shooting a car crash

trueindie

trueindie

How to shoot this:
Here's the setting.

The camera is inside Car 1, near the front, aimed at the back. We see Car 2 through the rear window and it crashes into the back of Car 1. The back seat passengers in Car 1 are physically affected by the crash.

Now I was thinking maybe I cut at the moment of the crash to a blackout and audio of the crash, so I won't have to deal with the physical affects of the crash. But in terms of the shoot, what is the best way to plan such a shoot for a crash that never really happens (meaning the cars don't physically collide in real life)?

Should I just green screen the rear window?

How would you guys plan this shot?

Please let me know if you want me to elaborate on the setting. Maybe I wasn't able to explain it properly. I'm just looking for cheap ways of planning such a shoot.
Thanks
aveek
 
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"The back seat passengers in Car 1 are physically affected by the crash."
Like... 10mph impact or 40mph impact "affected"?


Yeah, for a low impact I'd layer a green screen (or just black luma key out) shot from inside the lead car over the hitting vehicle shot separately.

IDK how you'd do a high impact w/o tearing up the car and injuring your cast.
 
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rayw said:
"The back seat passengers in Car 1 are physically affected by the crash."
Like... 10mph impact or 40mph impact "affected"?


Yeah, for a low impact I'd layer a green screen (or just black luma key out) shot from inside the lead car over the hitting vehicle shot separately.

IDK how you'd do a high impact w/o tearing up the car and injuring your cast.
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I'd want it to be high impact. So we have to assume that I can't show the aftermath of the crash. We'll just have to black it out on impact I guess. So I'm thinking green screen. And shoot the oncoming car separately.

Coolio. Just lookin for ideas. thanks ray
 
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Film the two cars separately. Green screen car#1 like you described.

Then, put a long lens on your camera, and put it on a tripod at about the same height as your camera was in car#1. Zoom in to where car #2 is going to be. Have it drive toward the camera and stop when it gets close. Zooming in with a long lense will make the car look a lot closer than it is so it can start slowing down well before it gets close to your equipment.

Then put the footage of car#2 into After Effects or similar compositing software, and speed the footage up so the car looks like it's going as fast as you think it should be. Now you have the footage you need to composite into the footage from green screening car#1.
 
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LasVegasIRA said:
Film the two cars separately. Green screen car#1 like you described.

Then, put a long lens on your camera, and put it on a tripod at about the same height as your camera was in car#1. Zoom in to where car #2 is going to be. Have it drive toward the camera and stop when it gets close. Zooming in with a long lense will make the car look a lot closer than it is so it can start slowing down well before it gets close to your equipment.

Then put the footage of car#2 into After Effects or similar compositing software, and speed the footage up so the car looks like it's going as fast as you think it should be. Now you have the footage you need to composite into the footage from green screening car#1.
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Yeah that sounds pretty good. Thanks vegas :)
 
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I would do the green screen, only leave the same lens on the camera at the same hight, etc. It'll blend a lot easier.

I'd also violently shake the camera or knock it off at impact and have all actors simultaneously jerk forward or jump, and possibly if you can hide someone in the floorboard throw some dust/debris up at moment of impact, yank something off the rear window tray with fishing line, etc. The more movement in the shot, the more violent the impact and the less the eye can see any one detail. Maybe even add a bit of a flare from the car behind or something shiny in the rear window to obscure a bit.

Also, very loud and eerie SFX will help sell a lot.
 
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@Ray. Thanks. I had seen that before. pretty awesome

PaulGriffith said:
I would do the green screen, only leave the same lens on the camera at the same hight, etc. It'll blend a lot easier.
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@Paul. Do I really need the same lens? I was actually liking Vegas' idea of shooting Car#2 with a zoom lens, so that I could shoot it coming towards me while maintaining some distance.

good ideas on the dust and floorboards btw
 
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@trueindie It depends. The same lens will mix every time. I'd rather use the same lens and settings (only adjusting ND filters on the front) to have it blend 100% and speed the footage up if need be.

If it was a project of any kind of budget that you could blow $600ish, I'd run the car full speed into a T2i on a tripod with a cheap lens haha.

Perspectives and what not will throw you off and make the effect not work right. The clip Ray posted is sharp, but the background is obviously shot different and even too in focus for what it would have really looked like, breaking reality for me. With all the same settings on the camera, including height, angle, shutter speed, ISO, Aperture, focus, etc again adding ND for the outside that's probably way brighter than inside the car coming towards you in the plate will be in or out of focus and shot at the right perspective as if the car is really hitting.

If you camera is supposed to be on the hood or dashbaord, the offending car would never hit the camera anyway, rather stopping about 8 ft or so away when it hits the rear of the car the camera is attached to.

This is from experience. The first sequence we did where windows were keyed out and a plate introduced in the background the lenses were different focal lengths (I think around 24mm and 50mm) and the effect wouldn't sell without a lot of massaging in post. Even then, it wasn't perfect.
 
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Paul is right that it will blend better, but you don't need the same lens. Especially if it happens very fast in the scene. The audience won't even notice if you do it right.

In fact, if you don't feel comfortable with shooting car#2 in that fashion, you could always pre-compose a background scene with just a still photo of a car layered on a back drop....

***EDIT*** Of course I'm giving my opinion from a perspective of trying to get the most bang for the buck. A pre-composed plate done with a still photo is simply a workaround if doing it more traditionally isn't an option. It would never look as good as crashing a car into a $600 camera. :huh: But if you edit it right, you can still get the effect across that you're attempting.
 
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Another idea is to start with car#2 right next to the camera and have it back up. Then, you can both reverse the footage and speed it up in post. That way, you can use the same lens and not worry about the car stopping too close...
 
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PaulGriffith said:
@trueindie It depends. The same lens will mix every time. I'd rather use the same lens and settings (only adjusting ND filters on the front) to have it blend 100% and speed the footage up if need be.

If it was a project of any kind of budget that you could blow $600ish, I'd run the car full speed into a T2i on a tripod with a cheap lens haha.
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man that sounds like such a great idea haha.

I hear what you're saying regarding things not being perfect. But I was just rewatching some scenes from Rock n Rolla by Guy Ritchie. There is a car crash scene with the Russians (around 1hr:07min), where I can tell that it's not real. There is another scene at the end, where they just burn up a car by pouring gasoline on it (around 1hr:44min), and by looking at the flames and smoke, I could immediately tell it was cgi smoke and explosion. I mean it didn't even look that good. But they showed it for split seconds.

So I'm curious as to what I can get away with also. But I hear you on the camera settings, height, aperture, etc. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

This was very educational.
 
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thanks for the ideas vegas. I've been looking around on the web and have come across certain ways to film side crashes, but haven't really seen crashes from behind, so I was just asking out loud.

Here's the scene.... these guys are sitting at the back of a car watching a car outside the rear window as they drive down the freeway. then one of them says "now" and their driver hits the breaks and the car in the rear window crashes into them.

So, things to consider
1. both cars are moving before impact
2. at the moment of the impact. car#1 has stopped or almost stopped, so background should stop moving also.
3. car#2 crashes in when everything is stopped or stopping

I think I'll plan it out as I go along. Shoot is not going to be in another couple of months. But just wanted to give you guys the exact scenario. Also, this is for a feature. So I'd want it to be as realistic as possible. Maybe we will break a T2i...[evil smile]
 
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Another option for the rear car is to use a mirror - place it at a 45 degree angle in front of the car, with the camera off to the side pointed at the mirror so that you see the car as if the camera was right in front of it. You can then crash the car into the mirror at speed - much, much cheaper than crashing it into a camera!
 
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ItDonnedOnMe said:
Another option for the rear car is to use a mirror - place it at a 45 degree angle in front of the car, with the camera off to the side pointed at the mirror so that you see the car as if the camera was right in front of it. You can then crash the car into the mirror at speed - much, much cheaper than crashing it into a camera!
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Dude, did anybody ever tell you how f**kin brilliant you are??? pure genius. This is something I definitely have to try at some point :D
 
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