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Questions on Car Mounts and Coverage


Tim Schroeder

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Not entirely sure if this is the correct part of the forums for this question...

Anyway, in watching Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, I couldn't help but notice how the scenes were covered inside the car. While on the surface of it, it seems like it'd be fairly straightforward in how these shots were achieved, but I can't quite seem to figure it out. I'm thinking that a hostess tray rig might have been used but I'm not certain of this. What makes it more puzzling is that in shots where you don't see the driver, the director himself was driving while the camera is facing the opposite direction. To my knowledge, the car was not modified in any way. I can't tell if the camera is inside the car or not.

In short, how might this shot have been achieved in a way that does not obstruct the driver, and not have the potential of the driver obstructing the shot?

Screenshot from 2020-03-29 12-57-08.jpg

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Thank you for the response.

The shot type maintains similar framing throughout the film (I'd say something like 60% - 65% of the film is the same type of frame and the reverse of it, most of it moving) with most of the content within the film being characters conversing while in the car. It is a car where the driver sits on the left.

The shots below take place in a scene where the car is continuously moving. Shot on top is passenger, shot on bottom is the driver. 

The characters are never seen in the same shot at the same time. When the camera is on the passenger, the director is driving and feeding questions to the actor so they have the appropriate response. The way the process was described (to my understanding) they didn't use a trailer that the car would be on; instead the director had the camera affixed to the car in some way while he drove and fed lines / questions.

Then of course this is a film from '97 and the camera most likely used was some variation of the Arriflex 35BL, so it's not exactly a small camera either.

 

Screenshot from 2020-03-29 16-02-48.jpg

Screenshot from 2020-03-29 16-03-17.jpg

Edited by Tim Schroeder
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1 minute ago, JD Hartman said:

Moving shot, process trailer or tow rig?

The way I understand it based on what I read on how this was made, neither. Which is what has me confused. Especially as it seems the focal length and camera placement makes it seem as though the camera is between the two.

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It seems you could get those angles with a hostess tray on the door, when the camera was on the driver's door pointed inward, the driver would have to lean back out of the foreground and hold the wheel from the bottom. Then you could get the single of the passenger with something like a 35mm to 50mm lens. It doesn't look like the camera lens was in the middle of the car with a wide-angle lens.

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