LOL! Yeah, I notice stuff like that. It's all for effect. Directors and producers think people are too stOOpid to notice. But they call the shots (no pun intended), and if you try to override the "creative process" you'll find yourself looking for another job.
A friend of mine used to work for Stembridge, and man does he have some horror stories! One director ordered some Thompson machine guns for a movie shoot, and that's what he got, [i]original[/i] WWII era Thompson machine guns. But he thought they looked too used and demanded NEW ones. They ordered some pristine Thompsons and it cost them BIG BUCKS! $$$$ Then the director thought they looked [i]too new[/i] so he had them dragged around and scratched up so they looked like they'd been used. WTF?!?!? Dumbass! [:(!]