Incinerator
Here is what I would do, for $20 you could get some wood (MDF) and make a fake front to the incinerator. If you want to get really crazy you could even include a window and "smoke it up" by putting it over a candle so that the soot covers it (be careful not to break the glass). Then when it comes time to film you could shoot from the side so that you can't see into the "incinerator" and have say 2 people use cans of WD40 and a match to shoot flames out as the actor folds open the door from off to the side. After that you just need yellow/orange light coming from the opening. If you've seen the movie Hostel use the incinerator from that as a guide just shoot it from the side so you don't have to worry about the inside.

Police Car
I'm not sure where you are from but where I live we have a surplus store called Princess Auto (wierd name I know) and they carry those orange lights that are in a dome and rotate around for cheap.(like the oldschool dragnet shows where the cops put the single flashing light on the roof). The movie I'm going to be shooting is black and white so I was thinking of using them for cop cars. You don't need to show the cop car at all, you can have the car stationary with a tight shot of the driver and have the flashing light(s) shining in from behind. Since it is night you don't even need to have the car moving to shoot this just have the actor pretend to steer to the shoulder of the road as he notices the lights. To pull it off I'd suggest recording the sound of a car pulling over and coming to a stop on some gravel.

If you have no budget at all you could even use two flashlights each with a coloured "gel" over the lens and have someone alternate between turning the blue and red lights on and off.

Hope my suggestion is useful, let me know what you think.

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Check out my photography site at
www.jphphotography.ca

quote:

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You don't need to show the cop car at all, you can have the car stationary with a tight shot of the driver and have the flashing light(s) shining in from behind.

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That was my first thought too: since it's night you could probably even shoot it in a garage with a couple of people rocking the car.

If you aren't going to see the car you could use red and blue LCD lights. They work great as cop lights, I know because a couple buddies and I got bored one night so we went and pulled people over with them.

--QD Jones

Regarding shooting this in your garage or something, remember that the lights may light up the walls of the garage if not carefully shuttered. Wouldn't want to get everything ready and then have the trashcans or hanging bike visible.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Do the cops have to be uniformed? Renting a Grand Marquis or equivalent model to the type of car in the area you are shooting. I'm from America, I've noticed a lot of UK posts on this board, and American cops use Ford Grand Marquis. Easily rented from Hertz. With an addition of the flashing lights discussed previously. You cops in jeans and maybe flannel shirts, with a make shift bullet proof vest.

www.upressplay.com

Yeah, but I don't have the money to rent a car from Hertz; I'm on a shoestring budget as it.

---However I do know of a very empty road that is virtually 100% empty in the wee hours of the morning (around 3:00 or 4:00 am). Maybe I could just drive down that road and use two cars, and put the police light in one of them?

---As for the incinerator: Joe-Mama I like your Idea, but I was thinking of something along the lines of a real steel incinerator. I want a shot from the front of the guys throwing stuff into the incinerator, and I would Like real fire behind the little vent.

You have a point. Keep the "cop" lights and headlights on back lighting your police officers. You will never see nor need to see the actual car. Hide it with camera composition and lighting.

www.upressplay.com
Online Entertainment Network

Just some advice (From someone who learnt the hard way), if your going to pretend to be a policeman, or if you actually have flashing lights pulling a car over - its always worth making a 2 second phone call to the local police station, advise the duty officer of the car registrations (Licence Plates) and tell them what your doing, where your doing it and what time your likely to be doing it. The chances are that they will just make a note and do nothing, but it does cover yourself if a copper believes your impersonating a policeofficer illegally. It does carry a reasonably big fine.......

Renting a uniform would probably be cheaper than renting the car. Since the car can be faked with lights (bright headlights and flashing LEDs as described) and the uniform has to be seen near to the action it would seem a better use of funds.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

What about actually filming in the car. I have to problems here:

1. I will be filming at night, so it will be dark. How do I provide lighting to insure that you can see the actors, and make sure the picture isn't terrible quality?

2. How do I actually film inside of a car? I've seen on behind the scenes of movies there is some sort of rig attached to the window of the car. How can this be cheaply, and practically made?

It is common to light from beneath the dash. Often using a greenish or bluish light. As if the dashboard has really bright lights. Another way to do it is use the headlights on the police vehicle to blind any view of the police car as well as light the interior of the main car. You might need reflectors to ensure the fill-light gets on the main characters face (and the cop at the window) but you can get some interesting, natural appearing lighting this way. The combination of the two is probably the best. You could also have the car pull over near a street light, but unless you have a sunroof or convertable that may not help much.

Shoot from the passengers seat. That way you can have the car move and stop, while showing the driver. You also get the cop at the drivers window. You can also get the drivers POV shot as the driver (or passenger) looks out the back at the blinding headlights and flashing light. If there is a passenger you should do reverse shots from outside the drivers window, a Cop POV shot.

If you are really good you can try shooting through the front window but glare is usually a problem and you won't be able to use the police vehicle headlights to light your scene without serious problems.

If your vehicle has a sunroof you might try shooting from the roof down into the car. Could be intersting, I've never seen that angle. This would work best either (a) as a cop POV looking in or (b) if you disgused the fact that the car had a sunroof entirely so people wonder.

I'd avoid the cameraman in the back seat if possible. The backs of peoples heads just isn't that intersting and you'll be putting your shadow onto the action if you use the headlights as your lighting source. Kevin Smith did the backseat camera in Clerks and Chasing Amy and it didn't work well either time.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Thanks for all your help.

However I still wanted to know more about the incinerator. I was hoping for it to be steel, or have the appearance of a steel incinerator. I was to shot the guys from the front throwing stuff in and I want there to be fire inside.

Any ideas?

Find an incinerator and fake the fire. Go to a junkyard and see if there is anything around that might be useful as an incinerator.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA