Vultures Episode 5: Shooting the Car Scene (Photos)

Following on from the lane-way chase sequence in Vultures episode 5; we moved location to the Hebron Industrial estate to shoot the end of the scene; where Noah Hennessy shows up to save the V.P.I Detectives and fugitive Quint Quigley.

We had scouted the location a few days before and found a nice wide road with a dead end, meaning not much traffic and plenty of room for us to shoot what we needed. We were planning on using car mounts for the scene but the process of actually renting them had been too much of a nightmare so we scrapped the idea a few days before the shoot, opting to shoot everything from inside the car.

We were still very much against the clock, we hadn’t shot anything like this before so this shoot was going to be very tricky and the weather was due to turn against us, but for the moment we had strong sunshine so we moved quickly. I had been watching a constant flow of films like Hot Fuzz and knew we needed a lot of coverage to keep the cuts quick and keep the pace in the scene, even if we were driving very slowly. We shot in sequence, finishing the chase as the detectives run into a dead end and the Pinkerton goons close in on them. Then Noah comes to the rescue in his little taxi, but because Gus couldn’t actually drive; Sla would set up the shot then drive the car wearing Noah’s jacket.

Then we shot all of Noah’s dialogue in various set-ups inside the car; with Sla sitting back to front in the passenger seat using the bright sunshine to burn out the background for a side-angle on Noah as we pushed the car along, shots from the back seat when Noah looks around or uses the mirror and some quick whips from outside as he pulls up. Then came the tricky parts, the reverse coverage of the detectives and Quigley in the back seat.

Our main shoot tripod was too big to set up inside the car so instead we put the Canon XA-H1 on my Slik Pro 4000x photography tripod and framed the shot on V.P.I & Quigley in the backseat. Sla once again became the driver (wearing Noah’s jacket) and I sat in the passenger seat between the legs of the tripod, with the boom resting between the two front seats. We drove laps around a stretch of quiet roads in the industrial estate, with me shouting Noah’s dialogue and the lads giving their lines.

We had borrowed a field monitor for the shoot but 10 minutes into shooting it had died. As we drove in circles, we had problems with the bright sunshine moving across faces in the car, burning them out, and the tripod would lean on the turns. In the end, we shot one continous take of this scene, driving in circles for about half an hour, holding lines on corners we knew were too sunny and only stopping to reframe for close-ups and then repeat the process until there was no way we couldn’t possibly have enough coverage.

It was one of the most intense days of shooting; a morning of running mayhem followed by a cramped car shoot but it was so much fun. We shot until the schedule would allow and then took a quick lunch break before moving location to Jenkinstown woods to shoot Noah’s montage sequence from episode 6.

I’ve just uploaded some behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot; it was a hectic day so I didn’t have much time for photos but there’s some shots of our guerrilla style car-shoot set-ups and a glimpse at how much abuse actors can take in one day.

You can check out my behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot here on my Flickr. More photos on the way soon.