Friday, February 24, 2012

Cars, not a camera's best friend...


Cars have presented special challenges to cameras ever since cameras were invented. First, the car is darker inside than the light outside. At night its even darker inside.

One fix has been the installation of small battery operated lights in the car down by the actor's feet. These act as the glow of the dash board or in this case a computer/scanner in Jorie's lap. It works well as long as its not near the feet and the actor doesn't try to hit the brakes and instead steps on a lighting unit.




Sometimes you can get away with putting the camera on a tripod and shooting through the window. That works when the car is sitting still, but a moving car... not so much.




Then it starts getting tricky to mount a camera on the car. Movie cameras are heavy. Each bounce and jiggle of car makes the camera seem heavier (momentum and all that.) Even though a camera is mounted its nerve wracking to watch. Imagine $30,000 worth of camera hanging on the car. If there is a big jolt and the camera goes flying the entire production will be shut down for repairs or a replacement. Now watch that and act relaxed. :-)



Running beside the car while carrying the camera is not an option. :-0

Of course the audience doesn't see or know anything about this. They just want to see the people, and they do see them.

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