Drag racing in the desert with Cars and Bids
Sub $18k Challenge
This past fall we had the opportunity to create a short video series with the team from cars and bids. THe premise was that each of the four show hosts bought a car for under $18,000 and would road trip it out to the desert, taking on challenges along the way.
We started off in San Diego
With cameras and audio rigged in each of the hero cars we lead the convoy with Matthew operating our remotely controlled camera system on the Pacifica.
The Sony FX6 proved to by a solid camera for this setup. With a solid autofocus system, built in ND filtration, and the ability to remotely run/stop and control camera settings wirelessly over the phone app.
The hosts were able to bicker along the way with handheld two-way radios. Which made for great commentary. All captured by audio recorders mounted above their car’s visors.
Once we hit picture lock I sent the project back over to Brad so he could smooth out the final audio mix.
Photo Credits: Adrian Gutierrez
Along the road trip, stops were made and the hosts required to perform challenges to prove their car’s superiority.
To capture these moments we had an FX6 and FX3 ready for handheld operation and the hosts pre-wired with wireless mics so our Sound Mixer, Brad Bass, could seamlessly transition to capturing their audio on his field recorder.
In the desert
We rented out a dry lake bed to do performance testing. For this we continued with mostly the camera and audio setup. In-car Sony A7SIIIs with mics in the visors, FX6/FX3 handheld for the stand ups with Brad on the field recorder and wireless mics.
Additional coverage for the driving segments came from the drone and FX6 on sticks with a 300mm lens. For a few shots we did utilize the car rig though at a limited capacity due to the surface conditions and excessive amounts of dust.
The post process
All the work in pre-production and staying organized during production simplifies the post-production process.
Utilizing Tentacle timecode synchronization on every camera and audio device means we’re able to snap together stringouts in minutes and in just a few days I was able to get rough cuts out to the Cars and Bids team for review.
