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Camera car shots


Guest Mick

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I used to dread camera car shots, either the free run/hostess tray type or the towing/wire the car up versions. Granted in cold weather we get to sit up the front with the heater on and chat with the driver while the others have to brave the wind and rain etc etc., but iInever liked the hassle of the nagra/SQN/shoeps active cables rig that I used to great effect for years. It was always fraught with a myriad of difficulties which varied from job to job. Now I just load a battery into the Deva V, and voila, I have a four channel mixer/recorder/slate mic in one. I then place an antenna tree on a grip arm behind the window of the cab, wire the actors or plant the car depending on movement/wardrobe/seatbelts and Bob's your uncle.

I'm hoping that with all this lauding of Zaxcom gear that I'm doing, maybe Glen will cop me a freebie....naahh.

Kudos to Steve Morrow on all the car rig shots he did for "Little Miss Sunshine" Pages of dialogue in a Volkswagon van. Couldn't have been easy but it sounded great. Good movie too.

It's late and I'm rambling.

Regards,

Mick

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Yea boy, camera car shots can be a mofo or a piece of cake. windows up, new car or truck, pretty simple. Convertable, bad rig and gels flapping, one long drop into hell for the sound crew. I too use just the deva 4 most of the time and if luck is with me all is well. I also give a big shout out to Steve Morrow and the great job he and his crew did on "Little Miss Sunshine" GREAT FILM WITH A SOUND TRACK TO MATCH. Steve is a good director as well and if you ever get to see "Livin with Lou" you'll get my POV. The man has more going than most and is a gentelman as well. Good luck with whatever your doing Steve, big fan.

CrewC

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Kudos to Steve Morrow on all the car rig shots he did for "Little Miss Sunshine" Pages of dialogue in a Volkswagon van. Couldn't have been easy but it sounded great. Good movie too.

Mick

I loved the movie and I was very impressed with Steve's work, particularly the car stuff, so many characters in the VW bus...  I kept trying to figure out how he did it and made it sound so good.

-  Jeff Wexler

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I had the pleasure to mix all three of Steve's short films. He is as graceful in the directors chair as he is behind the console. I love working with people who not only know what they want, but know how to get it, and Steve is definitely that guy. I have to say, we both had a cruel joy about us as the sound crew ran the set for all three of these shoots. We didn't let it get to our heads, but there was no arguing about the placement of the genny, or whether we needed another take because of a jet, and no wide and tights! I hope Steve gets to direct one of the features he's been working on. He seems to enjoy it, and that transcends to the rest of the set. There should be more like him.

-Tom Curley

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Hey T.C. I didn't know you were the mixer on Steve's films, guess I didn't read the credits, or if I did I forgot them. You and all the crew members did top notch work. Nothing about all 3 of the films seemed amatureish at all, which with these type projects is often the case. It sounds like your 1st in line to do his films when he hits the big time and rightfully so, but I would be happy to get in line after you if your busy. Next time you speak with Steve, tell him to drop by Jeffs site and post some stuff, or check it out.

CrewC

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        Okay, sorry it's taken me this long to pay attantion.  So "little Miss Sunshine"  it's true, I too hate doing insert car work.  On this film they (DP) would always use two camera's.  One from the front and one from the side.  The one on the side meant that the side door had to be removed.  This was painful.  So I did what you do, radio mic all the actor.  Then I multi-tracked, and prefaded them all, and of course gave them a mix.  Most of the car rig was on the I-5 from the 14 to Valencia, which meant that semi trucks were passing or 40mph circus at high speed.  What else can I say, oh yeah, the grip department did build a shield from the wind in the front of the bus, which helped with any wind in the car.

Steve Morrow

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Welcome, Steve, and thanks for checking in here --- we were all curious (and I think we all really appreciated your outstanding work on the movie). When I said "I wonder how he did it" I knew there were only a certain number of ways you could approach that sort of work, so I guess what I really was saying is that you made the right choices and the difficult but so important scenes in the VW played very well.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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I just did my 2nd car shot on Tuesday. Luckily it was Seinfeld'ish(only throught the windshield). I was able to practice "zone" mic'ing. I really wanted to have the Cub-1, but I spent my quota in gear for the year:( Come January hopefully I'll have one or two or three, but will probably not see another car rig until next December:( The shot was in a NY Taxi cab, where the passenger was mostly leaning into the front seat. Not knowing what was going to "really" happen, I planted 4 cos-11's. One on the roof in the middle of the back seat, and one on the back of the front seat, one on the front of the back seat(to cover the taxi driver's head turns), and one on the stearing wheel. Worked perfectly! Very happy with the results, and can't wait to try these with the Cub-1!! Post will probably use the mic on the front of the front seat to cover the paasenger leaning most of the time through the front seat. Thinking of the headturns saved me for the passenger! Coverage, Coverage, Coverage! Not comletely related to this post, but since the job was very recent, I thought I would share my experience with you guys!

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