Police Lights

capitalP

capitalP

Veteran
Just curious if anyone ever had to do a scene with an unmark police vehicle. How did you pull it off?

I have a detective in my next film and he drives an unmarked car, I want a dashboard light that flashes when he pulls someone over, any idea?

I checked ebay, but all they had was white flashing lights, I want the real effect, blue/red that can be connected to the cigarette lighter.
 
Last edited:
you could try 2-strobes in the grill of the car or the window... gel one red and the other blue. they sell mini strobes for 12-volt systems (cars) that would work.
 
Be aware though, that in most states it is illegal to have red, blue, or flashing lights. That is for emergency folk only. So, you would want to contact your local police and find out how not to get hassled about it.
 
Try contacting your local police dept and see if they can help you. If you're friendly, and if they're nice, maybe they could bring one of those dashboard lights and let you use it -- under their supervision, of course. Stranger things have happened.

Where I live we actually have a company that sells those lights to police, fire and medic depts. They were willing to loan me one for a shot I needed for a feature project, though I never wound up needing their light. Check around. Maybe there's someone like that in your neck of the woods.
 
Oh, and if the police dept in your town won't help, try surrounding towns. Sometimes the smaller the town, the more friendly and helpful they are. Can't hurt.
 
Thanks for all the great ideas guys... one dvx member gave me an idea, I found some flashing dashboard lights on Ebay, but their clear, so I'm going to use blue and red Gels, I'll just make sure I don't do any close-ups in the car.

And as for the police department, I got in touch with them and they said it's cool, as long as I let them know what I'm doing.
 
They also sell those red and blue flashing beacons and strobe lights at DJ stores online too. We will be getting a red and blue beacon and use a white strobe outside of a window to simulate the police.
 
Rent Terminator 2: Judgement Day and watch the behind-the-scenes docs. You'll see the rig they use to create flashing police lights. It appears to be a standard hollywood light with an acrylic cube mounted on top. Some of the sides are mirrored and some have gels taped to them. The "cube" can be spun by hand. A motor would give you a precise timing, but if a PA practices for 5-10 minutes you'll get a good result as well.

A small strobe may not cover your entire set. Realism isn't the only concideration here...lumen output is critical. You need BRIGHT lights if you want to get that T2/Lethal Weapon/Die Hard style of bright police lights.
 
So I'm sitting here watching The Insider (great movie! Michael Mann rocks) and the neighbors are out having fun on the 4th, and through my blinds I see this very measured strobing. I thought they brought out a strobe light for some reason, peaked outside and saw that it was actually a firework that simply strobed, no projectile, no explosion, just a very bright (they are across the street, probably 50 feet, and it went through my blinds and on the wall) light. I remembered this thread and thought I'd throw that out there. I think it'd be pretty easy to rig a box with a divider for two of these things with a red gel over one and blue on the other. Those things can't cost more than a couple bucks, and it'd be another excuse to play with fire.

-DES
 
youngfilmmaker906 said:
Capital-- how did you approach the police department? What did you ask them? I
Click to expand...


Basically, I had to go through several people, not the police department directly. In our City, we have a Public Relations person, I spoke to him, in turn he spoke to a formal police spokesperson, who then talked to the police director.

It also helped, I had a couple of articles written about me in the local paper.


And can you guys believe after all this stuff, I got the lights and everything ready to shoot, next thing you know the cigaret lighter in the car didn't work! I was so :angry:, so after all that I never got my police lights shot! oh well, luckily the performance of the actors were great and that should bring a more realness to the scene better then those lights could have.
 
Masta T said:
or you could have just bought these. and order them colored.
http://www.whackerusa.com/lights.html

dont use ebay, because you can only buy amber colored.
these guys sell there amber colored lights on ebay, but if u buy direct, u can get red, blue and white lights.
Click to expand...

These lights simply aren't bright enough for most motion picture work. Study the flickering police lights in Die Hard and Terminator 2. If that's the look you're going for, real police lights aren't adequate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top