Best Way to Shoot a Driving Scene

lhmaloney

lhmaloney

Well-known member
I am in development (almost pre pro) for this short film, prob 25 - 30% takes place with the friends driving down a road. This budget is so shoe string, so I know I am not going to be able to get a car mount (baring I come up with a nice sum of money to rent it, like today) and I know I could still shoot it fairly decently, but I'd dont think I'd have enough control with the car being in full motion (I've shot like this before without a car mount, hard to light it and the audio, sometimes picks up to much of the road, actors cant concentrate as much) So I guess my question would be, who has shot a driving scene in front of the green screen, how effective does it work, I know alot of movies (even big budget features) shot driving scenes in front of the green screen. How effective is it really, and what would you do, go for the natural look and grind it out, or just roll with the green screen driving scene thanks guys:dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2:
 
I would say that this technique can work decently if you execute it well.

If using a green screen you must

1) Be able to light it realisticly to match "outside" footage. High contrast on the actors and the B footage on a cloudy day wouldn't work . etc...

2) Match the angles. You will want to decide which direction and angles you are pointing the camera, so when you get the B "outside" footage the angles match the shot.

3) Steadiness of both A and B footage. Make sure you match the camera movement for each inside car and outside car footage. No need to have lock down camera for people in car and then have crazy bouncing outside of the car.
Although having some bounce is ok because roads have small hiccups here and there.

4) Having inserts or shots from the outside showing the car drive by is a great way to help cover up bad continuity or flaws. It's always great to have something to cut to, just in case.
 
How about shooting from the back seats?

Advantages:
1) It's a natural POV that your viewers will have experienced in real life.
2) No car mount required; your camcorder is less likely to be damaged.

You may need a wide angle adaptor for the best footage from that angle.
 
seunosewa said:
How about shooting from the back seats?

Advantages:
1) It's a natural POV that your viewers will have experienced in real life.
2) No car mount required; your camcorder is less likely to be damaged.

You may need a wide angle adaptor for the best footage from that angle.
Click to expand...

That could work, if it works for the story.

If so, then experiment with removing the back head rests. You would be surprised how often this happens and nobody notices. I would also get a good audio person and lav them. Real road driving can be loud. Remember smooth roads and no AC.
 
lhmaloney said:
I am in development (almost pre pro) for this short film, prob 25 - 30% takes place with the friends driving down a road. This budget is so shoe string, so I know I am not going to be able to get a car mount (baring I come up with a nice sum of money to rent it, like today) and I know I could still shoot it fairly decently, but I'd dont think I'd have enough control with the car being in full motion (I've shot like this before without a car mount, hard to light it and the audio, sometimes picks up to much of the road, actors cant concentrate as much) So I guess my question would be, who has shot a driving scene in front of the green screen, how effective does it work, I know alot of movies (even big budget features) shot driving scenes in front of the green screen. How effective is it really, and what would you do, go for the natural look and grind it out, or just roll with the green screen driving scene thanks guys:dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2:
Click to expand...


If you have access to a green screen and after effects go check out www.videocopilot.net Andrew Kramer has a DVD called Serious FX and Compositing that shows you how to do exactly what you need.


Here is a link to the DVD. http://www.videocopilot.net/seriousfx.html
 
Tricky to hold shots like this, but I've seen people drive an SUV in front of the actor's car with a camera on tripod pointed out the back window of the SUV. Naturally you would need a sound recorder for this though and trying to somehow slate it important.
 
have you looked at putting the car on a trailer or on the back of a small car-transporting truck? That way your actor driver can pretend to drive without having to worry about real traffic.

For sound and control reasons, the greenscreen option is very attractive, you can shoot the whole thing in a garage - but does of course introduce all greenscreen's usual lighting and matching problems
 
lhmaloney said:
seen this, I really suck at building things.
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Filmtools has a great carmount >100. Save you hours. Also, don't shoot audio in the car, ever. Have the actors run the lines somewhere you can boom them, then shoot in the car. I don't know if anyone's pointed this out, but don't drive faster than 20mph.

I've shot in moving cars for Docs, and the effect is great, but 5/10 times the sound is barely useable. Whatever you do, don't lav the actors - it will sound crap.
 
Capture bad sound and then replace the dialog in post using the bad sound as a guide. If your actors are up to it, its a a good way to do it. So basically ADR.
 
Oh. So the problem is engine noise, which affects any type of microphone. Noted. You could try positioning your shotgun microphone such that the engine is off-axis.
 
If the car has an opening between the front seats or it can fold down, then you can put a boom through there. That's what I did with a short that was in a car a lot. Was using an ME66 on a boom, retracted all the way. I sat (or hid, depending if the shot was from in front of them) in the back seat with the mic pointed back towards them and me, so it was about at the level of the seats pointing up. I just rotated the pole to aim the mic at whoever was talking. It worked well even when driving with one window open cause we had the camera mounted out the window but wanted the inside look, not the look of looking through the glass.
 
We just filmed our first film with a car. Now in editing nightmare.
I already knew that I wasn't going to be able to film the car in movement, at least not with the people really acting.

I filmed a very short movie in a car with some takes from the back. The problem was lighting. Outside it was bright, so the inside car is in high contrast with the outside. Everything was quite dark. Adjusting the camera settings made everything outside white. Sure a better camera might allow a better setting to make it work a bit better.
For that scene I didn't really have to act much, so it was ok to drive and act, but with text and emotions is really hard.

As we learnt the lesson from the short film, the last one we did was going to be film without moving and with green screen when driving with some exteriors.
Most of the action is located on a parked car, so it was meant to be easier.

First we didn't count on the windscreen tint, it was so powerful that the inside was black and the camera was looking into a mirror. This meant that we couldn't shoot anything from the outside, the car could well have been empty. So we filmed with a wide angle lense from the dashboard and also the camera set just outside the window on each side.

The second problem we had was the Sun. It was a cloudy day, but not enough. When the sun came in the green screen became white because it shined all over, the car became too dark... when we got the cloudy moments (with the risk of rain) we got much better lighting inside the car.
We setup two lamps (what we had available), one of them inside in the back sit as a backlight, one on the side of the camera, and used a reflector as a fill light.

The outcome I think it's acceptable. Also the acting is easier if you don't need to really concentrate on the driving. Check many movies and see how they drive, sometimes they move the wheel far too much!

Ah, and the green screen, I'm still working on that. Due to the dark inside and the shiny outside we got a lot of green bleeding over the characters that I had to work with after effects... a nightmare.

I hope it helps.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
I would say that this technique can work decently if you execute it well.

If using a green screen you must

1) Be able to light it realisticly to match "outside" footage. High contrast on the actors and the B footage on a cloudy day wouldn't work . etc...

2) Match the angles. You will want to decide which direction and angles you are pointing the camera, so when you get the B "outside" footage the angles match the shot.

3) Steadiness of both A and B footage. Make sure you match the camera movement for each inside car and outside car footage. No need to have lock down camera for people in car and then have crazy bouncing outside of the car.
Although having some bounce is ok because roads have small hiccups here and there.

4) Having inserts or shots from the outside showing the car drive by is a great way to help cover up bad continuity or flaws. It's always great to have something to cut to, just in case.
Click to expand...

thanks
 
Shooting in the car is always pain in the ass so it works best if you creatively find way how not to do it. Have your characters pull over to the side road as one of the has to take a piss and the scene plays out there, or something of this kind, inter cut a bunch of shots of them just drawing (maybe even from the outside of the car) and you have your problem solved.
 
emretufekci said:
Here is the best exmples in the business for FX work on moving car shots:

http://vimeo.com/9556117

Stargate digital leads the way for virtual set work.
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Liked that demo reel... but I really wish they had done more of the dropping back and forth between the greenscreen shots, and the composites...

But in some what this is like porn... those porn guys just seem to be bigger, able to last longer, do more, and is somewhat intimidating for us lowly mortals...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
But in some what this is like porn... those porn guys just seem to be bigger, able to last longer, do more, and is somewhat intimidating for us lowly mortals...
Click to expand...

I dont think you are giving yourself enough credit. Before I started my company I used to do a lot of work for the Studios as well as the biggest post/FX houses in LA.

Generally we were using After Effects (with a bunch of 20 year old's) and able to achieve a lot, very quickly. The only advantage was, I had 20 guys working for me to meet the deadlines.

Yes, a flame suite would make things easier. Yes, render farms are faster. Yes, working with 4:4:4 from a F35 is going to be less problematic ...etc but looking at what I can afford now is incredible!!!

Everyday I see a 20 year old that has access to things I couldnt have even dreamed of when I was their age. AND I AM NOT THAT OLD!!!! :smile:

Back to the topic:

Filming a car scene is easy if you have the post experience to pull it off (I am not being sarcastic). We do a lot of these type of scenes and 95% of the time opt out for GC and FX work.

For indie filmmakers as suggested before, I highly reccomend the videocopilot training video that will allow you to do this, fast, cheap and believable.

Good luck with the shoot.
 
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