Vehicles in filming

[Lee]

This thread is going to be about vehicles used by Hollywood to get the shots that you see in movies or on TV.

This is the shooting of a Chrysler commercial done in the middle of the night. It was shot on Brand Blvd, a main street in Glendale, Ca. First a water truck wet the street down then two street sweepers swept up any trash. There were about eight police cars blocking the street off for the shooting. My poor little camera had a hard time shooting black moving vehicles at night, but it tried.

Three vehicles are involved here. The first is the "camera car", a truck with a boom camera facing the rear. Over the cab riding back-wards is the director and his crew. Then in the middle of the truck is the camera operators. The second vehicle is the star. The last vehicle is the light truck. A rig of fluorescent tubes hung vertically around the bed. Hard to get a picture of because of all the light. At the end of each filiming run, two guys would jump out and wipe the car down.








Again, this all took place two blocks from where I live.

[austinvfd]

That camera truck would make quite a project. Incredible what lengths they go to to make the cars look just right.

I saw/read somewhere that when McDonalds takes video or stills of a big mac for an advertisement, they have a person dress up the Burger, literaly placing each strand of lettuce and tomato just right. Then they have about 10 seconds to film/shoot before the cheeze starts to melt and the grease begins seeping into the bun

Off on a tangent there but that it the firts thing that came to my mind when I saw the pick-up with the lights mounted on the side

[Lee]

I remember a couple of months ago they were shooting some Mc Donald's commercials here. As I walked by the film catering grill, I saw the perfect package of Mc Donald's french fries. Not a broken or short fry in the bunch. I almost picked it up, it look so good. ;D

There's the grill, but no picture of the fries. They were on a table to the right, out of the picture.

[cfesmire]

I'm actually a bit surprised that McD's uses real food for filming a commercial. A customer of mine was a director of TV ads (he was responsible for the guy and donkey in the coffee ads) and told me much of what we see in commercials is not real food but resin copies that have been expertly recreated. (picture making those masters) One interesting thing he told me was that in breakfast cereal commercials, wh. wood glue is used for the milk in close-ups of a bowl of cereal.
That camera truck looks like a styrene rod nightmare.

[Lee]

You very well may be right about the fries being resin. I didn't pick them up, just glanced at them, and they look as fresh as fresh can be.


Here is another filming of a vehicle done in a different way. This camera car didn't have a boom, but the cameras were mounted on the back with the car on a wide trailer. This was a commercial for auto insurance. Sure which they would do this during the day so I would have some light to shot with.

[Lee]

Here are some shots of studio trucks parked at the curb. They are shooting a Circuit City commercial inside the church.

This is the production company truck with the offices in the truck, makeup in the trailer and restrooms at the rear. Note the slide out portions on the right side of the truck




A seperate dressing room trailer, again the restrooms at the rear.




The lighting truck with a generator behind the cab





And the canteen. Interesting how they rigged the trailer.

[Lee]

When Jerry and I went to one of our favorite hamburger places we spotted this old arc light trailer that was used for film openings many years ago:





Here is a vacant lot in the middle of town that Jerry always asks me about when we drive by it. Today it is a parking lot for the cars of the cast and crew doing a commercial:



Here is a modern day arc light trailer:


This is a theater built in the 20's that has been restored and used for special events, etc. It is where the commercial was being shot.







It started to rain so I went home. Here is a shot from home:

[Sylvain]

lee said:

When Jerry and I went to one of our favorite hamburger places we spotted this old arc light trailer that was used for film openings many years ago…

So it looks like this? I've seen so many in movies, but never in day light. Thanks for showing it!

[Lee]

They were using the parking lot across the street this week for more filming. Here are two different trucks serving the same purpose:



The other side of the second truck:


And a fancy fuel truck to keep the police cars being used gassed up: