From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2004 - 00:39:37 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Convoy Magazine" <convoymagazine@yahoo.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Renting for a movie ??$
> A couple of quick points
> First you have to understand your truck/jeep (that you
> love and cherish) is JUST A PROP to them.
The important thing is always going to be getting the shot. It's the be all
and end all of why everyone's there. If the WC-63 they rented of some
hapless collector would play better stuck hip-deep in mud while the
terrorists frantically scrabble trying to get it free - that's what's going
to happen whether you stipulated to the guy on the phone that stuff like
that was to be given your approval or not. I have seen it play out
sixty-plus times in real life.
> Second (amazingly!) a lot of younger people- extras
> and actors- cant drive! and of them many cant drive
> standard..so that becomes a real problem when they
> HAVE to drive your vehicle.. (those were your
> gears..and that smell? the clutch!)
Not only the actors. An inexperienced actor driving your collector beauty
through shot isn't the worst nightmare that could happen - but an
inexperienced stuntpuppy driving your vehicle through a fence or building
is. It's only funny if you're not paying the bills. I have seen that more
times than I care to relate, and in each instance, the owner was never
notified.
> Also military vehicles get jumped into and out of a
> lot..its the nature of "military" movies..this is hard
> on paint surfaces...in fact with the heavy boots and
> often rifles and such.. hard on a lot of your vehicle.
Yup. Typically whoever is supposed to get in and out of your vehicle will be
dressed to the tits with webbing and what-not just to make it look that much
more impressive on camera, so if you have that beautiful Beachwood
upholstery that you just installed last Wednesday and you're thinking Movie
Bucks to help offset your investment - maybe think again.
> Chance is correct about "movie mud" whatever you do
> DONT LET THEM SPLASH IT ON YOUR CANVAS...it can be
> damned hard to remove from your matte paint... MUCH
> worse from the canvas..
Impossible, actually. A couple of productions have had to replace our M35
canvas for exactly the scenario that convoymagazine is talking about.
> As for prices..you should get a littl more for your MV
> than a car antique coz they're rarer. Trucks should
> get more than jeeps, big trucks and esp armour, even
> more.
Generally, yes. Armour is King, immediately followed by anything Joe Q.
Public isn't likely to have like anything on the SME list or WWII stuff in
respectable condition or foreign stuff like WWII German, postwar Eastern
Bloc, or Soviet/Iraqi/Libyan. If you have that UAZ-69 and some movie
company comes to you with some Eastern Bloc border guard scenario, don't let
them talk you into giving it away. You can always suggest that they go to
your closest competition with a UAZ-69 which, of course, will be some
unpronouncable berg in East Germany. Don't rip them off royally because you
can, of course, but don't let them do it to you either.
> You drive in the shot, you're a "special abilities
> extra" which is a bit more than just "extra" and you
> should also get to eat at the better food table ;-)
> and not the "riffraff" extra food (not always though)
Mostly the SAE category is a union permitee category, which means you're not
dining on the stale carrot sticks that most of the cash extras get as an
excuse for lunch. It varies *dramatically* from set-to-set, and while most
times the SAE drivers get to eat with the crew, on some shows you're still
second class citizens and forced to act accordingly. That latter
eventuality comes up very, very rarely nowadays - especially if what you
expect is all spelled out to the Picture Car Coordinator or someone in
Transport before you even show up.
> BUT BOTTOM LINE IS...if you have a "presentable" MV,
> like just a daily driver sort of thing that youre not
> overly concerned about movie work might be for you.
That's the key pretty much. I remember reading way back when of some guy in
Army Motors or Supply Line talking about his GPW or MB that he just cobbled
together for movie work, and within a few short months he'd been in some
industrial portable scale commercial and a few other things which didn't
care one whit that the entire back end was a wheeled ad for Bondo Inc. In
terms of a business plan that's really all you can afford to give them. The
other thing is that they don't like "pretty" vehicles. Hand them something
that supposed to play the CO's jeep in the battlefield in Ardennes with nice
armour-all'd paint and chrome wheel-nuts and you're soon going to find it
"tech'd down" with all manner of stuff you're going to find really hard to
remove before that parade or airshow or carshow or club event the weekend
following. I wish that was a joke but it's not.
> If you have a wonderfully restorated vehicle ...then I
> wouldnt do it!!!
Truer words never spoken.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:34:20 PDT