Motion Pictures renting to movie people?

anyone had any experience doing this? a friend of mine was telling me years ago that he had done it and they paid pretty well. i didnt give it much thought back then, as i dont let other people drive my car(except pops), but with the way things are going i could really use some extra dough. i may have to change that policy. figure i may as well take advantage of my relitively close proximity to hollywood

 

Better make sure you find out exactly what they are doing with the car first, you might get it back after they smash it into something since it seems that's all they do with old cars nowadays.

 

thats part of what i was wondering about too. my friend had a 67 impala convertible and they used it in a "b" movie sequel to blood in blood out. when he got it back it had chips all across they rear decklid from bullet casings landing on it. the studios said they were going to pay for paint and bodywork, but i lost touch with the guy before i heard what became of the situation.

 

It's kind of a pain in the arse. And they don't pay THAT well. Several companies use antique car companies that have acres of old cars for rent to movie studios. If they need something more prominent they will have a few of them built for the movie. I most often hear about movie companies renting cars when they are filming outside the studios of out of state. I helped with a few cars for movies like Driving Miss Daisy and My Cousin Vinney which were both filmed in Georgia. For My Cousin Vinney they wanted two 62 caddys and a 64 Skylark vert. With the caddies they wanted one for full body shots and one to use for close ups which means they wanted to screw camera mounts all over the outside of the body to shoot interior shots while the car was driving. In another movie they used one of my caddy verts and had me take the decklid off and they had a camera man and a microphone boom guy ridding in the trunk filming over the shoulders of the actors in the front seat! So sometimes the cars can take a little abuse, but they are pretty up front about what they will do to it. Another one of my cars was in the country video "Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares". That took about all day and paid $375.

 

I had a friend that rented his 48 Ford sedan that was a big time winner with the the acca and his 40 olds 4 door,,,for a movie here in the south 15 or so years ago,,, about the school system in 1954,,they paid well,,and they didn't mind scratching the paint and denting fenders,,,it cost him almost as much as he made repairing the damage.

He wouldn't dream of doing it again,,HRP

 

I don"t know about cars but I rented a buncha "prop" microphones to an outfit a few years ago and they pretty much DESTROYED the mics.

They paid me well considering the damages but I had to use my time to find replacements and parts to put them back together again.

I wont consider movie people,parades,etc ever again.

Oldmics

 

Extras and all kinds of locals, crew, etc. crawl all over the stuff like it is a petting zoo. I had to stand gaurd over the stuff, if I walked off to take a whiz, people would be in and on my stuff.

Been there, done that.

 

Did it twice and never again
They see your pride and joy as a prop = rental car
if you can stay with it you better take vacation time or be retired
if you leave it think of is as being parked in the second row at walmart
on the first of the month
not worth the time or trouble
Of course if it a beater what the heck
two movies
one ten second drive by after two days of filming Matinee with John Goodman
second movie -scene on cutting room floor Apollo 13
MArk

 

LOL, don't get me started on PARADES! I used another of my caddy verts for the Big ticker tapo parade when the Atlanta Braves won thier first in the latest string of World Series. The car was almost filled to the window line with ticker tape and confetti! That stuff was still coming out of every nook and cranny when I sold it 3 yuears later.

 

I got a biographical book called Pete & Jake. In it, the studio rented the California Kid right after the flames were applied. They also wanted those god awful side pipes. Charlie Sheen walked up the fenders in his cowboy boots. From the article, the "Kid" took a beating but supposely, the studio paid for damages.

In Charlies Angels, Lucy Lu was driving an old T-bird or Mercedes. She didn't know how to drive a stick and ran into another car. Not sure which car, but my buddy was on the set when it happened.

 

Parades had the rear seat pulled and plywood deck purpose built as a seat
Mark

 

nuff said. that answers all my questions

 

Having worked in the motion picture industry for many years, I have some advise:
DON'T rent your car out

 

Martin Sheen, Charlie was about 8 years old when that film came out!

 

Wait a minute!!!!!
If you rent to a reputable production, I'm talking big union gigs not some back woods hick commercial/tv show or low budget movie project, then you don't have anything to worry about.
Yeah shit used to be bad, but those days are certainly over.
Money is good and if your just doing some drive-by background stuff, then "you" will drive and you and your car will make money.
Trust me if they plan on damaging a vehicle, they will purchase it beforehand, and if they rent the car and there is damage you "will" get reimbursed properly.
I've been doing special effects, Local 44, for like 15 years and worked on many picture cars.

 

Having worked in the movie biz for some time, I wouldnt rent any of my cars to a production unless I was going to be the one driving it. That means background stuff only and likely non-union gigs.

If yer car is going to be featured that means camera rigs being attached, and there is a good chance of a scratch or two here and there.

When I'd work rigging camera mounts for car commercials there was always a car maint. department on set that did nothing but detail and fix damage on the hero cars.

 

Floyd Garrett's Musclecar Museum in Pigeon Forge, TN has a couple of the Dodge Challengers from Vanishing Point II on display. They have been "beat to crap" by the movie crews....dents, scratches, camera mounts, etc. If that is how they treat the cars, I don't want them near mine!

 

I've rented my cars out thru a company called NationWide Picture Cars--been doing business with them for years.Also goes by an old name of Classic Car Suppliers.The guys name is Michael,and has always been good with me.YOU set what you want to do--I just do T.V. commercials and videos--never done movies because they want to truck the cars away from you.I've always been on-site on all shoots.Pays damn good--and they feed you GREAT! nationwidepicturecars.com

 

It all depends on the circumstances. If it just gonna be used for background or a prop,i'd say do. If it's gonna be a big part of the movie,then you are just gonna have to negociate with them. I got paid $700 for one day,plus food and hotel. My car sat in the same place for 8 hours,then I moved it and it sat in another spot for 6 more hours.
I'd do it again!

 

Our 58 was in a movie here in Richmond, "Shadow Conspiracy" w/ Charlie Shean.
Big John, owner of the 58 was allowed on the set at all times while the car was being used.
However be very specific to the details of what they are using the car for. For instance, they wanted to shoot the window out, drivers window, they were going to roll down the real window and put in a fake as not to ruin the real one. They changed their minds and never did that scene tho.

If I am not mistaken they'd paid 300 per day, they also agreed if anyting got damaged they would pay for replacement / repair. GET ALL THE DETAILS so there are no misunderstandings in the end.
Lea

 

I rented a Vincent motorcycle to an English film co..I made them produce a cashiers check for the agreed value of the bike.I told them "you screw it up ,you own it".
Best thing is don't.

 

You not serious,right???
That's a bad example! Those cars were obviously used as "crash cars"! It's not like they went and asked an owner if they could use their car for a movie. Those cars would have been bought just for that purpose.

 

I sold a Vega to the studios for Simon and Simon, they brought it back when they were finished and said here ya go! It was used for a shot where it was blowen up, the top was cut off, doors off and not much was usable! but got to say, Hey that was mine!not to mention watching it go boom.

 

Well Playboy magazine "borrowed" my '64 VW Bus for the May 2000 centerfold photoshoot and they paid very well. It took them about a week to do the whole shoot. I was not permitted on the set for the magazine shoot but I did go to the video shoot a couple of months later and met Brooke Berry (Jan Berry's (Jan & Dean Surf Band) niece) and the whole staff was really good to me and my car.
I have done a bunch of these movie or TV shoots and never had an issue. Yes it can be a very long day and not much happening but if you can take the day...it is well worth it. Just make sure that you have everything agreed to prior to showing up.

 

Had a film Co wanting to use my car in a shoot for a TV ad. Had a look at the script and it mentionned a guy standing on the roof of the car jumping up and down trying to get something stuck in a tree or some stupid shit. Clever Ad creatives smoking their underpants.

 

Hello
I supply picture cars time to time.

Both my cars, and other people's cars for the industry. While there are some very reputable picture car people out there that will only do to your car what you agree on, and if there is a mishap they will compensate you extremely well for the problem; there are also a whole lot of scumbags in the business that will take advantage of you and your car. They will mess up your car and then give peanuts to fix it. They love to mess up your car, give you a thousand dollars to fix it, then charge the production's insurance company five thousand and pocket the four thousand.

Beware. If they seem sleezy and untrustworthy, they probably are.

When we have cars out I give my guy from the shop instructions to guard the customers car with their life. Like it was our own. My guys are also given instructions to physically tackle if (if need be) anyone that is going to harm any of our customer's cars, and/or pull it off the set asap no matter what. I make this up front with the production company.
I may be one of the only one's to do this, and some may say it is crazy, but there is no way I am going to have to tell someone who trusted me that we let some fool mess their car up.

Let me say though that most people in production are super cool and respectful toward classic cars, and a pleasure to deal with. But, be careful.

Wil
www.sakowskimotors.com

 

I've had offers but never taken one up.

I'd make sure I knew what it'd be used for, and still assume they were lying to me unless I got it in writing. I worked on a show with a '55 Chevy, the camera mounts cracked the drivers/pass door glass and the replacement didn't come close to matching the 50 year old glass in the other windows.

I didn't examine the body but I'm sure it got a few whiskey dents here and there.

I've always heard, if you don't want it dented, don't rent it.

If you go along with the car to drive it , its probably fine to do.

If you're not there, then someone else is gonna drive it and they're not gonna treat it like their own. Someone will scratch and dent it along the way.

If they want to rent it and put a camera on it, I'd head for the hills, even on my clunker. Not worth the hassle for just a little bit of money.

I've had the pleasure of dealing with popular director's production company to repair a vehicle. They finally took care of it, but it was like pulling teeth every step of the way, really unpleasant. Life is too short.

If it's an independent picture/student film/low budget I'd end the conversation right there. I've worked enough low budget to know I'd never get involved with them like that. It's all fun and games until something goes wrong, like your car is damaged or the check bounces or made out for the 'wrong' amount. I've heard them tell people "I'm giving you X amount, sue me for the rest." 'Nuff said.

If it was such a great deal to rent cars, why do you suppose they're always trying to find newcomers to rent from?!?

Just my 2 cents.

 

A friend of mine rented his beautiful,pale yellow 51 Merc 4 dr to "October Sky"..They promised to take good care of what was a very nice car.Lots of shots with cameras attached.I worked as an extra on the film,saw the car early one morning,didn't know Mr. King had rented it to them,and did not recognize it as his car.I'd driven that car,and a lot of the chrome on it came from me,and I still didn't know it was his car...Why? Because they decided they didn't like the yellow paint,and had it painted shit green instead,without his knowledge or permission..He got extra money,they fucked up a nice car

 

Not car related, but I make and sell Haunted House/Halloween props, and I've had a few film co's ask about renting props... I still haven't decided how to handle that!

 

been there done that....don't do it. even a dumb ass like me can make a movie , but only if i have enough money and enough dumb people to let me rent there cars !!!!!! cadillac dave