So it starts off of me making a short movie. this will involve 3 junkyard cars coaxed back to life, a fireworks display, a swimming pool, a Camaro, 3 hedges, my lawn, a cinder block fire pit, a parking garage, 2 explosions, a fake telephone pole, a sugar glass window, a jump, a pipe ramp, and a vegetable cart. All cars other than the Camaro get destroyed. The good guy in the Camaro gets away. HOW DO I DO THIS?
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June 1, 2010 1:27 p.m. Huh New Reader
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June 1, 2010 1:32 p.m. nutherjrfan Reader
I only said to blow the bloody doors off. gratuitous Italian job quote.
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June 1, 2010 1:41 p.m. EastCoastMojo SuperDork
You are also going to need duct tape, 3 55 gallon barrels, 2 tractor trailers, some pop rocks, San Francisco at rush hour, some C4, a squirrel and a whole lotta cash.
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June 1, 2010 1:43 p.m. Tom Heath Webmaster
Please don't attempt it on public roads.
Otherwise, I'm very interested. Explosions are cool.
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June 1, 2010 1:45 p.m. Woody SuperDork
Please let the fire department know about this ahead of time.
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June 1, 2010 1:46 p.m. 96DXCivic Dork
Don't be cheap with regards to safety because a helmet, roll bar and fire extinguisher are all much cheaper then a trip to the ER.
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June 1, 2010 2:00 p.m. GameboyRMH SuperDork
Mock it up with some toys first?
If I had time I'd mock something up in comic strip form but I'm super-busy this week.
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June 1, 2010 2:28 p.m. Cone_Junky Reader
Where's the link to the "best action scene ever"?
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June 1, 2010 2:51 p.m. JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
Your best bet is to utilize private property in some way. Is it a student film? Independent project? Something for a demo reel? In any case, you'd be best off using some sort of private property and booking it as you would for an autocross. Many facilities that host autocrosses would be an excellent choice, actually. For something like this, you don't need huge expanses of asphalt, but more real looking roads. With the right camera work, a private frontage road that runs adjacent to a busy public road could be made to look great.
If you do want to shoot on public roads, you'll likely start at the local planning office—wherever you'd go to get a building permit. Many larger towns will actually have a specific office for film permits. It's not cheap, and they'll want plenty of safety equipment, insurance and security.
If you live in a small town (or near a small town) it might be considerably easier, especially if you find a sympathetic ear at the planning office and convince them you have all your ducks in a row beforehand.
Then there's always the "guerilla" option. Be prepared to spend the night in jail when exercising this option. "It's okay, officer, I'm shooting a movie" will NOT get you out of much, if any, trouble.
Now, having said all that, if it was me, and I lived in a relatively small town, I might start by asking a single cop. "Hey officer, I'm a student filmmaker, and was wondering how I'd go about shooting some car content without disturbing the public too bad?" He might send you right to the local planning office, or he or she might have some interesting suggestions.
jg
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June 1, 2010 9:13 p.m. ddavidv SuperDork
Huh wrote:
So it starts off of me making a short movie. this will involve 3 junkyard cars coaxed back to life, a fireworks display, a swimming pool, a Camaro, 3 hedges, my lawn, a cinder block fire pit, a parking garage, 2 explosions, a fake telephone pole, a sugar glass window, a jump, a pipe ramp, and a vegetable cart. All cars other than the Camaro get destroyed. The good guy in the Camaro gets away. HOW DO I DO THIS?
That's extremely ambitious. Real film makers/second unit directors will use storyboards (kind of like cartoon book pages) to plan it out. It will take many, many separate scenes sewn together.
A good car chase doesn't need a lot of fluff. Vegetable cart...geez, isn't that like the most overdone gimmick ever? Whatever you choose to do, camera angles make all the difference. Here's an example: Mad Max
Capturing speed (or the illusion of it) and getting the viewer inside the chase (shooting from inside the car) is far more exciting than a stationary camera. I think the jump could potentially be more dangerous than the pipe ramp (provided proper safety cage, etc in the cars). You can't often predict how a car will land with a jump. Despite the fame associated with this one, this is how NOT to do a jump: GISS A compressed vertebrae is what the driver got. If you watch the slo-mo you can see the massive impact pressure on the car body ripple through the roof. A soft landing (off camera if necessary) into graded earth, sawdust, cardboard boxes, etc is much safer.
I'd leave the hard impact stunts to the pros. A couple cars hitting each other and driving through some hedges and so on is a good beginner's foray into car chase stunt work. Don't try to do too much right off.
Yeah, as a matter of fact I've thought about this stuff quite a bit...
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June 1, 2010 9:22 p.m. Appleseed SuperDork
Watch "Gone in sixty seconds." .The original, not the Nick Cage dreck. Then watch it again.
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June 1, 2010 9:41 p.m. novaderrik Reader
Cone_Junky wrote:
Where's the link to the "best action scene ever"?
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June 1, 2010 9:42 p.m. Ian_F Reader
ddavidv wrote: I think the jump could potentially be more dangerous than the pipe ramp (provided proper safety cage, etc in the cars). You can't often predict how a car will land with a jump. Despite the fame associated with this one, this is how NOT to do a jump: GISS A compressed vertebrae is what the driver got. If you watch the slo-mo you can see the massive impact pressure on the car body ripple through the roof. A soft landing (off camera if necessary) into graded earth, sawdust, cardboard boxes, etc is much safer.
I wonder if there was ever a more extensive documentary about the driving stunts of the Dukes of Hazzard. Let's face it, they did some much more lengthy and higher jumps than that jump in '60 Seconds.
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June 2, 2010 9:38 a.m. GameboyRMH SuperDork
Ian_F wrote:
ddavidv wrote: I think the jump could potentially be more dangerous than the pipe ramp (provided proper safety cage, etc in the cars). You can't often predict how a car will land with a jump. Despite the fame associated with this one, this is how NOT to do a jump: GISS A compressed vertebrae is what the driver got. If you watch the slo-mo you can see the massive impact pressure on the car body ripple through the roof. A soft landing (off camera if necessary) into graded earth, sawdust, cardboard boxes, etc is much safer.
I wonder if there was ever a more extensive documentary about the driving stunts of the Dukes of Hazzard. Let's face it, they did some much more lengthy and higher jumps than that jump in '60 Seconds.
I remember that they went through A LOT of General Lees because of the jumping...
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June 2, 2010 9:51 a.m. Type Q HalfDork
GameboyRMH wrote:
Ian_F wrote:
ddavidv wrote: I think the jump could potentially be more dangerous than the pipe ramp (provided proper safety cage, etc in the cars). You can't often predict how a car will land with a jump. Despite the fame associated with this one, this is how NOT to do a jump: GISS A compressed vertebrae is what the driver got. If you watch the slo-mo you can see the massive impact pressure on the car body ripple through the roof. A soft landing (off camera if necessary) into graded earth, sawdust, cardboard boxes, etc is much safer.
I wonder if there was ever a more extensive documentary about the driving stunts of the Dukes of Hazzard. Let's face it, they did some much more lengthy and higher jumps than that jump in '60 Seconds.
I remember that they went through A LOT of General Lees because of the jumping...
IIRC they built something like 200 copies of the General over the life of the show.
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June 2, 2010 10:50 a.m. Huh New Reader
scratch most of it, except the jump, the camaro, and a junker. I'm also going to blow up a turf display...with a flame-thrower, and gasoline...
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June 2, 2010 11:06 a.m. slantvaliant HalfDork
Beer. Lots of beer.
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June 2, 2010 11:06 a.m. Jay Dork
novaderrik wrote:
Cone_Junky wrote:
Where's the link to the "best action scene ever"?
Holy E36 M3, that was awesome! I didn't know those Mahindra Jeeps could leap on-cue like that. Now I want one.
