Filming people in a car

[Guest]

I hope someone can help basically we are shooting our short film where we have a scene between two characters talking in a moving car how can we film that any ideas where is it practical to place that camera on the front of the car.

Thanks in advance
Jezz

[ccortez]

I hope someone can help basically we are shooting our short film where we have a scene between two characters talking in a moving car how can we film that any ideas where is it practical to place that camera on the front of the car.

Thanks in advance
Jezz

commas, periods, hyphens -- all these are available to you for FREE. we don't charge by the character around here...

[reflex]

any ideas where is it practical to place that camera on the front of the car.

Sure. Here's John Woo framing the shot...



And here's a view of the camera rig with Clive Owen pretending to drive while stunt driver Corey Eubanks works some magic off-frame.



As you can see, it can be very challenging. You're probably better to shoot multiple takes from the passenger seat, between the seats, and so on.

[Nigel]

I shot 75% of a short in a car with two actors talking back and forth and to add to the pile of crap it was at night....

It isn't all that hard really.

What I did was light the car. I did this working some serious Mojo with Christmas tree lights, Some mini-Light cans I made from 4.5 & 6v bulbs, and a single Utility light using a 40 watt bulb and lots of ND and Gels.

I shot from the backseat, front doors and hood. It was all very simple in the end.

If you have any questions or want more detail you can PM me.

Good Luck

[FourFourForty]

Most moving car scenes with CUs of actors exchanging dialogue are done in front of a green screen with the background inserted in post.

If that's not an option, light the car, then insulate and wire it for sound. Put it on a small trailer and tow it with an SUV or pickup truck with the camera in the back of the towing vehicle. That'll eliminate the engine noise inside the vehicle where the actors are. The mics will be inside the vehicle being towed and if you've insulated it properly, the only sound you're likely to hear is the trailer's tires rolling over the pavement. That too, can be brought to a minimum with good floor insulation. Foam board insulation works nicely. In post, add the engine noise at a db level that doesn't interfere with the dialogue.

If you have the money to do it, do it the right way with cam mounts on the car and so on. If not, the method I've outlined above is an inexpensive, although not perfect alternative. It's all about the Benjamins.

[super8man]

If you dont have a lot to shoot and you happen to need a new windshield on the car you will be using you could have the glass repair guy show up and remove the windshield on one day and then you do your shooting and then you call him back to come and replace your windhsield with a new one fyi it is not recommended to remove the windshield and then replace it since they are considered one time use items.

Youre welcome in advance

[christoph]

[...]remove the windshield on one day and then you do your shooting[...]

you must be joking right?

i'd like to see that car shot, with hairs blowing all over the place and actors shouting across wind and engine noise ;)
besides, some streetlight reflections are always nice.

to add some value to my otherwise useless post, an idea would be to get one of those tripods which suck to the front of the car using vacum gobles. the problem with super8 is that you'd need a remote trigger as otherwise you'd waste a lot of film before and after each take, but i've done a short on DV like this where we couldn't afford a trailer and it worked very well (the director was hiding under the backseat ;)

++ christoph ++

[audadvnc]

Look at the old 30's Hollywood movies - before green screens, they were shot in-studio with a projection screen behind the actors and set. It still works, and may be cheaper and safer than auto rigs.

The current Kodak description of Plus-X 5231/7231 negative film says:
"The film is also widely used for making composite projection background scenes."

Break out that old Bell & Howell projector, hang up a screen, throw on a reel of exterior shots and shoot your actors emoting in front of it. It just might work.

[Actor]

• Just a thought, shoot the driver with the DP and camera in the passenger's seat and the actor playing the passenger feeding the driver his lines from the back seat. Then repeat with the passenger in front and the DP and camera in the back, shooting the passenger through a mirror to the driver's right (assuming a left hand drive car). Reverse the mirror image in post.
• I'm pretty sure the background in the moving car scene in The Shining was done with front projection. It's the scene where they are driving to the hotel and talking about the Donner party. I'm not certain it was done this way, but Kubrick used still front projection in 2001 and moving front projection in Eyes Wide Shut so I think he probably did it here too. I know he did not travel to the U.S. during filming so it has to be some sort of process shot.
• In John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix there is a scene with James Garner and Jessica Walter in a car. The camera was mounted on the outside of the car (they actually drilled holes in the door) and the actors were sent off on their lonesomes to do the scene. The 70mm Super Panavision camera held four minutes of film. They repeated this with the camera on the other side of the car. Get an estimate from a body shop on how much it would cost to repair the holes, then build your own rig.

[norb]

i'm not a fan of car mounts. something about rigging an expensive camera onto a moving vehicle never felt quite right. especially the cheap ones that are basically one huge suction cup. a low-budget solution would be to get your friend's truck and tow the car around with a camera filming from the trunk.

are you filming at night or during the day? if you're shooting during the day, make sure that the outsides of the car aren't blowing out. throw on some roscoe scrim or something similar to the windows. watch out for moiree if you're shooting video.

here's an article that should help out.
http://www.rondexter.com/professional/l ... ghting.htm

[BigBeaner]

Watch the making of 'American Graffiti" and the movie itself.

[super8man]

I always thought of it the other way around: strapping a cheap camera to an expensive car is always a pain in the arse. Even a Yugo is probably more expensive than a Leicina Special...

[camera8mm]

why would you want to film from the floor? it would look like surveilence perspective, if thats your goal.

I had a film teacher in college who worked on "Cagney and Lacey" and she said the camera was mounted to the door and hood and each actress did their complete lines on each take. the dialogue and takes were then cut together.

you would have to use a polarizing fliter to cut the glare. or remove the windshield.

[Meltwater Hawk]

If I'm not mistaken, isn't there a S8 website floating around out there (perhaps someone on here) that has old issues of a S8 mag that has a bunch of DIY projects? In fact I know I've seen it because it piqued my interest as well with a cheap car mount using plywood and a tripod.


Now the question is, how does one shoot underwater without a Eumig underwater cmaera? Ah, a question I've been hashing out with friends for a few weeks.


By the way if someone wants to post that web addy then it'd be much appreciated as I've lost it.

[Nigel]

What I did was rolled a Chevy Suburban into a Sound-Stage. Then lit it with the mentioned lights and I used some saddles on the hood and doors and hand held in the back seat.

Because it was a night scene no one could see the outside anyway. Then we had a big fan that we blew by the passenger window for a slight breeze and to make sure that the passengers cigerette ash blew away as he flicked it out the window.

After we did the interiors we took the car outside and shot the headlights driving down a dark road as I hung off the back of a Pickup. It all cuts together fine. Daytime would have been harder for sure but if we would have towed the rig it would have been fine.

The exposures were reading Nil to 1.0 on my meter but we just went open and it looks just as I wanted.

Good Luck