Chase Vehicles and Camera Cars

If you've ever watched a car chase in a movie and wondered how they got those shots without someone actually driving 70 mph while trying to act, the answer usually comes down to two things; camera cars and chase vehicles.

A camera car is basically a vehicle built to carry a camera around while filming something else in motion. Sometimes that means a low loader or process trailer, a flatbed that the "hero" car sits on top of and gets towed around on, so the actor can just sit there acting like they're driving without actually having to steer through traffic. Other times it's a car rigged with one of those cool robotic arms (a Russian Arm, for example) that can swing the camera all around the vehicle, get up over the roof, or grab a low angle right off the ground while everything's moving. There are also simpler insert rigs, just a camera bolted to the hood or dashboard, for those tight shots of hands on the wheel or a face lit up by headlights.

A chase vehicle is more about keeping up with the action in real time. Instead of towing the hero car, it's actually driving alongside or behind the real chase, camera operator in the back getting the footage live. Stunt coordinators and safety crews often ride in chase vehicles too, since they need to be right there in case something goes wrong.

The line between the two blurs a lot on set — plenty of vehicles end up doing double duty as both.

If you're shooting anywhere in NYC or NJ and need this kind of gear (and the crew who actually knows how to run it), CAMCARNYC is the best in the business. They're the ones production companies call when they need camera cars that just work, no headaches, no guesswork!

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