Picture Car Confidential #7: What Makes a Car Fit For the Screen?
As the proprietor of a picture car company, Octane Film Cars, I am often asked, “Could my car star in a movie or TV show?” To which my answer is, always, a definite “maybe.” An important and related question is, should your car work in the movies or TV? We’ll get to that and a lot more questions in this and future columns. But first, let’s step back and start by taking a gander at show business, at least the part that pertains to sourcing cars.
Who Decides What Cars Get Chosen?
It could be any one of the following: writer, director, producer, actor, art director, prop master, picture car coordinator, or, the picture car supplier (i.e., us). Someone is asked what vehicle(s) might suit the movie. The scripted car might be generic; say, it calls for an early-’90s minivan in near-new condition). Or it might be highly specific, for instance, the specific car named in the book upon which the cinematic project is based.
Conveniently for Aston Martin, which has dined out on its association with James Bond for more than half a century, the producers of the films that launched 007’s cinema career in the 1960s ignored author Ian Fleming’s choice. Instead of the Bond books’ 1930s Blower Bentley for James, viewers got Aston’s new DB5. Legend has it that the glamorous E-Type was considered for the hero car role, but whereas Jaguar proposed to sell the production the several cars needed for filming at a mild discount, the DB5’s maker agreed to serve them up for free. Whatever it cost, we can agree the product placement was probably worth it for Aston Martin, which against all odds is still here.
What Are They Looking For?
As with all things creative, it depends. Make, model, color, trim, date of manufacture, condition, present value, original price, rental price, usability, location, interior dimensions, and glass area all may be factors, whether obvious or opaque, in a final selection. Whatever is decided, it’s for us to find and deliver the car, whether we’ve contributed to the selection or not. The order is not always easy to satisfy, and very little is predictable, so a defensive crouch is recommended for those seeking this type of employment, along with a deep online Rolodex, hunger, and aggressive car-hunting acumen. Oh, also bring your easy-going nature and a thick skin. Don’t have these? Better get them fast. (An ongoing message to myself.)
More often than not, here in New York, a prop master serves as the production’s emissary to Car World. Typically suffering from the overwork of being responsible for ten thousand little details, prop masters here in New York have to deal not just with cars but also every other prop, large and small, whereas in other locales you might find dedicated transportation captains. Either way, someone has to line up the cars for the show as well as the team that helps arrange transport between locations for actors and crew.
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Before shooting begins, the prop master will send a request, often one that is somehow both general and specific. Think late-model family SUV, or wealthy basketball player’s sports car, 1930s car, or moving truck, run-down pickup truck, sinister van. They’ll want to see choices, by way of e-mailed photographs, which, perhaps with a slight bit of editorial intervention, will then be presented to the production’s directors, producers, actors, and art directors. That is, anyone who’s helping make the final call. If a particular car gets the nod, an in-the-metal, in-person preliminary walk-around might be scheduled to confirm the choice.
Your Mileage May Vary
The knowledge base of picture car deciders, we’ve learned, is variable. Some recognize and readily admit that they’re looking for a hen’s tooth and already weighing alternatives. Others assume wide availability of any car, on the theory, near as I can tell, that there are, what, a billion cars in the world? Why can’t I have this one? And after you’ve found it, how about an identical double for simultaneous filming? But, of course, it’s not always so easy.
A few years back, we were tasked with finding an Alfa Romo 6C 2500 Freccia d’Oro for a dramatic (and I’m told excellent) series about the making of Coppola’s The Godfather, in which the grand Italian sedan would be blown up. After a month of herculean sleuthing, we actually found one with an owner willing to rent it to a production crew. (They wouldn’t really blow it up.) However, not long after, the series canceled the order for the Alfa. We never found out why. Cancellations—due to last minute technical difficulties, illness, budget-tightening, changes in artistic direction, or just fickle whimsy—are not isolated incidents in this business. They Might Be Giants’ lyrical plaint, “If it wasn’t for disappointment, I wouldn’t have any appointments,” comes to mind with disturbing regularity. But drive on we must.
Mistakes Are Inevitable
Sometimes a car is uniquely vital to a script. Once we were asked to find an early ‘60s Rolls Royce, with right-hand-drive, as the scene (filmed in Queens) was built out to resemble London’s Soho. So off we went looking for a Series II Silver Cloud. What we found was the Cloud’s virtually identical twin, a really handsome right-hand-drive S2 Bentley, and it was approved, delivered, and filmed. All went smoothly. Until I was startled by an ensuing series of angry phone calls.
Yes, the production team conceded, the Bentley looked almost exactly the same as the Rolls-Royce they’d requested, but, NOOOO, the script specifically called for a Rolls. Of course, we hadn’t seen or heard about said script (we rarely do) and they’d now have to reshoot the scene at considerable expense, omitting the explicit reference to the Roller. Because, as I was loudly reminded, “they’d filmed a #@%!ing Bentley.” Takeaway: always share complete information about a car before shoot day, as much as you can, including disclosing any known defects or possible infirmities. What’s obvious to you might not be to someone else who hasn’t frittered their life the way you have, thinking about cars. It pays to be honest and it pays to be careful. Disappointments will arise, just don’t let them be surprises discovered just before or while the cameras are rolling. And a further note: Kudos to this production and prop master for having high enough standards to care that a car actually is what it purports to be. Good intentions predominate. They’re just not universal.
The Trouble with Transmissions
A couple of years back, we were asked to supply a film with an MG TC—the cycle-fendered lilliput with pre-war style that got America started on small sports cars. We offered a choice of TCs in three different colors to the youthful prop master’s assistant who’d inquired. She selected a 1948 example, finished in a jaunty Apple Green. Two days before the shoot, the assistant called to express her team’s excitement, she said, and to ask one last question “It’s an automatic, right?”
Well, no, there was no automatic transmission offered for the TC. Never ever, ma’am. “Well what would it cost to make one?” she wondered, putting me in mind of the timeless maxim, “If you have to ask what it will cost to make your MG TC an automatic in 24 hours or less, you can’t afford it.” And so it transpired, the clock ran out and the order was canceled. I have no idea with what they replaced it, or if they did so at all. I do know that the chances they found some backyard adventurer’s automatic TC, nearby and ready to roll, were painfully slim.
Hardly anyone knows how to drive stick-shift cars anymore, especially, it seems, actors. They, it turns out, need to be devoting all of their concentration to their craft, rather than learning how to shift gears. The sad truth is that a clutch pedal can kill a car’s chances of making it on screen, though not always.
Once I was charged with teaching a talented actor how to drive a Model A for a scene filming in New York City. While practicing at a Brooklyn studio parking lot, over the course of an hour or two, it became clear the lesson wasn’t going well. The crew nevertheless remained confident that the student’s stick-shifting studies—to continue in my absence, with the car’s owner there to help—would ultimately prove successful.
On shoot day, I arrived at set. A light drizzle fell, but the actress we’d been teaching wasn’t there. She was uncomfortable and so was the production. “Here,” someone said, apparently, to me, “put on this wig, leather jacket and head over to the make up trailer.” I was not ready for this screen test, Mr. DeMille, but I did as told and so launched my career as a body double for a short Jewish woman with a black leather jacket. I’d spend the next 30 minutes driving around New York’s Washington Square Park over and over again. Through the magic of a complete lack of closeups—all filming was from high above the car—nobody was the wiser.
Sometimes authenticity rules the day. Sometimes you get as close as you can.
In the book version of Goldfinger Bond does get an Aston Martin, a DB4 though from what I recall, so it is somewhat correct for the movie. They’ve never really shown any movie with Bond blower Bentley or his later Continental R based roadster, the closest is the parked early 50’s Bentley DHC you see briefly early in From Russia with Love when he’s having an afternoon tryst with Sylvia Trench and in 1983’s Never Say Never Again Bond drives up to Shurblands in a 1937 Bentley drophead.
Good catch, Ralph! I was going to post the same thing.
Sir James Bond did drive a 1923 Bentley 3 liter, albeit with a fake supercharger. Driven in the 1967 silver screen movie Casino Royale, driven by Sir David Niven! My favorite Bond car and only one gadget, a remote gate opener, which came in handy!
I saw an ad for movie cars, so I thought I’d read about car owner’s experiences. Man, the reviews are almost all negative! I didn’t see one that said, “I’m glad I did it”. I didn’t submit my application.
Over the last 30+ years a lot of filming, TV, movies, music videos, etc, has been done in my area. There has been a lot of request’s of the local car community for vehicles for these film projects. If the request is for older vehicles we are near the top of the list. It’s a 50/50 shot how the vehicle will be treated. Some have come back damaged because these are not “car people” and don’t understand the time spent to make a car “right”. And as noted, old cars can be more challenging to drive. Manual transmission (3 on the tree anyone?), no power brakes or steering, and poor handling (by todays standards). On top of that, sometimes they want to do things with the vehicle that will damage it. Taking a pristine restored Buick 225 convertible on a “chase” on a gravel road is NOT good for the paint. It happened to a friend and he was HOT. Now anyone in our group who is approached about using their vehicle has a list of what the car can ONLY be used for and the production is held responsible for any damage. If they don’t agree, no car. The knowledge to you and a few friends that “thats my car in the film” isn’t worth the few $$ you get if your vehicle is damaged.
Yeah, my car is far from pristine, but I really doubt that I’d put it at risk of some of the things I’ve read about happening. If they ask, I’ll tell them to go ahead and substitute a Bentley…
If you got scolded for supplying the “wrong” car I hope you were able to redirect their anger since you provided the approved item.
I’m thoroughly enjoying this series, I’m fascinated by this under-the-radar facet of the industry.
2000 Patriot Blue Jeep Cherokee Sport (Automatic)? 1985 Red Corvette with acrylic clear blue removable top (
I’ve rented 4 different vehicles to production companies. They loved my Miata, except for the man pedal. Got to drive it myself a few times because of it. The Volvo got a job because they needed to reshoot some scenes where they blew up a silver hatchback and the original car was no longer available. I love watching the technical part of the process, but sitting around in a warehouse for 16 hours can get boring fast.
After my 35 year career in film and television production, a universal understanding among crew people is “never rent your house or car to a film production”. We know…. Oh boy, do we know…
Very cool series. I will say that learning to drive a early 50’s column shift manual transmission was a little learning curve and not what one expects driving modern manuals but it was worth it to experience something completely different. I could see where it might intimidate some younger people who are very risk averse to trying new things.
Something I often see in TV shows and movies is “driving” scenes where the car is clearly in park. I can’t believe that nobody on the production teams seem to notice this faux pas.
Or shifting an automatic.
My 1977 MGB made the cut for shooting in Richmond, Virginia, for the film Piece By Piece. Since it’s a Lego film upon release, and I haven’t seen it yet, who knows if we’re in it as Legoized animation or if all the film shot was scrapped for a completely different animated version.
It was a fun day with a bunch of other car guys with some really interesting cars. My favorite was an orange VW Thing. It was in superb condition.
It was emphasized more than once that our cars had parts in the movie; not us. We were simply the drivers of our cars as directed.
My Nigel was lucky enough to be chosen later in the day with a few other lucky cars to drive through a scene with pedestrians and whatnot.
Overall, it was really cool way to spend a weekend.
My father in law, Charles Neville, acquired 7 1912 – 1914 Wolseley’s in an estate sale here in Canada in various states of deterioration and models. One that he fully restored was a limousine which was used along with him as the chauffer in the movie The Hurst and Davies affair. He lived to 101 but did not manage to get them all completed before his death. His book Wolseley’s in Canada is like a documentary tracing their origins from original owners to matching chasis and engines during the rebuilds
I recall reading about a request to the local Viper club, looking to rent someone’s Viper for a movie. Most memorable line, and the one that should tell you all you need to know, was ominously, “the production company will buy the car owner a new set of tires after filming.”