Someone at this forum did that and wrote about it several months ago. He even uploaded a test shot he did (into the car from the hood, while driving). It was an OK shot as far as I remember, a few of the comments mentioned he should get a polarfilter to eliminate the reflections on his windscreen. Do a search on some of these cues and see what it brings.

Otherwise, I've imagined (but not tried) to mount a camera on a tripod inside the car, fasten it with baggage strappers and shoot out the window.
Tor

How funny. I mounted mine on top with the sunroof. Broke the sunroof. I don't know how. But it rocked while it worked! I wanted to do a shoot looking forward, backward, and sideways. See if I could get people to wave to it or something. Glad to see other people are almost as strange as I.

I while back someone posted about a mount that sat on, was attatched to a bean bag sort of set up, which would be cool for dashboards. Myself, I've got a few of these large squeeze clamps I've gotton off of some very cheap electric fans (I think they were like $5 each). They've got a good, strong spring, rubber pads where they grasp the surface, and a swivel mount where the fan attached via a bolt with a hand toggle that's the same size thread as the tripod mount hole on a camera.

I do not know the costs but try this http://www.microdolly.com/micro_6.html

If the mike is on the camera wind noise will be a problem with the external mount.
I used a small tripod with the "jammo jammo" technique of adjusting and positioning
the legs by the passenger seat of the vehicle with a bunch of bunji cords as
safety ties wrapped real tight. The camera was aiming out the windshield without
any windshield border but the hood was visible. Worked real well. The tripod was
a real cheapo.

JJK

Checkout www.helmetcamera.com for a plugin lens


Bob

You may want to look at purchasing an external lens so that you can mount it independently from your camera. I've purchased and used product from this company www.helmetcamera.com with good results.

-Dan

Once you get the camera mounted, you may find that the bounce of the car will be worse than your hand-held shots. You can fix this in post using Steadyhand. Highly recommended (I'm not affiliated with the company in any way). Check it out at:

Steadyhand

I think it's called Full Compass..? WI based as well..? fullcompass.com maybe...? should be right up some of you's angus...!

I hate to admit it but I've done camera rigs for cars in sideshows. Camera mounted on the door and the car just burns rubber in circle after circle in an intersection. The camera stayed on the car.

I thought for sure someone was going to get killed. Nothing attracts a crowd of utter fools better than a car on the verge of spinning out of control and killing a third of them.

We didn't have any of the really cool equipment you'd buy from a good LA grip house like Modern but made it work with local rented gear-very heavy suction cups like window people would use but they have a couple of specially machined brackets. All of this gets fastened down with ratchet straps and then you tie a secondary leash to all the parts so if they get loose they don't go far.

Look for a plastic product called synskin to place on the paint. It should stick nicely and keep the paint from being abraided. It is an alternative to the plastic stuff you put on a car when you're covering it in advertising. Never damage a car doing this. Take it as a point of pride.

The suction cup route mainly keeps the mount in position-straps keep the cup on the car.

More professional rigs will allow more camera position flexibility. You can easily spend a few grand to get profesional gear but if you use it for paying jobs it pays off in time and safety.

If people are going to be sticking large parts of their body out of a moving car you need to tie them in.

And last, think about a trailer-the type the entire car can get up on.

Rob Mack

Wow, thanks for all the replys!

Great ideas. I might just have to shoot from inside the car?

(Those NASCAR guys do it right at 190MPH, but they have the cash).

I'll let you know what I come up with, it will be later this summer.

Thanks again,

Jon

Shooting from inside is very safe. Otherwise, start haunting all sorts of hardware stores. Get Granger and McMaster catalogs for ideas. Often, rural hardware stores will have great stuff that farmers might use to maintain their equipment.

Many hardware stores have perforated angle steel (that's not the right name but it's late) and strut materials. You can do a lot of erector set stuff with that and some high quality wratchet straps. Aluminum is preferred but if you're working out of the local store then steel is what you'll have.

What you're asking for is what a skilled grip does. Usually it's a grip who specializes in car mounts because experience is important. This stuff can be dangerous to camera and crew.

I think that the dvd for the movie "Speed" may have a lot on it about the rigs on the busses they used. It's food for thought.

Rob Mack