Shooting exteriors while driving

lxjordanxl

lxjordanxl

Active member
Hey guys,
I want to shoot some buildings and landmarks in Miami. My friend will do the driving and I would do the filming with my Canon 7D. Any suggestion on how I can achieve a smooth overall look without too much shake? I have a tight budget and I can't afford a rig to hang out of the car like the Movi or anything gyro stablized so if you guys have any tips it would go a long way!! Thanks in advance!
 
Make yourself as stable as possible with seatbelts etc so you're not wobbling around on your seat, and pick nice straight smooth roads.
 
Standard stuff... go with the widest focal length lens you have, add some weight to the camera to help eliminate the micro-jitter camera shake. I have shot stuff like that with a T2i and the way I set that camera up is to use a base plate from an old Bogen 3066 head I have. That secures a Hoodman loupe and adds weight. Without that and on the cheap, a thick block of wood with a 3/4" bolt through the middle would work as a base plate to add some weight in a pinch. You do want to hand hold, so practice. I bring my arms in tight across my chest and make my upper body rigid. When doing the car shots you want the deal with the car shake and bumps at the waist, keeping your upper body and arms/camera as smooth as possible. Drive slow and avoid bumps as much as possible. Shooting slo-mo helps, but I think that 60P is only available on the 7D at 720 so that may not be an option. I don't use OIS lenses, but If you have some that might help also.
 
lxjordanxl said:
Hey guys,
I want to shoot some buildings and landmarks in Miami. My friend will do the driving and I would do the filming with my Canon 7D. Any suggestion on how I can achieve a smooth overall look without too much shake?
Click to expand...

Uh, maybe get out of the car for the shot?
 
beanbag, beanbag, beanbag, I use a steadybag all the time on my dashboard, and it really surprised me how much it eliminated vibration, also as stated above go wide.
 
Try a little bung cord rig if you have somewhere to suspend from. eg top of the door frame with an open car window.
You need to develop a little "firm but soft" way of holding the camera when using a free rig like this.

eg. you try and let the camera float/hang from the bungy support while isolating it from your body movement.

Soft arms.

extra weight under the camera will help as a balance.
 
I agree with Shooter. Go grab yourself some bungee cords and a few bongo ties never go astray, mount them to some points in the car, attach the camera and you should get some nice stable footage. (See picture example)

941545_4744129931229_895185061_n.jpg
 
Awesome bungy rig there, Awesome :) - shows what can be done with some imagination and very little money. The only downside is finding enough hook mounting points on the vehicle, which will obviously vary wildly depending on the vehicle and the mount location.

Crazy thought - if one was going to do a lot of this style of shooting from the same vehicle, it wouldn't be too hard to build a lightweight metal/wood frame with lots of hook mounting points, designed to fit a car seat and for the operator to sit on (to provide stability)?
 
clang said:
The only downside is finding enough hook mounting points on the vehicle, which will obviously vary wildly depending on the vehicle and the mount location.

Crazy thought - if one was going to do a lot of this style of shooting from the same vehicle, it wouldn't be too hard to build a lightweight metal/wood frame with lots of hook mounting points, designed to fit a car seat and for the operator to sit on (to provide stability)?
Click to expand...

1) You can always open the windows a bit and loop the cords over the top from the exterior.
2) What would make it even more stable would be some sort of "Cube" rig, similar to that:
Front angle.jpg
That way, you would maximize the stability and attachment for the cords on the "rig". The bigger the rig is, the more stable it will result.My 0.02¢.
 
maranfilms said:
Apparently you didn't read the thread, he specifically stated that his friend would be driving, and he asked what the best way to get smooth footage from the car. He never mentioned getting out.
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Yeah, I know...I was half joking. Only half, because he didn't really say that he needed the shots to be moving drive by shots, just that they were going to drive around to get shots of landmarks and exteriors. When I used to work for a show, we had a couple slightly lazy crews that would just roll tape on the "Welcome to ___" sign as they drove into town instead of stopping for all of two minutes to get a good useable static shot. We couldn't use their shot, but they considered the job done and crossed it off the shot list.
 
really depends on the car you are driving with, but you could use a tripod, fix it in the car firmly and snap on the camera - works pretty nice, even with non IS lenses...
 
Some pretty cool suggestions in this thread. I'd never thought of the bungee cord trick. I'm going to have to try combining that with my shoulder mount rig while filming from a vehicle.

-EMB
 
Bungiiiiiieeeeeee +1 - Nice rig awesome!

Or when you go to roll pretend your taking a poop and it makes the top of your body rigid and locks off alot of key points. :) ( Don't push too hard :/ )
 
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