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Shooting Automobiles
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Hey Todd,
I’ve got either 2 or maybe 3 10′ pure white round classic parachutes in stuff bags somewhere on my storage shelves.
Since you aren’t fighting wind, if you think they’d do you any good and you just want some additional translucent white material (with the shroud lines still in place for rigging) on set “just in case” I’d be happy to send them out to you 2nd day.
Just let me know.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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Thank you Bill…. that’s a super generous offer!
I’ll contact you off forum…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I used to work at a place that had a studio you could drive a car in. We mostly used a surplus round white parachute hung from the grid for a butterfly and top lit only, with an occasional small light on a stand if we needed a specular highlight in a specific spot.
We rented the studio out to a DP from a big ad agency and he brought in a commercially made butterfly set-up and it looked the same as what we did.
I think the only place the butterfly has the advantage is outdoors, or if you’re in the biz of selling, or renting them.
As others have said, the secret is to have it be bigger than the object your shooting, like a giant light tent.Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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Well the shoot actually wrapped on late Thursday, I guess it went pretty well although yup it sure turned out to be a challenging environment.
We flew a 12×12 over the vechicles, had it on pulleys so we could adjust it as needed. It was going to be tough (and potentially neck-breaking) to put a silk in the frame and light it from above… so we put a white 12x solid in it and hit it up from ground level with two 1200w HMIs. 4×8 bounces were down on the deck level, lit by Kinos. One Kino IN the car. Couple of 575w HMIs high and rear to backlight the scene. Actor was lit very simply since there was a lot of ambient light. He got one Diva as a side/key, and a Switronix Torch LED on a long strut (just a 10′ piece of conduit) as a back/hair light. Worked decent enough.
We shot eight commercials in two and a half days. I’d much rather shoot one commercial in about three days, but that’s what we had to do. Even one more day would have made things a lot more comfortable, but the principal actor we had brought in had to fly back out in order to make the start of another feature film he’s in that began the next day.
I’ll try to post some shots before long.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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This is what I would do… forget about trying to wrap light and reflectors around the cars, but instead go with images that reflect and highlight the setting itself… this old train engine workshop (photos that you have provided look tremendous as a setting) and any car that would be sitting there would look tremendous to me… kind of like a total contrast of 21st century and 19th century! So what I would do is take all the hmi’s that you have and put them outside and blow the artificial daylight through the existing windows (assuming that this is on the ground floor), then I would use as much fog as you could generate making sure that the fog is fairly well diffused in the space where the cars are sitting. Put the camera on a jib or dolly and create some nice moves so that the space is as much a part of the image as the cars…wide angle lenses, seeing the reflections of the camera moves on the car surfaces, crew in silhouette, etc. I think that you will have some really interesting and unexpected looking imagery. Maybe this is what they mean when they say… thinking outside of the box! I would love to do a shoot like this!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Thanks to everyone who gave great advice.
What we ended up doing was pretty conventional, since we had very little time to set up, and we shot eight different commercials (with eight different automobiles) over the course of two and a half days. We had to keep it simple.
12×12 with a white solid overhead, lit by 1200w HMIs, more HMIs as side and back lighting (all of them are out of frame in the pics below), a few Kinos here and there (and usually one in the car), a Diva as key light on the talent, and a Switronix Torch LED as the backlight. We just got the Torch… it arrived the morning of the shoot. I needed something daylight, battery powered, and lightweight enough to put on a 10′ strut. It’s a GREAT little instrument, highly recommended…
The end result was far from beautiful, and far from perfect… but got us by in this shoot which should have been a couple of weeks’ worth of work, but was crammed into half a week…
Again, thanks to all for your invaluable advice. Maybe next time we’ll have the time (and budget) to really do it right.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Maybe next time we’ll have the time (and budget) to really do it right.
Ah, you are ever the dreamer, Todd… and I so understand and share those desires. But it looks like you made pretty good lemonade out of assorted lemons. And next time, even if the budget’s not there, you will be even better equipped to handle the gig. Hat’s off to you.
Rick
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Great art is never finished, just abandoned at some point.
For what you had to work with, It really pops. The spokesmodel is so sharp he could almost have been a chromakey.
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Thanks guys, and as I said, appreciate the wisdom of all you guys so much more learned than me.
And I can’t wait to tell our talent Tim Ross (who considers himself quite the serious ACT-tor Man… which, actually, he is) that Mark called him our “spokesmodel.” Priceless… that will make me smile for quite a while.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The pictures look great! Would like to see the windows a little more in focus and possibly see that the back wall is made of red bricks!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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