Help creating a moving background for a car scene.

Loganm187

Loganm187

Well-known member
I am shooting a music video and for a few scenes of the band driving a 37 Chevy we want to do it black and white with the moving background behind the car either projected onto a wall or green screen... Really old and cheesy on purpose. I just can't find a single how to video or a video of great examples of this from past movies(Really don't wanna dig through all the dvd's I think have these kinds of car scenes) Any help would be greatly appreciated on how i should pull this off and if anyone knows of any way to get archive B and W footage to place in the background would help to. Thanks!
 
Assuming a 37 Chevy is a hard top (excuse my ignorance), I don't think you need to use archive footage as the back window view will be relatively small. Just get some maybe slightly out of focus footage out the back window of a moving car and use that with a green screen shot of the band in the car. The best (worst) example I've seen of a back projection scene was Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly in a converable in High Society. But for B&W there are loads of film noirs to choose from, like To Have And To Have Not for example.
 
I remember awhile ago Archive.org set up a collection that was basically B-roll and crap from old negatives at a high resolution. I haven't looked at the collection since they sent out the email, but you might be able to find some plates for a car.
 
We are going for the "obvious projection style of Natural Born Killers all the way. I think I'm just going to set up a projector and shoot as it seems like i would get a way better result doing that than doing any kind of green screen. Yes, It's a hard top and I'm going go check out archive.org for some of those files. If you guys come up with any links, Let me know! Thanks!
 
Also it looks I will be rear projecting the footage which will cause for the projector to be behind the screen and the image will be reversed as wikipedia states. Would any old pull down projector display work? The actors stand in front of a screen while a projector positioned behind the screen casts a reversed image of the background. This required a large space to film, as the projector had to be placed some distance from the back of the screen. Frequently the background image would appear faint and washed out compared to the foreground.

 
Most modern digital projectors have a choice of refresh rates - a high rate should help reduce any flicker or interference. But yes you definitely need to test. You also need to test the screen - a bedsheet would give different results to a 'proper' rear projection screen :) Luckily a cheesy unnatural look won't really hurt what you're trying to achieve.

I too would like to find some public domain 'driving along a road' footage suitable for this type of thing. Or even commercially if it's not too expensive - anyone know of any?
 
If you want to go pure comedy with it, you could just have the car obviously stationary and have people run by the window holding things like house plants or street signs. I did it for a silly fake trailer I made back in college (you can skip to 0:40):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VaNIYq8JQ

and while the "terrible on purpose" vibe probably isn't what you're going for, the gag always got a lot of laughs.
 
If this were me- I would most definitely key it. then you can make it as silly/crappy as you need it to be; if it's too crappy doing it with a projector, or you get on set and frame rates, brightness, etc are an issue - you won't be screwed.

It would be easy to put some "jumps", sprocket hole jitter, and bad splices in the plate. But with a smaller rear window, you may really need to control exposure and effects to make it noticeable. I'd would REALLY consider keying this for complete control.

Also, consider a polarizer if window reflections are a problem.
 
That's a point - fake rear projection is a lot more controllable than real rear projection, as you can fiddle the whole background in post, especially brightness and contrast which is what usually wrecks attempts at realistic rear projection. But given what a can of worms greenscreen can be, I'd only recommend it if the OP has greenscreen experience.
 
I did a small test today and it is totally kill bill-ish I am going for that obviously fake look so the projector it is!
 
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