Sun exterior, bounce, Car Shoot, ND and exposure

[Stephen van Vuuren]

I'm DPing a local short, all daylight exteriors, to be shot with DVX100.
One long scene outdoors, mostly in shade but plenty of sunlight backgrounds. No budget for screens or HMI lighting (or lighting at all).
Only bounce cards available. I did a quick test and background is at least 5-7 stops too hot on sunny days. I can't see bouncing enough light to not go nuclear in sunlight BG if faces in shade are exposed properly.

Also car shoot - windows will of course completely blow out. Director wants to rig car with ND on all windows. We don't have a gaffer on crew who has rigged a car before. I have not either. Any estimate on time, cost and level of care needed to fully rig a car with ND 9 or ND 12? I'm concerned it will be visible with a camera free floating from front to back esp. with deep focus of DV.

Any advice, wisdom appreciated.

[Dick Nelson]

For the car shoot, do you have enough budget to just get the windows tinted, or failing that, to get use of a car where the windows are already darkened?
I'm thinking that for the amount of ND you'd consume, it might be cheaper to have a car customizer do a vinyl application for you. This wouldn't work if the car is on loan to begin with and needed to be returned <without> the gangsta look.

One other possibilty would be to get a big scrim, hang it far enough back from the windows to defocus, and then move it around from shot to shot. That wouldn't work on rolling shots, or if you're doing multiple cams. No personal experience here, just a thought.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Originally Posted by Dick Nelson

For the car shoot, do you have enough budget to just get the windows tinted, or failing that, to get use of a car where the windows are already darkened?
I'm thinking that for the amount of ND you'd consume, it might be cheaper to have a car customizer do a vinyl application for you. This wouldn't work if the car is on loan to begin with and needed to be returned <without> the gangsta look.

One other possibilty would be to get a big scrim, hang it far enough back from the windows to defocus, and then move it around from shot to shot. That wouldn't work on rolling shots, or if you're doing multiple cams. No personal experience here, just a thought.

Some good idea but I should have given more details. Budget for car is $50 and can only be supplemented by donations (it's community film project funded by city). Car is on loan and we could not find a tinted car plus in NC tinting front window is not allowed.

Big scrim is a good idea as 75% of car scenes is when they pull over to the side of road.