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How do I shoot an interior car scene?

L

liezl

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?
 
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1 - Is going to be a giant hassle and hardly worth the effort for a two minute bit.
2 - Is how it's most often done professionally but also not worth the hassle for a two minute bit.
Keep in mind that two minutes on screen will take about two hours of shooting to get what you're looking for. Even with that in mind, two hours of car towing will hardly be worth the effort and cost of rig and tow.
3 - Is the DIY/on the cheap way to do it with car mounted camera rigs (Search youtube for DIY car mount camera)

4 - Rewrite the scene if at all possible.

Cabbie driving around a bit suggests COLLATERAL for reference.
Otherwise, something a little more current would be the camera work in THE MESSENGER.
Lotsa good two shots and split conversations in that one.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Is it absolutely necessary that the cab be in motion? If not it can be parked in front of __________, near, ?????
Click to expand...

If possible, I'd try to rewrite it to do this... I had a scene in a short film I'm doing now, and eventually I just had it so the car was parked during the dialogue, then they drove off.
Also a way I've experimented with is hanging green screens around the windows and chroma keying the outside. If lit well, this is actually a pretty good way to do this, you just have to find the correct backdrops so it actually looks like it's out the window of a car. My suggestion? Actually go for a ride where the scene takes place, and take videos out each window. Just an idea.
 
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Do some experimenting. I you try some stuff before the shoot day oh might learn that ____ works great.

If it's nighttime, it's actually easier to shoot inside a sound stage. A car with tinted windows won't show much of the outside environment, then move some lights past the car like headlights and streetlights moving past. The pro set up is a set of mirrors that can spin vertically, then oh shine a light on it, spin the mirrors and it looks like streetlights at constant variables.

If you need to light the interior if you're really driving around, try some Christmas lights (a lot of them) than can be powered off a cigarette lighter in their laps, it'll look like gauges. Flashlights can work too, but you'll want to use a DSLR or something with good low light capabilities.
 
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For super-low-budget stuff, I've always shot in a real moving car. This is problematic in more ways than you'd probably imagine.

The obvious problem, which you would probably guess already, is that it's incredibly difficult to get good sound. Yeah, there are audio guys who can do it, but I'm pretty sure each one of them would prefer not to have to.

The other major problem is being able to shoot and edit for simple continuity. Unless you've got a bunch of city blocks shut down, and you've got extras, both in cars and on foot, you're at the mercy of traffic. Traffic doesn't do what you want it to; it starts, stops, slows down. Well, that obviously effects your ability to cut one shot with another. Because of this, the last time we shot in a car, I made the rule that you can only be delivering a line if the car is moving at full speed. This made shooting rather difficult, as we'd be right in the middle of a line, and something would force us to slow or stop the car, so that shot is ruined.

For mainly these reasons (in addition to a few others), I've decided that the next time I shoot a car scene (unless it's for the run-and-gun 48HFP), I'll be green-screening it.

Take a look at some test-footage from the master (I used to be against the idea of green-screening for a car, until I saw this footage):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmz18wmZ7c8&NR

And, some test-footage from some less-experienced filmmakers. Take note of things they're doing wrong -- the biggest mistake I can see is that the subject is way too close to the green-screen, so they're getting a lot of spilled light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdIuvC0dCXw&NR
 
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