I’m not saying that signs in movies are my number one pet peeve, but it’s where I’ll start this new category. This is something that I started noticing decades ago. I hate it when signs look brand new movies. You know, the ones that set designers/production designers create to match the script. My problem is they often look too new. Too clean. These signs especially stick out in period films when things should look even more weathered and warn.
Because, well, things left out in the elements over time tend to look weathered and warn.
Perhaps part of the problem is there is not enough time or budget to destress a sign. Maybe they’re rentals and not allowed to chip or fade the paint a little. Or maybe because they tend to only be screen for a few seconds, that detail is overlooked because most people won’t notice. But I notice and it takes me out of the film.
I thought of this last week when I passed a sign for Mac’s Used Auto Parts. I thought to myself—THAT is what a weathered sign should look like. In fact, I love the look of that sign so much I pulled over and took a photo of it for show and tell.
P.S. Somewhere between this sign and the pristine signs found in many movies is probably where most signs live. At least a little weathered.
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles
Screenwriting from Iowa 