You don't have to lift the car very high, a foot or so should be enough. you could possibly even lift it using a lever, which you suddenly let go.

actually, a regular floor jack would do just fine. raise it up just a bit, let it fall and bounce. especially if it was raised from say a rear corner. just frame it out of the shot.

More or less amateurish then purposely driving a car into a tree?

Much more. There's no way of making a branch and a toy car look like a real car and a tree.

And it's not a case of "either/or". I've offered solutions that don't require smashing a car into anything.

J.

the front of the car will be SIGNIFICANTLY weakened. It'll have the engine and radiator and stuff out. the innerfenders will be gone, everything making the front clip rigid and strong will be cut or removed. it'll crumple like a tin can up until the K member, and I don't need any more carnage than that. it's not gonna get a moving start. that's more dangerous than crashing the car. just rest up against it and slowly push it till its "crashed".

OK, I said this in my first post and people pretty much ignored it, so I'll tell it again: you CANNOT smash anything into a large tree, they are protected by city bylaws - even on private property. You need a special permit to cut a tree in your yard, you sure as hell need permission to smash a car into one - and you won't get it.

Forget smashing anything into a tree. Period. End of discussion. You WILL be fined and may have to go to court.

were not cutting it down. were not moving it. the way were gonna do it, it won't even damage it. maybe some bark will come off. what does the state care if I push something against my own tree?

were not cutting it down. were not moving it. the way were gonna do it, it won't even damage it. maybe some bark will come off. what does the state care if I push something against my own tree?

Tell it to the judge. Trees are protected. Period.

I dunno, Jacques. Oregon's a pretty libertarian place. You can do pretty much anything there, especially if it's on your own property.

Cities require permits to cut down trees, Salem is no different. And that's not just for safety reasons, but to make sure old trees don't get wiped out for no good reason.

A quick Google search turns up a newspaper article about a Salem developer that was fined $10,000 for cutting down trees on his property without a permit.

If the OP runs a car into a tree, I'd wager dollars to donuts that a neighbour'll call the cops. Especially if it's a large, shade tree. And the next-door neighbour who might suffer damage if the tree gets sick from the impact, dies and falls on his property later on will be most vocal about it.

This thread started out fun, it's turned into a freaking advertisement for the Darwin awards...

Oliver - interesting example about the parachute. Particularly because Doug Spotted Eagle who posts here often had exactly this problem when he was skydiving and at the last minute lost control of his parachute and smashed into the ground - he nearly died and was hospitalized for an extended period.

And as you say, he was fine when he was still one inch from the ground.

yeah, I haven't heard of any tree protection programs. I could be wrong, i guess. I know who to ask about it though.
anywho, the car is all fixed up and ready to shoot. gotta clean the interior though.

So let me ask what the end result of this exercise will be.
A video posted to YouTube?

So the best way is to "build" a false tree (use a dead one, the trunk only is ok, 10feet high should be ok).
you can put it in the ground (deep) or glue it in a block of concrete.
first take would be from the tree point of view (dig a hole in the tree to put the camera) and the second from the driver point of view. a third point of view could be at the wheel level or just over the car to show impact (nice slowdown wanted).

Wondering whatever happened to this shoot/scene??

Maybe they were going too fast when they hit the tree???

Just kidding - and I'd like to know as well.

David brings up a scary point. This thread made the newsletter this month so I read it all the way through, and as best as I can tell DVInfo has not heard from Alec since February 13th. Alec, can you give us some follow-up on how this worked out and what method you used and if you are unharmed?

Maybe :-


It all went well, the director got what he wanted, has moved on and we here are of no furthur use.

The director ignored some good advice from we here and did not get what he wanted.

The director abandoned the project and full of chagrine and embarrassment, does not want to fess up to we here. - I for one would not be critical.

It went very badly indeed and the director does not want to fess up to we here. - Very much understood

It went extremely badly and the director is no longer with us.



Whatever, I feel we may hear no more on the matter from source, all of which is rather sad because I would like to have seen the positive outcomes or learned lessons from the negative ones.

I for one would have liked to see the footage of it no matter how it turned out.

I'm still alive.

well, the actual director is being a flake and the short is yet to be filmed. the current "plan" is to shoot it around mid-july, but there is currently no cemented plans.

unfortunately I have too many other hobbies to make this one a priority.



and I really do appreciate all your guys' help :^)