Top Gear races

corblimey

Something I've wanted to know about the TG films and I wonder if anybody here has inside knowledge. They've got in-car cameras, and a lead car for exterior and passing shots, but they also have static camera shots, ie a camera on the side of the road that pans as the car passes it. Since I doubt they have cameramen waiting at the side of the road all along the route, I'm wondering how they take this footage.

The length of road is usually non-descript enough that it could be done anytime, and not necessarily with Clarkson May or Hammond driving; get somebody on the production team out in the Zonda a day later to drive up and down a bit of road for hours? Or do they take the shot, and then pile into a van and overtake the featured car? This seems unlikely in the case of the Zonda for example, unless they ask the presenter to slow down which they'd probably be unwilling to do in a race sit.

Anyone got any theories?

Myrddin

I've often wondered that too, like when the race is supposed to be really tense & close...why are there flyby shots which would have had to mean all the action was stopped & a camera shooting position etc was set up.

Unless they do stuff like that after said race in order to edit it in? Not sure.

Mental_Legend

I read about this a while ago. The races are real, and many of the shots are taken during the race itself. And then for the day or two following the race, they go back and they film all the flashy shots to make the final film look good.

mike65

Those eye catching moments when the camera focuses in on say a back lit spiders web in a verge and then focuses in on the car driving past in the background are all done after the fact, that they do that sort of thing at all speaks of people for whom no detail is too small and no budget can be too large!

jhegarty

I believe on the long races they film the exteriors when the cars are driven back to the uk.

dfx-

Is that the up-and-bye shots the commentary on the specials talk about?

That's where the cameramen drive twenty minutes ahead of the race to set up the shot..

Myrddin

dfx- wrote: »

That's where the cameramen drive twenty minutes ahead of the race to set up the shot..

Isn't it meant to be a race? How can the camera man just gain twenty minutes ground at will in order to take a camera shot?

irish_stevo815

Having recently read Ben Collins book: "The man in the white suit", in it he talks about this. Either before the race or after the race, the production team go to various spots on the race route and someone (Collins/Stiggy) drives around to get these shots on film.

The Davestator

Wasn't it the worst book ever written?! Actually, it was proabaly marginally better than Hammonds one about his accident. I felt a little brain damaged after reading it!

dfx-

EnterNow wrote: »

Isn't it meant to be a race? How can the camera man just gain twenty minutes ground at will in order to take a camera shot?

Are the recent films races though?

The recent big films have been much more co-operative than the early Veyron/Monte Carlo ones, at least meeting up regularly as a three along the way like Bolivia. Vietnam certainly wasn't a race on land, neither was the Middle East, Botswana or Romania..

cyrusdvirus

dfx- wrote: »

EnterNow wrote: »

Isn't it meant to be a race? How can the camera man just gain twenty minutes ground at will in order to take a camera shot?

Are the recent films races though?

The recent big films have been much more co-operative than the early Veyron/Monte Carlo ones, at least meeting up regularly as a three along the way like Bolivia. Vietnam certainly wasn't a race on land, neither was the Middle East, Botswana or Romania..

They weren't races though.

ScrubsfanChris

Get yourself the Great Adventures dvds and listen to the audio commentaries. Thay are a wealth of knowledge, with camera-men/sound-men/mini cam operators/producers/editors.

In the Vietnam special, they talk about how they would arrive in a town a day before to pick up some camera shots and such.
Everything you wanted to know really OP.