Multiple Angles on car chase scenes and general scenes

[MiyaDV]

I'm wondering how they go about planning them and filming, here's an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONChzy1Aiw8&feature=related

It's not that good of an example, but I'm generally talking about all the different angles they get in movies and everything.

Like they have to have a camera showing the front of the car driving, then it switches to a scene of the back of the car showing a view of the front, so they would of had to stop filming infront and move the camera behind the car and start filming again I guess. Then after that it shows a scene inside the car on side window, then from the other side, then shows a long range side view and their all generally at the same scenery they were at as the camera switched.

Seems like it'd be complicated to do, like they'd have to stop the car from driving, move it back to the right scenery it was at then start filming again

do they storyboard the hole thing first so they know what kind of scenes they want at which time? Or do they like film multiply full length sequences of the same thing at different angles and select the parts they want in post?

I'm guessing there'd be many ways to go by this, but what's the most common way directors/filmers do these things when filming

Also there's the matter of chroma-keying/composting, I remember reading an article on how they make driving cars in movies and that most of the scenes you see are filmed inside a studio, with the car in front of a green screen, that would certainly make things a lot easier for the angles I think but then you would have to get footage of a road/highway and composite it, and also if you want a scene with the full car showing you're going to want to make it's wheels spin somehow.

Maybe I should go find a book on this stuff and read up, I haven't been filming too long so I'm pretty knew to the stuff

 

[neener]

i think its pretty much how you put it. at the same time getting whatever scenes they could out of the way at the same time, say behind the car and the inside shot at the same time since the rigging might not be seen.

large scale productions like those have immense planning and preproduction.

 

[Gohanto]

Well, couple things...

First is that (for any scene) they'll usually shoot the entire scene from certain angle(s) from start to finish, then move the cameras and run the scene start to finish again. Then they edit between those takes later on. The camera isn't physically stopped and moved every time you see a picture cut. (Sorry if you already knew that, wasn't 100% certain)

But yes, they do stop the car, back up, and then start shooting again so the scenery matches. that's one of the reasons some scenes are shot in a studio with a projected screen behind the actors (usually 20-40' away from the car to add some depth). Easy to backup, but even in Hollywood films I rarely think this looks good. Filming on a real street is almost always the better option. In TV it's very common simply because they don't have time and/or the budget to stage real driving scenes. Larger budget films, they tend to do real driving.

And many directors do storyboard extensively, but not all. For beginners it's highly recommended as it forces you to think and plan, which is sorely lacking in many low budget films and it kills the film.

Spielberg's strategy for Duel (first TV movie way back when) was storyboarding the entire movie, and he used multiple cameras sometimes doing 3-4 cameras at onces in a way that they didn't see each other. For drive bye's, he'd setup multiple cameras on one side of the road each with different lenses, shoot the car driving past, then move the cameras to the other side of the road and repeat to fake a new location.

Then in War of the Worlds where he had $xxx million for top end VFX, he created one camera swinging 360 degrees around the car in a continuous shot. The van and actors shot on greenscreen, background plates shot on location, and then combined and tweaked in post.

And greatest of all, directors do a lot of planning and explaining to crew members with toy cars. There's an amusing video of Michael Bay using Matchbox cars running through a scene in Tranformers right before they shoot it.