Part
4 of 8:
How did you clear the 405 of traffic? One
of the most common questions the filmmakers get is how did you shoot
on such a busy freeway and make it look as if no other cars were
around? We certainly did not have a budget to get a shooting permit
to clear the busiest freeway in America at midday! Enter a creative
use of digital tools, once again.
In an early scene of the film we are introduced to our hero as he
drives down a deserted (presumably cleared by the CHP) section of
the 405. This shot was created using a technique developed by Branit
specifically for this project. The background is the result of many
still photographs taken from a tripod on a freeway overpass. Of
course both lanes of traffic were full of constant traffic. But
by taking photos at intervals, enough data could be recorded to
get photographs of the entire freeway surface. All that is left
to do is to create a collage of just the visible areas of freeway
pavement.
For
some of the live action scenes shot from the inside of the
moving vehicle, a less-used section of the 105 freeway near
El Segundo was used. Using careful shooting and editing it
was possible to use short takes where no cars were visible.
For some scenes, however, no take could be used where cars
were not still visible in front of or beside the Jeep. One
such scene is the scene where Jeremy's eyes react to seeing
the incoming airliner in the rearview mirror. Some traffic
was unfortunately visible directly though the windshield in
front of the car. Since no better take was adequate, the filmakers
decided to just fix this take digitally. An area of empty
freeway from an unused part of this edit was tracked on top
of this unwanted traffic. The result, the freeway appears
vacant and the shot is saved.
One
of the most common questions the filmmakers get is how did you shoot
on such a busy freeway and make it look as if no other cars were
around? We certainly did not have a budget to get a shooting permit
to clear the busiest freeway in America at midday! Enter a creative
use of digital tools, once again.
For
some of the live action scenes shot from the inside of the
moving vehicle, a less-used section of the 105 freeway near
El Segundo was used. Using careful shooting and editing it
was possible to use short takes where no cars were visible.