Filming in a car

M

Maxpower76

Active member
Hey guys,

I shooting with the HVX in a couple of weeks and one of my scenes are in a car. Two people in the back seat and two in the front. Everyone has dialog. Now, the car needs to be moving and I need to get all of them at once in the car. I don't have or can't afford a rig. If I went the greenscreen route, could I just wrap the outside of the car with greenscreen and shoot stationary through the windshield. Then add the driving footage in after? I don't mind if it looks a little cheesy, it is comedy. But I'd rather it looked good then bad.

Anyway, anyone have any tips, suggestions, things that have worked for them??

Thanks
 
for greenscreen, reflections off the glass will be a potential problem - you'll probably be better off shooting through open windows. (Or removing the windscreen, if that's an option.) I wouldn't ''wrap the outside of the car with greenscreen", I'd put a flat greenscreen behind the car, at a sufficient distance that it's not bouncing green onto the car or interior.
 
Why can't you afford a rig? I think stickypods are about $100, which is probably similar in cost to a decent green screen solution.
 
If it is a scene where you are driving at night this can be easily done. Just have your car parked in your garage with all the lights off and have multiple lights fly by the windows and point them inside. This can be done with just some flashlights. Its just a cheap way to reproduce a night ride without burning fuel.
 
I've never used the stocky pods. Can you mount them on the front of the car? Clarkage, great idea but it's daytime unfortunately.
 
I shot a short film last year and we blue screened the in car bits (we shot on 16mm film so we used a blue screen instead of a greenscreen.. apparently blue is just better for film). You can see the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36k5GDUQCE

I composited it together... not the best job in the world.. but most of the shots looked alright.. the very first shot was the worst! We have some production shots here as well so you can see what we did: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8556313@N05/sets/72157601913667731/

Hope that helps!
 
Hire a car suction cam mount and shoot from 1 angle at a time until you have shot all the angles you want, it will take some time but at least your footage will look the best and it will probably end up being easier than trying the greenscreen chroma/key method...
I have shoot moving car footage with a suction rig that I hired for a day using arri 35mm cameras and it worked perfectly with great results... Use a polaizing filter to reduce any glass reflections
 
zeakio, very nice, that is an option for sure. Those of you who have used suctions or the stickypod just a quick question. Expensive? which one on the stickypod website would you use? Do you trust them?? Just a little worried putting my HVX on suction cups outside my car, am I being paranoid? Probably, but I just want to here that it's been successful from some of you seasoned filmmakers. I would like to go that route.
 
Maxpower76: I understand your concern about using a suction mount holding your camera to the car and there are obviously different units on the market with better reliability than others but I can say I have successfully used a suction mount holding an Arriflex 35III 35mm film camera with Angenieux 25-250mm T3.7 zoom lens with no problems. I'm sure your HVX rig is considerably lighter than the Arri I used so you should be right... I did however strap the mount to the car door frame or bonnet (where ever I was shoot from) with a ratchet strap just in case the suction gave way.. I suggest you always use a safety strap to add security...
 
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