script supervisor exists, and things still get through.

Generated video has the same problem with the memory taken out. Video models top out at around 15 to 30 seconds a generation, so a long AI video is a stack of short generations edited together. Each one is made fresh, so there is no room to put back and nothing to put it back from. The jacket is not re-buttoned wrong. It comes back as a slightly different jacket, and the shot looks perfectly fine until you watch it next to the one before.

That gap between generations is what VideoConsistency is built for. Our agent holds every generation to the first one, marks exactly where it slipped, and the shot that broke can be regenerated to match.

04The method

Compare with the first shot, not the last

Check each shot against the one before it and small drifts stack until the person at the end is not the person at the start. Check every shot against the first clear look and they do not.

One reference per person, garment and prop. Everything later gets held up to it.

The first clear look at the woman at the table: green coat, glass of water, gold record on the table, rain on the windowReference

Shot 02 · 0:08 · first clear look

  • Shot 03 · 0:13Matches

  • Shot 04 · 0:21Matches

  • Shot 05 · 0:314 breaks

  • Shot 07 · 0:44Matches

Every later shot is compared with the reference, never with the shot before it. Shot 05 is the one that disagrees.

05Find and fix

What you get back, and how it gets fixed

It does the script supervisor's job across your whole video at once. Our agent watches it in one sitting, twice over: one read for the people and what they wear and carry, one for the room and where everything stands. Every shot gets written up, including everything that held.

You get a score, a mark on the timeline at every break, the two frames that disagree with their timecodes, and a written note per problem you can copy straight into your next generation.

Then it can fix them. Press Fix this shot under a note and a frontier video editing model regenerates that one shot to match the frame where things were right. You see a draft first. How fixing works.

Report · shot review
A report's timeline with marks where problems are, and the shot panel underneath listing place, light, weather and every check that held
A real report. Marks on the timeline are the breaks, and under it is everything checked in the shot you are on.

Questions

Common questions

What is a continuity error?

Something in the world of the film changes between shots when the story says it should not have. The glass is full, then it is half empty, then it is full again. The scene was shot over two days and the two days did not match.

What is the most common continuity error?

Props. Food and drink most of all. Somebody has to eat and drink through fifteen takes, and by the end nobody remembers how much was left at the start of the shot.

Why do continuity errors happen at all?

Shots are not filmed in the order you watch them. The wide shot and the close-up of the same moment can be hours or days apart, and everything in the room has to be put back exactly where it was. A script supervisor spends the whole day on this and things still get through.

Are continuity errors different in AI video?

Same categories, different cause and much higher rate. Video models make about 15 to 30 seconds at a time, so a long AI video is many generations edited together. There is no room to put back, and nothing is remembered between generations. A jacket does not get re-buttoned wrong, it comes back as a slightly different jacket.

How do you check your video for continuity errors?

Pick the first clear look at each person, room and prop, then hold every later shot up against that one instead of against the shot before it. Our agent does exactly that across your whole video, with a separate read for the room and where things stand, and gives you the timecode and both frames for every break.

How do you fix a continuity error in AI video?

Go back to the frame where the thing was right and redo only the shot that broke, against that frame, changing only what broke. Every break the check finds comes with that instruction written out. Press Fix this shot in the report and the shot is regenerated for you, with a draft to look at first.

Where to go next

Find the breaks and fix them before anyone else watches

Sign in with your email and drop the file in. The report comes back in a few minutes for most videos, with a fix for every break. Plans start at $19 a month for 15 minutes of video and 10 seconds of shot fixes.

Check and fix a video How fixing works