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In the re-make of the Italian Job, there's a scene where a helicopter flys by the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign, and the letters read "OHLLYWODO" briefly. In the next shot, they're fine.
I tried to find a screenshot to post here, but haven't had any luck so far.
Anyway, I'm convinced that it was a CGI joke by the filmmakers, but I've heard people swear up and down that it's just an optical illusion. Their argument is that because the sign is on a hill, not all of the letters are in the same plane (i.e. not all of the letters are the same distance from the observer). I agree that this is true - the letters don't line up perfectly.
They're claiming that this can cause the letters to appear out-of-order from some angles, but I'm throwing the BS flag on that one. I tried it on a small scale using children's blocks, but I could never duplicate the effect.
I know there are people here that have seen the Italian Job many more times than I have, and I was wondering if anyone knew the story behind the "OHLLYWODO" shot in the movie. Or, has anyone actually seen the sign in person from such an angle that it reads "OHLLYWODO"?
Thanks for the link - here's the picture from that link, in case anyone else has trouble opening it:
You can see that those letters aren't even as out-of-plane as the letters in the real sign, and they're obviously placed out-of-order on purpose, rather than appearing that way because of the viewing angle.
To me it looks like you're seeing the back of the H through the gap between the O and the L.
Why wouldn't they use the real sign?
Well, now that I've found some better shots of the real sign, the first "O" and the "D" *are* further forward than I thought they were, possibly far enough forward to pull off the effect. I'll play around with it a bit more and see if I can arrange the letters so that it looks correct from the front, but resembles the movie shot from an angle.
What I find more interesting is the appearance of Spiderman in the movie, twice... I never noticed it before, but I'll be paying closer attention on my next viewing!
What I find more interesting is the appearance of Spiderman in the movie, twice... I never noticed it before, but I'll be paying closer attention on my next viewing!
Twice? I remember seeing Spiderman once. Now I have to go watch it again. Darn the luck.
