has your car been in the movies? share your stories

My 50 Chevy was in the movie Hope. Wife and family had a chance to have lunch with GH. The only problem that I had was "they" didn't understand why the wipers wouldn't work when the engine was off! Good experience...the 1st shoot was in Kemah, Texas

 

About five years ago during Michigan's flirting with being the new Hollywood I had the offer to put my O/T Pontiac in a movie. I declined the "stardom".

Specific questions were either poorly answered or ignored . I could never get a answer of who would have custody of the car while filming. After three emails I was finally told that the car would be parked and not driven and I could not be at the filming. No contract or written agreement was made available to me, only their word. Sorry but I was reluctant to allow a 20k (written appraisal I have and insured value) car to be out of my custoday in the possession of persons unknown for an unspecified amount of time and place.

My "great" offer was a film credit, my car in the movie (?) and a meal..........no monetary compensation and not even a copy of the movie,that I would have to buy........

My car did not appear in it.

 

You did the right thing, I work in the film biz and picture cars always get abused, the production company always tries to get out of paying for it. I personally have sprayed "dulling spray", ( really a kind of Aquanet hair spray) all over expensive cars, because the lights used for filming cause lens flares, then wash it off (or try to) with windex and paper towels after. No one tells that to the owners of course.

 

Clunker!
I couln't sleep last night after I read your post..............I hope this was a made up story?
Is this on youtube or elsewhere? ............if it's true story.
//Roger .

 

I searched on Google for a long time, no luck. Hoping that the commercial might have been on Youtube but couldn't find it. I don't remember what product they were selling. (I've done this 25 years= hundreds of tv commercials, music videos and films, they all blend together in my mind)

It was around 1998-99, I didn't get any still pics on that one. Absolute true story. We always used high dollar sports cars and regular modern cars, that stuff never impressed me, occasionally we shot a nice old car or plane and those times were cool. This time when we actually destroyed this nice old car, they made me find it and buy it, ( I drove a beat up '57 Ranchero to work daily, and had other cars and bikes so they knew I was a "Want Ads junkie"), it really was upsetting to me, even though that might sound childish. I remember that day clear as a bell, all the producer and director types thought it was hilarious, they were all about Porches and BMW's, bunch of douche bags. There was a few other times they made us do things that were far more revolting, but that would be off-topic.

I spend 1/2 my time building furniture for wealthy people in my own woodshop, the other half in the art department on tv commercials and films.

 

Ok. Here's the worst one, it's also car related and long, so if it's boring S.O.B (scroll on by)

In the early 1990's I was in my early 20's, just a shlub barely s****ing by. It was another low budget crummy movie, we were filming on location in Mid California somewhere, in a nice little town that had a lot of orange groves. The main location was the house of this nice older guy who was letting us film all over his property for the entire shoot. This was his family home, where he grew up. They had trees grafted with oranges and lemons, judging by the house and it's furnishings you could have been back in the 1930's. We were there every day for about a month. He was a lifelong bachelor, friendliest guy you could ever meet, the nicest 70 year old in town.

The stipulation was that we could not go in his barn. After getting to know me, since I was a car guy and he liked the beat up '57 Ranchero I drove everywhere, he felt comfortable enough with me to show me around the barn he and his dad had built with their own hands. They had been into drag racing, speed trials both car and boat, we're talking In the 40's to the 60's. Everywhere you looked there were little pins and trophies, lots of paraphernalia nailed to every surface. There was a '49 caddy parked as it had been for 30 years mopped with motor oil to preserve it, a fibergl*** boat with tail fins powered by an old 390 Cad motor, hadn't tasted water in 30 years as well. He showed me how they used toilet paper as an oil filter, all the old photos pinned to the wall of he and his dad on the strips and salt. For me it was magical and he was glad someone just wasn't seeing all his stuff as simply a curiosity. He helped me a few times when my Ford wouldn't start, I wanted to buy the Caddy but it had sentimental value to him and he wouldn't sell it. I never had any money anyway.

There was a scene in this movie where some kids follow a "mean" "weird" guy to a vast empty barn, and see him skinning a deer that was hanging from the rafters, a full moon shining in through the open windows. They filmed the exterior scene across town one night at another barn. The production company usually pays $2500 per day to film at a location. Since they made a deal with our guy to film at his property for the duration, they could save $2500 by filming the interior scene in his barn. We would just have to put everything into boxes and temporarily remove the boat and cars so it would be completely empty and also cut holes in the walls because his barn did not have windows and it would have to match the exterior of the barn they had previously filmed.

The douche bag producers asked him if we could do this and he said "sorry but no". I was relieved and thought it would end there. The producers (who were really douchebags) saw that I was close to the old man and he liked me, so they had my boss the Art Director, (who was a good man), convince me to help them. They knew he drank at the VFW most nights, and got pretty drunk. They sent the locations guy to the VFW and he was hanging out with him. After awhile, myself, the art director and the two producers went to the VFW. They again tried to talk him into letting us use the barn, he said "no". I sat silent next to them at the bar. They promised him we would put every picture and trophy back where it was, we would repair any damage, and then they gestured to me and said "he is going to put everything like it was...". The old man looked me in the eye and asked me if this was true. I lied, it makes me sick to this day, I said "yes". He signed the contract and left. The producers were all celebrating as if they just won a battle, slapping me on the back, they noticed I looked pissed and said "what's wrong?" I replied " You know, What we just did was wrong, but if you ask me to **** your wife for you, I'll do it". They were pissed, the art director had to pull them off me (they were serious guys, x-m***oud).

We tore his barn apart, tried to put it back like it was but of course failed, it was ruined, his past was trod upon. The old man who had been so happy and friendly never really talked much to anyone anymore. We were finished and gone in a couple weeks. I had dirtied myself in a really de****able way and promised to never do it again. Maybe up there in the top 4 things I most regret doing (in my life). Also one of the reasons I needed to leave LA, Faster *****cat said it best in a song about LA: " this city has no heart".

 

^^ I can't tell you how much I think that story ****s. It doesn't make any difference how bad you felt about it. You sold your soul when you were part of it. I hope I would have the moral courage to tell those s*** bags to **** themselves.

 

On a happier note; I did make hand puppet animals at the local drive in during a movie once. I was standing on the roof of my old Ford pick up. It did not appear on film but had a supporting role.

 

No but I have been! Got cut out!
That roller derby movie with Raquel Welch, forget the name of it.
Played my specialty role of "hippie troublemaker"!!!
Was on Walter Cronkhire too!
Played a "hippie troublemaker".
I'm retired from the glamorous world of show biz now!

 

What did it cost you to get the seats cleaned?

 

Yup

 

Hey Clunker - I'm feeling like I came down on you too hard. We've all done things or been part of things we regret and it's obvious that it really bothers you. It takes a man to own up to it like you did. Sorry for my reaction. The story about the old man was a tough one to read.

 

No need to apologize man, you were absolutely right, I am ashamed of that moment. It's a true story where the writer is the villain. I try not to write long, bloviating posts but it's not hard to get me going on the film biz.

Now rave on like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane!

 

Looking at the above photo we see a normal 1950 Chevy Ute and teardrop trailer. I build the teardrop for hauling artwork and a having a place to sleep and cook on the road. It had been to LSRU, Billet Proof, Mooneyes, and a bunch of Pomona Swaps. But being built by me with wood, the years took their toil. We found another factory trailer, so we put a for sale sign on it at Pomona. At the end of the morning, some guy comes by and gets all jacked up on the trailer, "My buddy needs this for a movie" yea this is SoCal and you hear stuff like this all the time. I give him a price and I think nothing of it. Monday morning I get a call from the guy that supplies the cars to movies, 'Fast and Stupid', Ducks of Hazzard, and such,,, the real guy. We talk, he really wants the trailer, we agree on price. The next day a worker shows up with a 20 foot roll back, over 60 miles from their 'shop' he loads it up and there it goes. As the driver is leaving he tells me it will go in for shooting the next day, a movie about Joan Jett. OK, sure. A year later we get the DVD and Holly Sh## there is our trailer. It was used as a main prop for over 5 minutes.
And the Ute? It was background for Deuce of Spades Movie as mentioned by another Hamber in a number of background shots, and it was in the teaser for Jay Leno's move from pod cast to MSNBC.
Which got us in to his 'shop' another story for another time.

 

In 1969 I had bought a 37 chevy sedan 4dr. and a 37 ford slantback 2dr. A guy came to my house saying he needed my cars for a movie that was going to be filmed locally. I asked what they would be doing with the cars and he said that they would drive the ford. Then he said that they would have to buy the chevy because they were going to run it into a quarry. turned him down on using my cars.

 

This sounds almost exactly like a PayLess Shoes commercial I saw once (thank God only once) - the wife wants the garage space to buy more shoes so she has the car crushed; it was a red '57 coupe with a white top, not a '58 convertible. I literally screamed when I saw that; hell, I'm getting sick just writing about it. And I've never bought shoes there ever since, nor will I ever again. It's not on YouTube, fortunately.

 

Last May my roadster was used in a commercial for the Beach Boys special coming out this Aug. Daisey Torme was standing next to my roadster.Have not seen the commercial yet, so not sure of how much of the car you see

 

Looks like you're in the background of this shot:

 

Not a car, but I had a 1957 Aljo ( canned ham ) trailer I bought to restore and use. But decided it was a bit too small
For my needs . So I posted it on CL
And got some interest. A guy saying he wanted to rent it, do a few improvements them give it back to me.
I've read nightmare stories about this
Sort of thing and it sounded sketchy.
I convinced him to buy it . He told me the story line .Chevy truck , office vs Ford pulling my trailer with office set up in it. Sure as **** 6 months later I started Seeing the commercial !!!
Have you seen it !

 

My 37 Buick was in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "An American Story" and was used in several scenes. I went with it on the first day and when it took four hours to film the hero being tossed keys across the top of a car by the leading lady I decided movie making was not for me. Had a friend that dug that kind of stuff so let him keep $100 of the $125 a day they were paying on the condition that NOBODY but him touched the car. One good thing was that people with set p***es had access to the food and those people eat really well.

 

That was it! I thought I remembered it was a Superbowl commercial, and a ragtop but you're right, it was Payless and a Coupe, definitely red. (My memory for details has always kinda ****ed) I never watched tv so I never saw the finished product, did they show the car actually getting crushed? That was a hard one to work on, man. Back in the 90's no one much cared about a car being "original", but that one was like a time capsule inside. We payed close to $10,000, so in 90's money that bought a pretty nice car. The things we do for shoes....

 

My 1970 chevy was in the old tv show , Unsolved mysteries . Show was hosted by Robert Stack. Shot in lake Worth Texas in about 1986.

 

A bloke I know owned the Lincoln which they used in The Matrix. The film was shot on the Gold Coast I think. (Queensland). They removed the back screen and set up a camera over the trunk, shooting inside. When they sent the car back to him (by road , on a car carrier), they only taped the back window in, and it blew out and smashed. If I remember right, they couldn't find a window , so they paid him extra.
I did see an "action" movie once, lots of it in the front seat of a '60 Caddy.....and on the hood.... And on the trunk....and on the ground in front of the car.......

 

UPDATE:

Last week I was playing with my wife's new cell phone and tried the voice search thing. I said "Razor Sid Haig" and up popped a hit on iTunes. I didn't know they sold movies but sure enough, you could rent or buy it there and download it. My daughter did and said it was a "one checker at best". I'd like a DVD since I'm not sure how that cloud thing works.

I'm guessing that it's a terrible movie since it took 10 years after filming to be released. My daughter said they did not cut out the Studebaker and in one scene someone asks "Who owns that Studebaker out front?"

They also have a Facebook page .....

Razor​

When I went to get the above link, the Facebook page says it will also be available on Netflix.

 

btt