How to Shoot a Scene Inside a Moving Trunk

By Co-writer & Director Ruth Du and Cinematographer Justin Alpern, SAMSON.

What starts as a simple lunch between exes turns into a fight for their lives when Emma and Dale are kidnapped by two masked men and locked in the trunk of a '86 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. A dark—sometimes terrifying—comedy ensues, as the ex-couple has to mitigate their feelings and their tight quarters.

But how did we, as the filmmakers, mitigate a setting so small, dark, and enclosed?

And how did we do it in a way that stayed true to the unique tone of our hybrid dark comedy/psychological thriller, musical independent feature film (on a very tight budget)?

Keep reading…

STEP 1:

Research. We watched a handful of movies that had long sequences in small spaces, including The Call with Halle Berry and Buried with Ryan Reynolds. We decided that we wanted to keep the trunk work grounded and not do anything too stylish (ie: unrealistic camera moves in a small space or drastic zooms). There’s so much happening within the scenes already that it was important not to distract the audience.

We also researched what it actually felt like being in a moving trunk. So, with safety in mind, a plan was formed. Ruth enclosed herself in the trunk of her car with her phone, while Justin drove slowly around a closed street. This gave us some inspiration on the way the light shifted and moved inside. Surprisingly, there was more room in the trunk than expected so we felt like the scripted blocking was somewhat realistic.

STEP 2:

Commit to not actually shooting in a real moving vehicle because safety first. We decided to fake the trunk so we had full control of what we were trying to accomplish.

STEP 3:

Find a picture car for the hero vehicle to match the trunk. In the script phase, we researched what type of older car had a large trunk and a 1980s Oldsmobile was our best option. We knew there was going to be a shot where we see the actual trunk of the picture vehicle, so matching was essential.

STEP 4:

Design the fake trunk to be larger than the actual trunk. This allowed for our actors to be a little more comfortable and allowed for rigging gear and cameras to also fit. Our trunk had flyaway walls so that we could move the camera 360 degrees around the rig.

STEP 5:

Build the trunk! A plywood box was constructed as a foundation for the trunk. We then carved sheets of foam to match the interior trunk of the picture car. Everything was test fitted before carpeted. Because the top of the actual hero vehicle had white metal details that we couldn’t double on a budget, we ended up carpeting the picture vehicle to match our build.

STEP 6:

Rig the trunk! From our test with Ruth in her trunk, we knew our trunk needed to be able to mimic the movements of a moving car. After several tests, we landed on using airbag truck suspension. We learned we could create repeatable movements by adjusting the amount of air in the suspension. For a smoother road feeling we had high air pressure, for rougher roads we used less and for sharper turns we deflated the right or left air bag.

The initial rig of the trunk was about a half-day's work on a soundstage.

STEP 7:

Schedule and block shoot all scenes in the trunk based on camera positions to insure the minimal amount of set-up time.

This is not ideal for the actors, as we had 13 page scenes in a sweaty and claustrophobic box. However, every single time we moved the camera, the camera de-rigs, a side of the box is physically unscrewed off and then we would have to re-light. We only had two days to do the entire trunk sequence so time was of the essence.

This meant prep, prep, prep. Ruth shot-listed and rehearsed blocking with actors before actors set foot inside the rigged trunk, so we could quickly shoot once cameras were up. We ended up dividing up the big scene into multiple chunks to alleviate the dialogue pressures for actors, but for the crew to also take a break also. We had to physically move the trunk and do lighting gags, so these breaks were critical for the team.

STEP 8:

Sound Design. After the movie is edited, the last and critical step is making sure the elements that we don’t see are accurately added in. Sound Design is truly the hero of movies and with the trunk, it was a game changer. Details that we couldn’t see on camera like a screwdriver flying across the trunk, were animated by sound effects. We even adjusted the sound of the road in our time jump to mimic the type of road the car would have been on, to help create a new sense of place.

With these eight easy steps, you too can shoot inside a moving trunk! Good luck, and message me for any further questions.

Ruth Du is a Director and Producer who gravitates towards relationship-based stories with a genre twist. SAMSON will arrive on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Google Play, YouTube Movies and Cable VOD platforms on Friday, November 29. And you really can DM her with any further questions. She loves talking about geeky behind-the-scenes movie stuff. For more: https://watchsamson.com and IG: @samsonmovie23

Justin Alpern is a cinematographer and entrepreneur based in Culver City, California. He’s been capturing the world in film ever since his dad gave him his first camera—a Contax RTS with Zeiss lenses—when he was 12 years old. He has upgraded my equipment these days, but Justin’s passion for capturing life’s moments in still and motion images remains unchanged.