Filming a Car

[Pj]

How do I film someone driving a car? I am using a pretty heavy 16mm camera which I don't want to place on the bonnet of the car. Any ideas?

Thanks
Pav

[camera8mm]

you dont really say what angle you want to shoot at.

[Pj]

Being more specific this is a short film all about a man driving, We're using an Eclair ACL 2 Super 16. I want to do a medium front shot of the man as he drives, the camera has to be outside. I have done shots where the camera is inside the car in the passenger seat, here you can get a side shot of the driver and when the camera is in the back seat you can get all sorts of shots such as a big medium shot, close ups shots of the gear-stick, the radio and mirrors, but I really need the front shot too where the camera has to be outside.

I have read you can buy suction pads to hold the camera on the bonnet, but I keep wondering what if the camera falls off. The other way is to have the car sitting in an open truck and have the truck driving so it looks like the car is been driven, I don't know what this is called and how to do it.

Pav

[sciolist]

I've got one of these kits - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Varizoom-VariZo ... 2662675188. There are straps to secure the assembly to the automobile to provide protection if the suction cups fail.

[Krasnogorskistan]

Hi Pav,

Mike's suggestion above is pretty neat, how are you going to operate the camera, with some kind of cable release from inside the car? A cheaper alternative would be to simply remove the car bonnet, that would give you far more opportunities to bolt the camera to something solid, ie the car's inner wings or front panel, if you could do this without it being visible in shot. Both these methods are straightforward and give you the chance to practice with digital gear first.

If you want to use your own idea, the easiest way to do that would be to have the car being towed behind a pickup on a trailer....plenty of car moving guys advertising on shiply UK who would have exactly the setup you require for around 150 a day or less. Car would need to sit as low as possible to the ground for the background angles to look convincing, a trailer only lifts the car by a couple of feet at most so that might work. You would have to think about what model of car the driver will sit in, windscreen angles need to be considered for reflections etc.

Funnily enough, read a story only in the last day or so asking when BBC producers are going to stop insisting that their journos stop filming pieces to camera while driving, and the supposed risks of doing so. There are some legal questions to think about, depending on where you intend to film, not least insurance and of course the interest of the police in 'driving without due care' and what that might mean for your setup..

Have fun

[doug]

Hi Pav,

Mike's suggestion above is pretty neat, how are you going to operate the camera, with some kind of cable release from inside the car? A cheaper alternative would be to simply remove the car bonnet, that would give you far more opportunities to bolt the camera to something solid, ie the car's inner wings or front panel, if you could do this without it being visible in shot. Both these methods are straightforward and give you the chance to practice with digital gear first.



Funnily enough, read a story only in the last day or so asking when BBC producers are going to stop insisting that their journos stop filming pieces to camera while driving, and the supposed risks of doing so. There are some legal questions to think about, depending on where you intend to film, not least insurance and of course the interest of the police in 'driving without due care' and what that might mean for your setup..

Have fun

I always wince when I see TV journalists looking sideways at camera for many long seconds
Presumably someone else is watching the road, but it just looks unrealistic if that's the case.

Some thoughts: Removing bonnet sounds good and then maybe anchor a tripod within. Not sure though if the insurance company would agree ! Make a foam cushion with plywood bits top and bottom, that attaches to tripod and camera, so smoothing out the bumps. Or clamp the bottom plywood directly to something. Let air out of the tyres as well. Cover the camera with black material so no reflections are seen in the windscreen.

[Pj]

The type of shot I want is just someone driving like in the first photo.

There's no dialogue so the driver can concentrate on driving and to be extra safe we can do the driving in a car park, I have been give one of these to try, I am surprised it's quite big: