Directors and writers don't have to have to know how to do stuff the characters do or how things work in the world, but they should do research, study and consult people to find out.
It's just laziness not to do hat. Many films are just collections of outsider impressions. Stanley Kubrick didn't know much about space but he had work ethics.
It's not just laziness. These projects have limited time and money, and more research, study and consultation than necessary is a waste of both.
Unless the actual, correct mechanics of a chess game are important to the plot, then it doesn't matter and almost no one will notice, much less care. Better ROI to spend that money on hair dye for Scarlett Johannsson.
>Stanley Kubrick didn't know much about space but he had work ethics
No one would put up with Stanley Kubrick nowadays.
> then it doesn't matter and almost no one will notice,
It matters. You don't notice it consciously but all the small details add up to the movie feeling special.
> No one would put up with Stanley Kubrick nowadays.
And that's why we end up with action movies with boring action and special effect blockbusters with mediocre but expensive CGI, and drama without good characters.
Good movies with good details can be made with little money if the people who do it have passion to do it.
That's not laziness. It's just prioritization. It's how not "just adding this one feature" isn't laziness. It's prioritization.
I want to show my character's intelligence. I show her playing a game of chess, surprising the experienced player. The chessboard isn't important. The pieces aren't important. It is a language I share with my audience. They see "this person's smart". They barely see the chessboard.
It's like computer hacking or bombs. The light turns green from red. Our heroes have downloaded the data. The red light blinks, beeping frighteningly loudly as the timer ticks to explosion while the maintenance man walks obliviously by. The audience does not question this because the beep is not a word, the light and the ticking not a phrase, the entire scene is a concept, an entire page. It describes the fact that an explosion is imminent and it will be a surprise to the victims.
The audience has trained itself to see things like this, think concept to concept, by learning the language of the filmmaker. Some are forced out from that flow for other reasons and some just because they aren't proficient in this language that millions know. But ultimately, the shared language develops and most will learn and understand.
It's just laziness not to do hat. Many films are just collections of outsider impressions. Stanley Kubrick didn't know much about space but he had work ethics.