DEALING WITH CARMOUNTS

buster burdette · December 3, 2008

I have to do 2 camera angles with a carmount that suctioncups to the hood and sidedoor of the car. The hood shot has a very bad reflection off the front windshield. I used a polarizing filter and I'm driving in open road with no trees but i still get a bad relflection of the sky. It's usuable but any other tricks to help it?

MAINLY what I'm trying to figure out is when I have a side shot looking in from the passenger window I'm trying to figure out how to have the window down but not have my actress's hair blowing. Later in my film you see the ext. of the car in an accident and the windows are up. So the windows are supposed to be up. But if they are closed for the shot you'll see the reflection of the camera. Any ideas?

Daniel Carruthers · December 3, 2008

I have to do 2 camera angles with a carmount that suctioncups to the hood and sidedoor of the car. The hood shot has a very bad reflection off the front windshield. I used a polarizing filter and I'm driving in open road with no trees but i still get a bad relflection of the sky. It's usuable but any other tricks to help it?

MAINLY what I'm trying to figure out is when I have a side shot looking in from the passenger window I'm trying to figure out how to have the window down but not have my actress's hair blowing. Later in my film you see the ext. of the car in an accident and the windows are up. So the windows are supposed to be up. But if they are closed for the shot you'll see the reflection of the camera. Any ideas?

Polarizers only work if the light source is 90 degree from the camera.

if the sun is directly behind the camera or in front of the camera it has little or no affect

as for the side car mount shot,I recently did the exact same shot,but at night, I kept the window up.

mainly because of sound reasons.

I didnt see any camera reflections in my shot,but then again I shot at night under city lights?

I didnt use a polorisor either,because I needed as much light as possible from the street lights.

I did light up the interior of the car with a small kino, so maybe that helped cancel out some reflections from the outside??

anyways If you need to keep the window down,I would build some sort of tent around the camera covering the open window.

just make sure its sound freindly,and maybe get a clear material so it dosent cut out the natural light?

that should help with the wind

if that doesnt work,just keep the window up,make sure you shoot the scene when the sun is in the right spot for a polorizor to work.

also try different focal lengths

my side car shot I kept on a long lens,so the passenger was on a side profile CU, eyes to chin. and the driver was more on a mid shot, shoulders to top of head

that might help hide reflections of the camera,because any camera reflections will be blown up and should be more out of focus.

Edited December 3, 2008 by Daniel Carruthers

Michael K Bergstrom · December 3, 2008

Whenever I do a sidemount for a camera (when it's shooting the interior of the car), I usually have the window down. I haven't had an issue with actresses hair blowing in the wind from driving but I think it actually had to do with how they were wearing their hair. You might want to look into building a shield to divert the wind, just secure it to the mount and maybe the car itself. It's more rigging involved so I would only do it if the wind was an issue.

Alex Haspel · December 3, 2008

for the windscreen reflection the common practice is to rig a floppy above it. should kill any reflections from the sky.

and as for the side shot, you might just a tape a piece of cardboard or something to that extend to where the window would be. (with a hole cut in for the lens, to improve image quality)

Darryl Richard Humber · December 4, 2008

Alex is right about flagging the windshield, but usually a 2x6 blade will work better, Treat it as an extension of the roof and angle the leading edge up or down until you find the acceptable angle. I'm assuming since your grip didn't have this answer, that he /she may not know how to properly do this, or you may not have one. Make sure it's done safely. You don't want this thing flying off travelling down the road. Good Luck.

Tyler Hisel · December 15, 2008

Alex is right about flagging the windshield, but usually a 2x6 blade will work better, Treat it as an extension of the roof and angle the leading edge up or down until you find the acceptable angle. I'm assuming since your grip didn't have this answer, that he /she may not know how to properly do this, or you may not have one. Make sure it's done safely. You don't want this thing flying off travelling down the road. Good Luck.

While we're on the topic, as someone in an essentially identical circumstance as above, any advice with regard to rigging this flag would be greatly appreciated.

How would one (without a sage grip, as pointed out earlier) secure a flag off the roof of a vehicle? Of course, we're assuming the vehicle isn't traveling more than 10-15 mph at the most...

Thanks again guys.