History Main / ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction

* The Franchise/IndianaJones Stunt Show at Disney Hollywood Studios suffers from this, but since it's more about watching cool stunts than getting an accurate portrayal of a film set, it's somewhat forgivable.
** Deliberately Averted in one segment of the Backlot Studio Tour, which to show the guests how movies are made, sets up a small stage to film a sequence for a WWII movie (originally tied into ''Film/PearlHarbor'', which was coming out at the time of the segment's introduction). Two sets are featured and a total of four "actors" culled from the audience are used and the show proceeds thusly:
*** The first segment involves the exterior ship set on the audience's left side of the stage, which has a sequence for two actors to clean the decks while a third looks for enemy planes. Air jets placed under the water allow machine gun fire on the ship, which sends the three actors into a frenzy as the first two go to their battle stations and the third makes a call on the ship phone. Then torpedoes come and hit the ship, causing a chain of controlled burns in the tank near the ship.
*** In the second segment, the fourth actor is in a room dressed to look like the ships engine room on the audience's right side of the stage. The actor is directed to answer a phone call and then begin playing with the buttons to get the ship into a defensible position. Finally, a huge tank of water is dumped into the new set, drenching the actor.
*** In the final segment, the audience is directed to view TV's in the arena, which play out the completed production in the movie's intended order (Crew going about their duties. The third actor sees enemy planes. Enemy planes fly in and open fire on the ship. The crew reacts and scrambles. The third actor makes a phone call. The fourth actor picks up the phone, answers the third actor, and then begins working the ship consols, planes come about and release torpedoes. The ship is torpedoed. Actors 1-3 react to the explosion. Actor 4 is hit by a deluge from the impact. Planes fly off.). To further stress the out of order filming, the director indicates that he filmed the actors in the planes some time ago and that what was shot today was the final shoot for the film and they can call it a wrap.

* A form MagicalSecurityCam where the scene that was filmed doesn't match the scene that was shown being filmed. Maybe there's a few angles in the final shot which the cameras we see couldn't have got. But it'd be annoying to the viewer to show the alternate angles being filmed in separate takes.

* ''Series/HomeImprovement'': The ShowWithinAShow "Tool Time" is a local cable show where Tim is the host. It's generally portrayed as a real time live broadcast but specific episodes indicate it is delayed same day or with a week or two turnover. No dress rehearsals are ever seen with Tim sometimes making director calls mid-shoot, which allows for [[AccidentProne accidents]] and AmusingInjuries to be a surprise to everyone. Tim and Al are treated as the showrunners and will pitch ideas to each other off set, but while they have regular meetings with execs from their chief sponsor Binford Tools an actual producer was [[RememberTheNewGuy only seen in one episode]].

* Showing scenes being filmed in order, or at least in an order that makes dramatic sense, because otherwise, the ShowWithinAShow could be very hard for the audience to understand. In RealLife, scenes are usually filmed out of order for practical reasons (limited availability of sets or location shootings, actors' schedules, high costs of shooting certain scenes, etc.)[[note]]Some productions do however film things in chronological order where possible.[[/note]].
* Showing multiple takes can easily bore the viewer. Can be got around somewhat with editing it down to the mistakes that ruin the take, or other such tricks, but it'd be hard to have a realistic number of takes for every scene.
* Special effects will tend to be of the sort that's fun and interesting for the audience to see. Animatronics will be preferred to CGI or stop-motion monsters (unless these can be played for comedy), and you'll almost never see an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matte_%28filmmaking%29#In-camera_matte_shot in-camera matte shot]].
* "But the camera couldn't have gotten that shot!": Maybe there's a few angles in the final shot which the cameras we see couldn't have got. But it'd be annoying to the viewer to show the alternate angles being filmed in separate takes.
* The director screaming "Cut!" after every minor little flub. Good if you want the ShowWithinAShow to end to get on with the actual show, but in real life, getting all the moving parts required for a take of a film or TV show (lights, camera, microphones, sound, etc.,) to start at once, is pretty arduous, so slamming the brakes for something minor is pretty rare. You'll notice if you ever watch a gag reel, if something minor happens like an actor tripping over their line, they'll simply mutter a quick apology, say "Let me start over," and do just that. It's a lot easier to edit out an earlier mistake than to sync up a crew of dozens to start a new take.

* Lots of simplifications: For example, in real life, an action scene may be stitched together from dozens of takes, each a few seconds long, in order to allow special effects and other things to be worked in. When the actors aren't in closeup, they'll probably be replaced by stuntmen. Reaction shots and what's being reacted to might be filmed weeks apart. And that's not even getting into matte shots, where the actors and the background are filmed separately. All this is confusing for the viewers, and would take a long time to establish, so why not pretend the action scene is all one take, and that the special effects are really happening at the same time?