Amateur Car Filming

Does anyone here make short films with their cars?

I keep having these thoughts in my head of awesome short films (like youtube videos) from various angles of certain cars thrashing through wooded stretches of road or blasting across the countryside to certain types of music.

I was curious, because I would like to use some sort of a rig that can mount to the outside of a car (kinda like what the big film makers use) that wouldn't require molesting the body to mount it.

Just a thought.......

I have a friend who is a videographer and he had these little suction cup mounts for the side/hood/trunk of vehicles he would routinely hook onto drift cars. If they can handle that I'm sure they can handle being on the side of a car for a little "spirited drive". Good luck explaining that to the cops though lol

I think those GoPro cameras have an optional mount that can be hooked to the body of cars in a similar fashion. I've thought about doing similar things but I dont think anyone wants to watch a crappy little civic driving around the back roads. A Porsche or an old Audi Quattro 5zylinder turbo I wouldnt mind watching... very Group-B.

check out filmtools.com for their camera car mounts. nice stuff. and a U-toob link for said genre of spirited driving (WARNING: High level of MINI content). The fella tapes his autox runs as well.

that said, I'd just get the small cam mount and a GoPro as well. When the racing budget exceeds zero, of course.

Here is some inspiration from previous challenge competitors and guys known to frequent this board.
http://wagonattack.com/making-wagon-attack-2/

Sure. Most of mine is done with a cheap (under $100) Flip camera and the free MS Moveimaker editing software:

Here's one (below) that I made using two different cameras (one mount very low) and editing clips together:

Link 1

Here's another with just front/back cameras :

Link 2

Here's kind of a goofy street video that I shot from a right-hand drive Nissan in Antigua.

Link 3

I have about 100 various car films posted. Search for "aeronca65t" on Youtube.

Yeah, for in-car work look for something with a wide angle lens and 1/4" threaded hole for easier mounting.

If you're going to film outside of the car, the camera obviously needs to be able to handle the abuse and be solidly mounted.

There are cheap wide angle lenses available from Amazon that are easily adapted to different cameras and they help quite a bit.

Aiptek and other companies make cheap, lightweight HD digital camcorders that work well and record to memory cards.

To record HD content you need a fast memory card with a lot of storage space.

To edit the HD content you need a decent machine and a video editor that can handle HD video. Microsoft's latest Editor is free to users of Vista and 7, but you need to have 2gb of RAM and a 2.4ghz processor with a decent video card to even run the program.

If you have vehicle or timing data that you're capturing, then you can use RaceRender, which is a relatively cheap program to combine them along with multiple camera angles, etc. http://www.racerender.com

Finally, it really is all in the editing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be22PMX74lA

I wish I even half as good (although the music is annoying when watching the cars, make note: Racing videos should always strive to use the ambient sounds of the cars, not music.) BTW, I drove for car #87 in this race and the Corollas were our teammates.

Wow, thanks guys for the links, it was more than I expected.

Oh and I should add that most external rigs use heavy duty suction cups with adjustable mounting arms (at least three per rig for stability) plus a tether to hold on to the camera in case it comes loose.

Granted, the pros use much larger cameras with very nice lenses, so they need the mounts to be sturdy and capable of holding a $$$$ camera in place while someone applies 1+G of force is several directions.

With a lightweight cheapy camcorder, the mount doesn't need to be quite so serious, but it should still provide stability in several directions.

Something like this: http://www.filmtools.com/succupmoun.html

You could also look at zipline camera rigs or rigs that mount the camera on a crane or on one of the crew members to get some different action shots.

http://www.diycamera.com/index.html

The mount for my camera was decidedly grassroots.

Camera Mount

+1 on the www.filmtools. Also look at Mathews Grips. Both are a little pricey but some of my cameras are rather expensive so I want the best I can get.

A sample of the type of mount I can assemble from the parts I have.

jrw1621 wrote: Here is some inspiration from previous challenge competitors and guys known to frequent this board. http://wagonattack.com/making-wagon-attack-2/

What a great video, exactly what I had in mind.

Check out this as well for more behind the scenes.
The Cameras of Wagon Attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGmUsrejB0A

I saw these little 480p key fob cameras on Jalopnik.
http://jalopnik.com/5645032/20-key-fob-camera-could-make-online-videos-crazier

I would not use them to replace a normal camera, but I've been thinking that they might be a good addition that could be used to capture other angles/shots.

Hmm, that could be a lot of fun. Put some under hood, in the fender wells, under the car, etc....

Here's a timely link from the folks at Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/5690775/guaranteed-awesome-gifts-for-the-home-movie-maverick