Reversed Film

[airtommy]

From time to time, they accidentally included video footage in Miami Vice where the film was reversed.  Let's use this thread to collect whatever examples we can find.

I was just watching this clip in "Red Tape" at about 39:54 (note the red digital clock):

 

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by airtommy

[James]

It isn't mirrored/reversed, but that clock is upside down. If you rotate it 180 degrees it's 12:24. They simply just placed it upside down.

Stan is still wearing his watch on his left wrist as you do, and holding the phone with his right hand.

[airtommy]

4 minutes ago, James said:

It isn't mirrored/reversed, but that clock is upside down. If you rotate it 180 degrees it's 12:24. They simply just placed it upside down.

Stan is still wearing his watch on his left wrist as you do, and holding the phone with his right hand.

Yeah, I was about to start editing my post.  I noticed the buttons and button holes of Stan's shirt are on the correct sides.

[Tom]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb James:

It isn't mirrored/reversed, but that clock is upside down. If you rotate it 180 degrees it's 12:24. They simply just placed it upside down.

Stan is still wearing his watch on his left wrist as you do, and holding the phone with his right hand.

but it could well be mirrored and the correct time is 15:54! (3:54pm)

Edited December 30, 2016 by Tom

[James]

51 minutes ago, Tom said:

but it could well be mirrored and the correct time is 15:54! (3:54pm)

The 4 is upside down either way.

[Daytona74]

They did reverse the picture though in Calderone's Return. The boat scene where they're going to St. Andrews Island. They used the same footage again for the way back, but mirrored it to make it look like they were heading back. If you look closely, you will see that Crockett and the steering wheel are suddenly on the wrong side in the "going back" scene, and by amazing coincidence, they are wearing the exact same clothes as in the first scene, and the weather and time of day are also the same...

Going to St. Andrews:

 

Coming back from St. Andrews:

 

 

Sort of related -

another thing I saw the other day while watching "Jack Of All Trades" was that they "faked" the scene where Crockett's cousin is giving a demonstration of the pool cleaning machine in a fishtank. They simply rolled it backwards, so as to make it seem like the cleaning machine is sucking  the black stuff from the water, when in reality, it was actually pretty clearly pumping the black dye into it and they just showed it in reverse.

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Daytona74

[Ferrariman]

In the teaser of "Cuba Libre"  Tubbs can be seen with his earing in the wrong ear.

In "The Maze" when the S.W.A.T. guys are coming down the stairs one of the Escobars tells them to back off and the film is clearly reversed as we see them go backwards up the stairs.

[summer84]

I played around with the image a bit to see, how it would look upside down.

Yep it's 12:24.

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by summer84

[ivoryjones]

For some reason I just can't understand, the first broadcast of "The Good Collar" had, on opening, a reversed shot of one of the "Florence Italy" takes...

It should be like this, as most of the other openings of 3rd Season (this one comes from El Viejo):

 

[Vincent Hanna]

Hmm interesting. I always wondered why they put those shots of the Grand Prix in the S3 titles in the first place. 

[James]

8 hours ago, Vincent Hanna said:

Hmm interesting. I always wondered why they put those shots of the Grand Prix in the S3 titles in the first place. 

The Miami IMSA race was pretty popular.

And If I had to make a title sequence which summed up my city, I'd put shots of the Formula 1. Because it's a big annual event which the whole city gets behind, it's part of the city. So you'd show what's happening in that city in the title sequence. 

[Noggie]

In "Smuggler's Blues", near the end when Tubbs is waiting on the bridge, there's a moment where you can tell the video plays forward & then backward. 

[ivoryjones]

10 hours ago, James said:

The Miami IMSA race was pretty popular.

And If I had to make a title sequence which summed up my city, I'd put shots of the Formula 1. Because it's a big annual event which the whole city gets behind, it's part of the city. So you'd show what's happening in that city in the title sequence. 

I now I'm getting off topic, but was the footage used in "Florence Italy" real Grand Prix of Miami footage? I suppose so, but then it would have to be from the 1985 race or earlier (not 1986), as Florence Italy aired (02/14/1986) before the 1986 race (03/02/1986). I've read on Wikia that producers planned on an episode centered on the Grand Prix earlier on Season 1 (the ep would have the title " "The Prize"), and they've had race footage back then. On "Florence Italy", If it was real footage, then team sponsors (with logos appearing everywhere in the cars) have gotten themselves a good merchandising on the episode.

Edited January 2, 2017 by ivoryjones

[James]

13 hours ago, ivoryjones said:

I now I'm getting off topic, but was the footage used in "Florence Italy" real Grand Prix of Miami footage? I suppose so, but then it would have to be from the 1985 race or earlier (not 1986), as Florence Italy aired (02/14/1986) before the 1986 race (03/02/1986). I've read on Wikia that producers planned on an episode centered on the Grand Prix earlier on Season 1 (the ep would have the title " "The Prize"), and they've had race footage back then. On "Florence Italy", If it was real footage, then team sponsors (with logos appearing everywhere in the cars) have gotten themselves a good merchandising on the episode.

Yeah they would've had to get the footage from the 1985 event, not sure if it could've even been the 1984 one if they had planned the episode for season 1 and got footage then. However Florence Italy had to be around the time when the 1985 race was on because they wouldn't be able to set up the race track any other time.

Most likely they filmed during practice sessions, put some cameras on cars for a few laps, if I'm not mistaken, I think there's a scene where Crockett and Tubbs are walking through the pits during a session? That would've been 1985. 

 

[airtommy]

In Badge of Dishonor, the final scene begins with this reversed shot:

Then at the end of the scene we see the correct view:

[ivoryjones]

13 hours ago, airtommy said:

In Badge of Dishonor, the final scene begins with this reversed shot:

Then at the end of the scene we see the correct view:

 

I thought I had that final scene in my head, as I like it a lot. Nevertheless, even after rewatching it for so many years, I never noticed that reversed footage (until now)!!!

Here's one I had in my memory as a "possible" reversed film, and indeed Ibelieve we can confirm it as such. It comes from "Hell Hath No Fury", at about 38', when Switek is talking to Tubbs over the phone, Tubbs in the Ferrari with Crockett.

 

13 hours ago, James said:

Yeah they would've had to get the footage from the 1985 event, not sure if it could've even been the 1984 one if they had planned the episode for season 1 and got footage then. However Florence Italy had to be around the time when the 1985 race was on because they wouldn't be able to set up the race track any other time.

Most likely they filmed during practice sessions, put some cameras on cars for a few laps, if I'm not mistaken, I think there's a scene where Crockett and Tubbs are walking through the pits during a session? That would've been 1985. 

Very nice video, James! I don't know if cars would look just the same from 1984 to 1985 on Miami Grand Prix, but by watching your video, at 11'28'', we can see a red car, number 26, that seems to be this one from 3rd-5th Season opening (this is not a reverse film).

So maybe we can be certain it's 1985 footage? or not?

What we may be sure of is that they did have a lot of Grand Prix footage to use: though the takes of Season 3-5 opening for sure are linked to "Florence Italy" episode, I could never actually find them on "Florence Italy" (I can find similar takes on "Florence Italy", but not exactly the ones used in the opening)

[James]

7 hours ago, ivoryjones said:

I thought I had that final scene in my head, as I like it a lot. Nevertheless, even after rewatching it for so many years, I never noticed that reversed footage (until now)!!!

Here's one I had in my memory as a "possible" reversed film, and indeed Ibelieve we can confirm it as such. It comes from "Hell Hath No Fury", at about 38', when Switek is talking to Tubbs over the phone, Tubbs in the Ferrari with Crockett.

 

Very nice video, James! I don't know if cars would look just the same from 1984 to 1985 on Miami Grand Prix, but by watching your video, at 11'28'', we can see a red car, number 26, that seems to be this one from 3rd-5th Season opening (this is not a reverse film).

So maybe we can be certain it's 1985 footage? or not?

What we may be sure of is that they did have a lot of Grand Prix footage to use: though the takes of Season 3-5 opening for sure are linked to "Florence Italy" episode, I could never actually find them on "Florence Italy" (I can find similar takes on "Florence Italy", but not exactly the ones used in the opening)

Yep, it's definitely 1985. I just seen some 1984 footage and the cars look different and there aren't any red cars carrying the number 26. 

 

[Matt5]

Interesting stuff !

[airtommy]

In French Twist there is a hospital scene filmed at Florida International University's Biscayne BayCampus.  Bandi rappels down a wall after the attempted assassination.  I couldn't understand why this location was so hard to find, until I realized that they reversed the film!  He scales down the backside of the same stairway where the main action takes place.

Reversed film:

And here is the correct view from Google:

[airtommy]

My favorite example of this is the opening teaser of Fruit of the Poison Tree when the train arrives in the station:  the film is reversed side to side but to make matters more confusing the film is also played backwards!  The train is appears to be arriving, but the actual train that they filmed was leaving the station.

You can tell the film is reversed side to side because the number on the train (213) reads backwards.

The evidence that film being played backwards is trickier and requires careful studying of background buildings.  If the train were arriving, we'd be looking southeast and see downtown Miami.  Instead what we actually see are buildings northeast of the station, including Freedom Tower and the Miami Federal Courthouse (not to be confused with the iconic Miami-Dade County Courthouse).

Edited January 5, 2017 by airtommy

[airtommy]

One sign that you're looking at a reversed image is when the Testarossa's side view mirror is on the wrong side of the car.  That happened twice in Blood and Roses as C&T race to save Gina:

 

[airtommy]

In Hit List we see the getaway car wildly racing down Brickell on the left side of the road (there is a median between the two directions of traffic).  Even crazier, a random car on the road is also driving on the wrong side!!!

Except it turns out this is just reversed film.  A location hound would know that when they are at the overpass on Brickell, the high-rise buildings should be on the right side of this picture, but here they are on the left.  But there is another way to tell this is reversed:

Note the white shirt on the driver's side and the yellow shirt / red hat / steering wheel on the passenger side.  Here they are at the start of the chase:

Edited March 7, 2017 by airtommy

[Matt5]

On 30/12/2016 at 2:11 PM, summer84 said:

I played around with the image a bit to see, how it would look upside down.

Yep it's 12:24.

 

Ha ha how funny