NEED to Rent a smart car

[xbook]

Hiya All,

Please let me introduce myself. My name is Jason King, I hail from Los Angeles, CA.

Here in Los Angeles, I edit sound effects for motion pictures. Currently I am working on a movie, where the main character drives a smart car. Unfortunately, we have no recordings of smart cars. So, we have gone to the producers, and asked them for enough $$ to rent a smart car and go out to the desert and record it. Problem is, we can't find a smart car rental near or in Los Angeles.

I would like to ask that the smart car forum community lend myself and my crew-mates a hand, and help to point us in the direction of where we can rent a smart car. We would need it for about a day, and if anyone here is looking to make an extra $135, we would gladly give the money to you, and pay for your gas costs ($135 is the rate I found for smart rental in Vegas, but that's too far to go), in exchange for letting us drive your smart car to the recording location and preform the manuevers we need to record. dont' worry nothing that will damage the car.

Thanks all for your help in this matter, I really appreciate it.

-Jason King

[KeyserSoze]

Here's food for thought if your producers aren't stingy enough to give a spend the money for a line in the credits (trust me I know how precious credit space is). Why don't you go to a local dealership, ask to "borrow/test drive" one of their demo cars and tell them you can provide a screen credit to them for the privilege.

You know, "Thanks to Smart Car of blah blah blah". I don't know what your print run is like so that might cost you in excess of $135 for the extra line but hey, at least you'll have a Smart to record.

On second thought, just rent a V8 mustang and make it the Smart sound cool.

[bmx43]

sorry, call me a skeptic but this seems a bit weird to me. ever heard of a foley artist? the sounds you hear on film are never ever the real car.

[CruisingAZ]

I imagine there will be alot of smarts in U.S. made movies now.

[KeyserSoze]

Originally Posted by bmx43

sorry, call me a skeptic but this seems a bit weird to me. ever heard of a foley artist? the sounds you hear on film are never ever the real car.

lol, not in the biz are you?

xbook, you guys won last year for Clint's flick right? We nab the oscar for Pirates in another category.

[bmx43]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

lol, not in the biz are you?

xbook, you guys won last year for Clint's flick right? We nab the oscar for Pirates in another category.

the scam business? no sorry i'm not hahaha.

[SmartAzz]

If it helps there are vids available online- the Motorweek review, GQ, etc - where you could hear the car under various amounts of throttle and perhaps that would give you enough of an idea of it to foley/mock-up a similar enough sound.

But I understand the merits of having the real thing, I'd say Keyser's idea of going to the dealer to use a demo car is the best bet though, I'm doubting anyone wants to let their new car out their clutches and lend it to a stranger, much less have it revved and such for recording all day in the desert.

[spdickey]

You might call Vinnie at smart center Beverly Hills.310-860-4495.

[xbook]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

lol, not in the biz are you?

xbook, you guys won last year for Clint's flick right? We nab the oscar for Pirates in another category.

yo Keyser,

You are up @ ILM, right? I remember you from NAM. You still on there. Thanks for remembering. You still have your MINI? I still have mine, and the g/f is waffling between a smart car and a convertible MCS.

Originally Posted by bmx43

sorry, call me a skeptic but this seems a bit weird to me. ever heard of a foley artist? the sounds you hear on film are never ever the real car.

Ummm, sorry to say dude but a foley artist is not what I need. A foley artist is someone who performs things like footsteps, coffee cup set downs, hand pats, boring stuff. A sound effects editor, which is what i do, creates/records/edits the sounds that are WAY bigger than what a foley artist can do in a little foley stage. And, in film sound, it is very important for us to start with the natural of a "known" thing. Such as in the case of a smart car, I would hate for owners of smart cars to see this film, and say to themselves "that's not the sound of my car". Also, in a film like "Flags of our Fathers" it was very important to us to have the authentic guns from the era. So we went out to a canyon in SoCal, and th armorer for the show brought us actual Japanese and US weaponry from WWII. Including antique Japanese ammunition for the "woodpecker" machine gun.

It is physically impossible to record cars on a foley stage. For one, most vehicles can't fit thru the doors that lead to even the best foley recordgin stages on the planet. Secondly, how do you propose one gets a motor vehicle up to 45 mph in a 15 x 40 foot space?


This is a real thing, I am not some schiester looking to steal someone's car out from under them. If anyone would like to see my credits to my previous film projects, here is a link.

Credits

[xbook]

Originally Posted by spdickey

You might call Vinnie at smart center Beverly Hills.310-860-4495.

Thanks SP, I will do that tomorrow. Thanks for the name and number.

-Jason