How do I shoot an interior car scene?

A

aglara

New member
Hi everybody!

I'm working on a short film at the moment and there is one two minute scene inside a moving cab at night.

How do I shoot this?

As far as my knowledge extends, these are my options:

1. Put the cab in a studio and fake it.
2. Put the car on a trailer and have it towed
3. Have the actor really driving the cab during the scene

Option number 3 is sort of my last preference because I would rather not have my actor have to drive and act at the same time.

Option number 1... is this easy to pull off? Note that it's a night scene. Also, this way, I can have more flexibility with selecting shots as the camera man doesn't actually have to be sitting inside the car.

Option 2. I really doubt I can afford to do this.

Are there any other options I'm missing? How would you guys pull this off?
 
We did a similar shot recently with option #1 and did okay, except for the part where the big Mathews stand fell and creased the hood of a beautiful little Mercedes Benz. We hit it so perfectly dead-center that we actually split the emblem right down the middle. Also - our sequence was only about 10 seconds long, so it was not utterly lethal for us to go in and clean up the stray edges on the key frame-by-frame.
If you go option 1, test your setup first. Two minutes is a long time, you don't need any grief in post. Oh, and check your insurance, too -- if you are in any way controlling a vehicle that isn't yours, you may have issues.
 
At the moment, I'm leaning towards option 1. However, I just don't know how to pull it off and I can't seem to find any info on net about simulating travel inside a studio. Do you have any suggestions regarding lighting, car movement etc? I want it to look convincing..
 
If you can get a low loader, you should. Nothing can substitute the real thing.

I've seen some nice work done from the back of a truck with the picture car being towed behind it....but be warned..find a smooth stretch of road.
 
how intensive you need to do it depends on how much realism you need. You can greenscreen the background, which shouldn't be hard because the camera won't see that much background (and you can minimize it by choosing the angle and using a telephoto). If you light carefully you can just let the background be pitched black, which will also work, but will be less realistic.

Then, you can simulate motion by shooting your lights into reflectors on grip arms that are being slowly turned on their axis, (like a chicken on a grill) use two main lights that turn regularly to simulate street lighting. And you can add one or two smaller lights that would work irregularly, with some color red, green, etc. to add to the motion. Add a turning backlight if you want to be perfect. Obviously, you need a lighting assistant per lamp and a conductor to keep the beat.
 
aglara said:
Hi everybody!

I'm working on a short film at the moment and there is one two minute scene inside a moving cab at night.

How do I shoot this?

As far as my knowledge extends, these are my options:

1. Put the cab in a studio and fake it.
2. Put the car on a trailer and have it towed
3. Have the actor really driving the cab during the scene

Option number 3 is sort of my last preference because I would rather not have my actor have to drive and act at the same time.

Option number 1... is this easy to pull off? Note that it's a night scene. Also, this way, I can have more flexibility with selecting shots as the camera man doesn't actually have to be sitting inside the car.

Option 2. I really doubt I can afford to do this.

Are there any other options I'm missing? How would you guys pull this off?
Click to expand...


I'd choose 1. While there may be some benefit of doing it in the 'real world'... the two real world options, have significant danger potential. In the case of a towed vehicle, depending on the state, that may or may not be illegal. In California it may be up to the officer if you are stopped (do you have a film permit???), as to whether passengers in the towed vehicle represent a safety violation.

"Process Trailers" are specially made so that the vehicle is secure, and the film equipment surrounding the car on the trailer is secure, etc... and may even require 'wide load' cars fore and aft of the movie car.

Oh, yeah... do you have insurance???

So, to me doing something in a studio, or static location with greenscreen if available is preferred for the 'nobudget/nopermit/noinsurance' filmmaker...

I would look at the "Sin City"(2005) special features on how to get 'car scenes' on greenscreens... As recall a lot of the 'car action' was done via camera moves around a static car.
 
FilmRiot on Youtube has a decent tutorial on greenscreen car rides, and their webvideos are funny nonetheless. Honestly, with doing an outdoor car scene, you usually have to go by the book to some extent - for lighting, you either have to find an obsolutely perfect angle, or overexpose like crazy, or put the right lights on the hood to expose the faces well (much more emphasis on lighting if it's at night). Personally, I'd slap some lights on that hood, find a deserted night street, and drive slow - but that's just me. Green screen would be one heck of a process, especially if you have street lights to recreate..
 
One other thing -- and you probably already know this....don't try to get 'the look' in-camera, especially if you will be compositing later. If you shoot dark, even on a higher-end camera, you'll end up with all kinds of noisy things in your picture that will be tough to key out and will drive your motion tracker crazy. As for permits and such, that can be a real problem in some cities, and union issues can factor in as well. We're in a small town, and we do a fair amount of work for law enforcement, they know us and are a great group of folks. If you search 'The "Dreamer" Group' on FB, you can search thru pix and find some of us doing a car shoot behind our studio one evening. The PD is in the background, watching.
 
You could try do it like they did it on "24". Use back projection with a video projector for the surroundings. Or rather have two screens - one for what is seen behind the actors and one for window reflections.
 
Option #3 could ultimately save you a lot of work in post. Depending on the amount of acting the driver has would lead me to an answer for that option.

I wouldn't choose option #1 unless you are rather good at green screen work. Which if you are, then it would probably be the best choice, otherwise, I've seen some pretty poor green screening, and it is very unappealing.

Option #2 would probably be a decent idea depending on the setting. If it's in an isolated area, it'd be a great idea, but if it's an area with a lot of lit surroundings, the vehicle pulling the trailer would probably be noticeable.
 
'inside a moving cab', as in mostly backseat. why do people jump on green screen so much.

you can afford to shoot in a cab, you can afford to setup the cab inside a studio, you have to get footage outside the cab for the composite-ed image, you may need to smooth things with cg. even if it doesn't scream fake, it will never be as good as the real deal, it will eventually cost more time and money, and present you with less camera options and coverage and overall quality. you 'don't want the actor to drive and act at the same time', you need to be reasonable and take precautions to ensure the safety of your crew and cast, and any legal precautions are understandable. but the actor is supposed to be doing something while acting (be it walking, seating, breathing, eating, in the bathroom, running maybe not all at once)

you want to ensure the safety of the cast, do that. but it's reasonable and safe for people to drive, a lot of idiots do it. you want to choose a lower speed limit (but not crawling speed ), more isolated, maybe have a crew car in front of the cab, that's reasonable.

you want to discuss something with a lawyer and make him arrange some kind of contract to have all crew members sign ( or have some insurance ), that's not unheard of.
 
If there is dialog..... Option #1 for sure.

If you do #2 or #3 you are going to have all kinds of problems with lighting, traffic, noise, camera mounting, etc.

Keep in mind almost all car interiors now done for film and TV are done with greenscreens. Check out this reel, it gives dozens of examples of what you are trying to do. At the site, click "compilations" then "driving reel 2010"

http://www.stargatestudios.net/index.html

Night car interiors are easier because you can get away with just lights in the background.

Shooting car interiors I find are the hardest thing to do on a low budget. If it makes sense for your story for the cab to be driving down a country road that would be easiest, you just need a quiet area where you have access to electricity. Have another car (or 2 lights a few feet apart that simulate headlights) a hundred yards behind the car your actors are in and have it just sit there. If you were really filming at night, that is all you would see anyway.

If you are shooting on a city street at night. Then it gets complicated. But I'd still do more or less the same thing as the country road, but with more cars behind you (and shoot with a long lens, from the front, for each actor).

As far as car movement goes. You have to experiment. When I did it, 1 guy bouncing on a bumper was enough. But just a little. If you do it too much it looks fake. It you don't do it at all it looks fake (although I've seen some stuff in TV/Film where they seem unbounced)

There are a couple articles in American Cinematographer on doing it. One for for the movie "The Game" and one for "In the Bedroom", if I remember right in The Game he used a rig with spinning lights to simulate streetlights passing. He talks also about shooting real car interiors in Se7en and how much a pain it was and how he never wanted to do it again.

I feel for you.... My first film I had the entire first act in a drive down the Big Sur coast, and half the last act driving out to the desert. Then some scenes driving around in L.A. in the second act. Because I was also shooting on film which made it more problematic. I shot everything real. I will never do that again.
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One more comment. I'm assuming you are making a film. But if you are not and going for something more like reality TV or a documentary or something like that. Just shoot it for real, the bad sound, bad lighting, etc. are all a part of that.
 
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