Shooting inside a car at night

[Hitch22]

Hi everyone,

I'm a film student, currently working on my bachelor short film about a cab driver.

Does anyone have any experience filming in a car, at night? Would you shoot the interior shots on location or in a studio?

Shooting in a studio has a lot of advantages (you can control the light and sound much better), but I'm afraid that filming in a studio will make the shots look fake. You have to fake the movement of the car, the lights passing by, ect. I'm also afraid that you'll notice the difference between the interior studio shots and the exterior road (on location) shots.

Any tips? Experiences?
Thanks!

 

[moonshieldmedia]

I can pretty much guarantee your studio shots will look fake. There are tons of primetime sitcoms with budgets that do this all the time and it's very obvious.

I shot a very long scene inside a car at night and it's one of the best looking scenes in my film. You really just need to make sure your camera and lens are good in low light situations. We used a blackmagic cinema camera and prime lenses wide open. To maximize light you can have your driver only drive on well-lit streets (downtown areas in big cities).

Other thing to consider is if you're using an older car, the engine noise may be an issue. Do some tests first, or better yet, shoot in a Prius. Most cabs nowadays are Prius' anyway.

Space is also very limited. We had 2 actors up front, me directing/running sound in the back sitting next to my cinematographer operating camera. Absolutely no room for anything else.

 

[harmonica44]

I've done this once so far, and I think it's better to actually do it outside, cause then you have a view of the street through the windows and it can look quite nice, especially with a somewhat shallow DOF, and cars moving by outside.

I lit the car from the inside though, using tungsten lights, but in retrospect, I should have perhaps had lights pointed through the windows, off camera, simulating streetlights. I did that too but it was not bright enough, but perhaps with more creativity. Lighting from the inside is okay, but just so long as it does not look too much like the interior car light is on, unless you want that. If the car is moving though, it's tougher to light from the outside of course. And yes, engine noise sucks.

 

[mad_hatter]

If you can, you should try to avoid having actors act and drive at the same time. Those space restrictions and distractions are a good way to cause an accident.

When shooting with some semblance of a budget, most often the car will be towed, so the actors (particularly the driver) can concentrate on acting. Engine noise isn't an issue then (although road and traffic noise still is). In that situation, a lot of the dialogue is likely to be ADR.

Of course, I assume you have no budget, so perhaps green screen may be the best option for you? There's plenty of great tutorials out there on the subject.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Engine noise isn't an issue then (although road and traffic noise still is). In that situation, a lot of the dialogue is likely to be ADR.

Well placed lavs and plant mics can mitigate the engine and other noises. You have to keep the windows closed to avoid wind problems. Keep the AC or heat off when shooting, and, obviously, no radio. Be sure to capture LOTS and LOST and LOTS of engine sounds - with everyone silent - as "room tone" so you can cut the dialog smoothly. If you can squeeze a person to monitor and record engine speeds so you can match the "room tone" capture it's a huge help. Noise reduction, volume ducking, etc. are also required.

 

[jax_rox]

If you have some idea of what you're doing, you can fake an int car night scene in a studio pretty convincingly, especially if you're also going to use some green screen for outside the windows.

Otherwise, shoot at a decent ISO with a relatively noiseless camera, wide open.

Also, in many places it's illegal to have an actor driving whilst acting (without towing and/or police convoy etc.)

 

[Metrostar]

I've seen it done that the character has Christmas type lights decorating the cab of their truck, and then you can use this to explain lighting actors faces with the extra hidden lighting you will use. I have some LED light panels that don't take up a lot of room and can be hidden fairly well.

 

[gpforet]

We have used the little shoemount battery powered LED cube lights to get fill when shooting car interiors at night. They are dimmable and small enough to get them just out of frame.

I can pretty much guarantee your studio shots will look fake. There are tons of primetime sitcoms with budgets that do this all the time and it's very obvious.

I shot a very long scene inside a car at night and it's one of the best looking scenes in my film. You really just need to make sure your camera and lens are good in low light situations. We used a blackmagic cinema camera and prime lenses wide open. To maximize light you can have your driver only drive on well-lit streets (downtown areas in big cities).

Other thing to consider is if you're using an older car, the engine noise may be an issue. Do some tests first, or better yet, shoot in a Prius. Most cabs nowadays are Prius' anyway.

Space is also very limited. We had 2 actors up front, me directing/running sound in the back sitting next to my cinematographer operating camera. Absolutely no room for anything else.

 

[BloodnGuts]

We shot on location. It was so dark you couldnt tell the car was moving. We kept it still it looked good. Just depends on angles.

 

[baoliun]

Depends what kind of acting do you need happening while driving. Just driving can be shot with no problems, if he needs to speak figure out if you can make him do it when the car is stationary - red lights or parked. Take a look at scenes from "Taxi driver". Faking a moving car in studio is possible, but you need to do a lot of testing in order to figure out if light movement is believable enough. Maybe recording actual driving through night and lights reflection and than projecting with HD projector on the car might work?