vehicle for start and stop filming along a road.

[sadude]

What is a good vehicle for filming out of, whilst en route and also for stopping and filming on the side of the road.

I'm looking at doing a shoot where i follow a truck on its journey and i need lots of exterior shots of the truck.

I don't necessarily want to have to stop the car and get out with tripod and camera and then rush to the next shot ahead of the truck

I was thinking a 4X4 with a sunroof, but i don't know how i will set the tripod up on the back seat, it seems too loose and unstable?

Has anyone used any vehicles with success in this type of thing? I'm guessing a wildlife filmmaker will be able to give me a good vehicle option.

[swopiv]

For this type of shot, and for wildlife filming also, one of the best vehicles is a short wheelbase Land Rover, with the canvas rear roof taken down. You can sit in the back with the tripod on the floor and get a good 360 degree view. The floor in the rear is flat and metal, and you can get the suspension softened at a garage to help with moving shots. Just make sure your fuel budget is sufficient ;)

[nothing]

Any pickup truck ("bakkie" in SA) will work great for this.

[Egg Born Son]

I've BTS on a bunch of wildlife type shows in south africa. It is almost always the afore-mentioned short wheel base landrover. Often with a door removed, sometimes with a cage welded in its place allowing the cameraman to be outside the vehicle (without harnesses!, south african videographers in the 80s/90s are crazy!). You could probably DIY a harness for the camera or a base you can lock it down to quite easily. My other thought was a ute/pickup truck or whatever you call them there. Again you could bolt the camera down in the back there and harness yourself (check with police for safety compliance I guess) but you'd want some kind of sunshade arrangement with summer looming. If you aren't going offroad, a van with big sliding windows, lift back and sliding side door would give you a lot of options too. Hope that helps.

[paulears]

Shooting from the sun roof can be really painful - every turn pushes your ribcage, or stomach into the hard edge and the bruises are amazing. You can get a pro tripod stable in these cases, by removing the spreader and bracing the legs into the front and rear footwells - so stability is great, BUT the field of view is bad - sometimes as much as a 90 degree arc, because with the camera, head and you in the 'hole' it's very tricky. A land rover with coil suspension is a possibility as is every vehicle with a flat surface. Landrover discovery's are a very stable platform and you can open the rear glass and shoot from the rear section - but open sides and rear is the most useful.

[sadude]

Thank you all for your invaluable feedback. The land rover seems like the most practical choice, although it will be heavy of fuel.

I was also interested in what Egg Born Son said:

If you aren't going offroad, a van with big sliding windows, lift back and sliding side door would give you a lot of options too. Hope that helps.

I am not going off road and i will be travelling long distance, so maybe something a little more comfortable? What van has sliding windows and you can lift the back?

[sadude]

I cant seem to find any landrover defenders for hire, it seems that model is too old a car for the market. Is there anything else?

[David W. Jones]

Hopefully a dedicated shooter while someone else drives. .... A van that has sliding doors on both sides. That gives you 3 complete open access shooting areas.

[sadude]

what about a jeep wrangler? Has anyone filmed out of one of those?

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

For this type of shot, and for wildlife filming also, one of the best vehicles is a short wheelbase Land Rover, with the canvas rear roof taken down. You can sit in the back with the tripod on the floor and get a good 360 degree view. The floor in the rear is flat and metal, and you can get the suspension softened at a garage to help with moving shots. Just make sure your fuel budget is sufficient ;)

Yes. The OP has "South Africa" listed as their place... so Land Rovers outside the US would be a recommend choice... Land Rovers in the US are a 'luxury" item and often don't have the 'simplicities' found elsewhere... like the "Defender" model...

In the US a pickup truck with 'stake' sides or perhaps a Jeep with a rollbar would be usable for a stable platform and mounting frame.

In any use of vehicles safety is paramount, so any thing that may 'rattle off'... should be well secured, and if some shooting is done while the vehicle is in motion, some form of method to prevent the operator from falling out of the vehicle is needed. (Don't know the 'legal' status of such... )