Picture Vehicles

In addition to the human stars of the film, there are also two automotive stars - an early 60's classic cadillac hearse, and an early 60's VW bus. We also needed a police car, a highway patrol car, a monster truck, an older, worse-for-the-wear pick-up truck, an RV, a sports car, and 3-4 Harley Davidson motorcycles.

If you think it's tough finding people for your film, try finding vehicles. If I had even imagined when I set about writing this screenplay that I would someday produce it myself, I would have written it with half the cast, half the locations, and two vehicles max. And I would have written a much bigger part for myself.

Actually, I was pretty lucky finding the VW bus. I noticed that another teacher at my school occasionally drove a beautiful blue-and-white 60's VW bus to school. I ran into Pete in the faculty parking lot one afternoon, and just sort of blurted out, "I love your VW bus. I'm filming a movie. Can I use your bus?" And in an unbelievable act of kindness - we'd never even had a conversation before - he said yes. Pete proved to be unbelievably accommodating in allowing us to use his VW bus on three different shooting days.

Now the hearse. I had to do a little more legwork here. I managed to dig up several hearse afficianado clubs in the Southern California area. I posted notices on a few of their online bulletin boards, and received a response from a wonderful hearse owner named Jeff. I explained the shooting dates and times, and he provided me with a very reasonable rate. When we were forced to modify the shooting schedule along the way, Jeff was flexible in showing up whenever and wherever we needed him. Since the hearse was used quite a bit, Jeff became a welcome member of our Defying Gravity "family". See if you can spot his cameo in the movie.

By this time I learned that unique cars that are rented to appear in movies are called "picture cars". I called many Hollywood picture car vendors in search of a police car and CHP car. I was quoted rates between $500 - $1000 per day (Most of them required that the cars be driven by one of their handlers, who also needed to be paid an hourly fee. In one case, the car had to be transported to and from the location on a flat bed truck - another ridiculous expense. And in all cases, there was an 8-hour minimum. No half-day rates.) Since I needed the police car for one day, and the CHP car for another day, this was going to be a hefty budget item, and the budget items were adding up fast.

Tip #2 for Producers: When all else fails, try craigslist.

On Craigslist, I chanced upon an educational video producer who owned his own police car. Gavin did a number of films for schools about the dangers of drugs, etc., and most of them featured what else but police cars. His rate - $100 for half-day, or $150 for full-day, plus the cost of gas to and from the location. Not only that, but Gavin had a wide assortment of police officer uniforms that he also rented out, at extremely reasonable prices. Gavin, too, was extremely accommodating to our schedule. He even showed up on Easter when we asked him to. If you ever need to rent a police car and/or uniform, call Gavin at Cal Motion Picture Productions - 818-985-3239 - tell him Lisa James sent you. (And see if you can spot Gavin driving one of his own cars in the movie.)

I was quickly learning not to settle for the first price that is quoted. Call around. Get at least three quotes. This is true not just for movies, but for everything in life.

Now for the less exotic vehicles. I borrowed the monster truck from an old neighbor, Tim, in Murrieta. I borrowed the older model pick-up truck from Nick, a fellow teacher, friend, and carpool mate. I used my own RV for the RV. The sports car you see Macauley driving was in fact his own beautiful convertible mustang.

And the Harley-Davidsons - that's a story in itself.