Part 5 of 8: What do you see when you look out the window?
Although many scenes were shot inside a moving vehicle, a lot of scenes had requirements that made this an impossibility. A large part of the effort put forth by Bruce and Jeremy was that of compositing. The old woman character in 405 was played by Angela Burns, who although perfectly cast for the part, was unable to safely drive the Lincoln Continental as shown in the film. All of the scenes with Ange and about half of those featuring Jeremy were shot with the vehicle standing still and nowhere near a freeway. After filming was completed, computer generated backgrounds were created in the proper perspective to match the live-action plate. The two images were then put together by carefully removing the unwanted areas of the image through the windows and replacing that area with the new backgrounds.

Below you can see another shot showing the before image as it was shot. And the After image showing the final shot. This particular shot was created a little different that most of the others. Given the fact that there was a flat, yellow-green wall behind most of the rear window, it was possible to pull a luma-key on that color to define the area to be replaced. The side windows still needed to be traced out manually. Also notice that the backgound image through the side windows has been color shifted to make it appear as it if is being seen through a layer of angled glass. This technique was also used above to match the bright blend on the windshield.

All of the background elements used in this compositing were created inside the computer. These backgrounds are comprised of 3D road geometry and actual photos of Los Angeles placed into the 3D environment. Mostly these are the same environment models used in the more complex fully-CG shots.