I have a couple of scenes of dialogue in an upcoming feature shoot that take place in moving vehicles. I was considering a Fat Gecko mount since the AF100 with lens should meet the max weight allowance for it. Anyone have any recommendations on this? Is there a better mount that I should consider?
Filming a car scene - mount recommendations
- Thread starter plwells42
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PaPa
Major Contributor
Just took a look at their site, that thing looks like garbage man. I would consider either a stickypod or one of the Matthew's car mounts. They both look solid.
I too am in the same shoes as you, need to shoot car scenes with dialogue soon and am considering how this is possible without towing the car and adding sufficient lighting so that we actually properly see the talent on the inside. What have you come up with in terms of lighting?
I too am in the same shoes as you, need to shoot car scenes with dialogue soon and am considering how this is possible without towing the car and adding sufficient lighting so that we actually properly see the talent on the inside. What have you come up with in terms of lighting?
I gave lighting a lot of thought too. I'm tempted to try the old trick of filming in a garage with a greenscreen and add a background plate. That way I don't have to worry about any car mounts and have total control of the lighting. I may make that my primary method and have a backup method in case it looks too fake. Although you can get away with a lot of obvious fakeness (is that a word?) if the story is good enough because the audience won't pay much attention to small things like that.
However, for the backup method of actually using a mount on a moving car/truck, you probably don't need really bright lights. I'm willing to bet a couple of those battery operated lights positioned slightly below the view of the camera would work well - although if it's too much of a low angle you'll get nasty shadows on the faces. Ooh, perhaps one below and one above. Just a thought.
However, for the backup method of actually using a mount on a moving car/truck, you probably don't need really bright lights. I'm willing to bet a couple of those battery operated lights positioned slightly below the view of the camera would work well - although if it's too much of a low angle you'll get nasty shadows on the faces. Ooh, perhaps one below and one above. Just a thought.
PaPa
Major Contributor
I've tried that trick, but have never been to happy with the look. It always looks slightly too artificial for my liking, so that's why I'm thinking if i shoot a car scene at high noon with the car directly overhead, place bounce boards outside of each window at a 45 degree angle to the window, bouncing direct sun into the car from the sides, i should have enough just to use those small battery operated lights to fill in the inside just enough. Testing to do....
and yeah, if all else fails, then it's going to be a question of how to make the most realistic green screen car shoot possible.
and yeah, if all else fails, then it's going to be a question of how to make the most realistic green screen car shoot possible.
Daytime you should have enough ambient light, or even direct sunlight if you shoot with them driving towards the sun. I can't see how you would secure the bounce boards so they wouldn't fly away, unless there's no wind and you're driving very slow. I've seen a number of car scenes where it didn't appear they were using any extra lighting and it looked fine. I'm more worried about the night driving scene I have in my feature. Yep, definitely see some test scenes in the near future.
PaPa
Major Contributor
I assure you that ambient light is not enough, especially when you are shooting through glass. Whenever you put something that is darker than the surrounding behind glass, you create a mirror. If you want them to be visible, you need to have light on them. I've done much testing on this and I'm afraid this is the case. Shooting into the sun, yeah perhaps. I don't know about you but I would prefer my actors not squinting.
Go and do some tests so you can see what i'm talkinga bout. There is a reason shooting a moving car is difficult, and it's essentially because you need light to hit the actors, ambient is not enough.
PaPa
Major Contributor
Here is what I was able to achieve with two bounce boards and two on camera LED's.
The sun was above but a little to the passenger side so we didn't get the best type of bounce for the passenger side subject as we did for the driver. But regardless, I think this sufficiently shows what is possible shooting mid day sun with bounce going right into the windows. Properly positioned and taped down well, wind didn't effect it in the least.
The sun was above but a little to the passenger side so we didn't get the best type of bounce for the passenger side subject as we did for the driver. But regardless, I think this sufficiently shows what is possible shooting mid day sun with bounce going right into the windows. Properly positioned and taped down well, wind didn't effect it in the least.
John Brawley
Well-known member
Driving cars with actors and cameras is inherently dangerous.
In my part of the world, cameras aren't even allowed by law to be mounted to the exterior of the car unless you have a locked down road (police).
So we have to mount cameras internally. On a show shooting with Alexa or RED, this is almost impossible, so this is why I use the AF 100 to shoot car shots. My grip has a simple rig of three noga arms into a stripped down AF100 and it's rock solid and safe.
Just use your judgement. You're asking a lot of an actor to drive safely and act at the same time. It depends on the scene in terms of what they have to do as well. To be honest, that rig with the boards floating on the outside seems incredibly dangerous. Not only are you extending the width of the car on the road, and reducing drivers vision, they are screaming to be torn off with wind. Then who knows what would happen to a flying board for other road users. I wouldn't be doing something like this unless I had full control of the road (as in road control by police).
As it is, we are required to have a lead car and a follow car as well.
jb
groveChuck
U-matic Member
Interesting lighting!
John Brawley
Well-known member
If you're shooting through the front windshield like that, then I agree you definitely need to bounce light onto the actors. I was thinking more of shooting into the car from the driver and passenger side windows. Thus my belief that the ambient light should be adequate. It seems common to have the passenger in focus when shooting from the driver side window and the driver in focus shooting from the passenger window.
PaPa
Major Contributor
I can if you'd like!
PaPa
Major Contributor
Here are three images. The first is shooting straight into the car. The second is shooting into the car with a polarizing filter, and the third is with bounce boards on both windows as well as a white piece of paper sitting in the CD tray.
The first set are straight from the camera, and the second have gone through a quick correction. All images have received the same treatment:
The first set are straight from the camera, and the second have gone through a quick correction. All images have received the same treatment:
LoganMackay
Well-known member
The bounce and polarizing filter make a big difference for sure. I actually prefer the original as far as color goes though, I like the milky look.
PaPa
Major Contributor
Yeah, milky is the new crushed blacks. But not for me. Shooting a comedy, colors need to be rich.
PaPa
Major Contributor
Yes, I've tried using the little on camera LED's i use for weddings. They are too hard imo, and slightly too green to mix well with the daylight. Bouncing always seemed much more natural. That is, of course, unless you can shoot hmi's from a truck towing the car going through some heavy diffusion.
