Le Mans-The Movie

[Hugh R]

Did a rightful search and Pelican only came up with their for sale items. Watched the DVD tonight, here I am in the movie biz trying to figure out the camera shots. Amazing!! You see lots of Porsche and Ferrari driving shots with a close up shot into the cockpit, where a camera truck must be right next to it at speed (obviously not at 200 mph). The Pcar #20 crash, I'd like to learn more about how they did that. Gotta do a little research.

[bigchillcar]

well...a few expendable, 'blacklisted cameramen' were utilized..
ryan

[bigchillcar]

teach them to keep filming when the director yells "cut!" but weren't the shots recovered from the cameras great?!!

[black993]

I understand that a swing out camera rig was used for some of the high speed shots and that it adversly affected the handling of the cars.Also heard that the crashes were done with remote control. That would have been something to see. Just don't remember where I read the info but I think it was an interview with a driver that did some wheel work for the movie.

[slodave]

There seems to be a video out titled:
Filming at Speed: Making of "Le Mans"
Released 2001, 30 minutes.

Dave

[Sonic dB]

There is also this book...but its pretty expensive... looks cool though

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0837602343/qid=1144910349/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/701-1421981-5840315

[teenerted1]

just wait till SPEED broadcasts the movie again and they will probably show the documentary about the making of the movie...probably has answers to all your questions.

[masraum]

Actually this stuff has come up here some before. I even remember seeing pics of some of the racecars with cameras mounted to them.

[juanbenae]

they, mcqueen's company that did the film purchased a 908 (i am pretty sure) and rigged it with cameras for many of the racing bits of footage. mcqueen actually raced it prior to the filming of the movie in the 12 hours of sebring i believe. there are a couple documentaries about the filming of it. i have also read about it in a couple mcqueen bios. there is a documentary about mcqueen that plays on one of those classic movie channels that is very good. they usually sandwich the doc between a couple of his movies.

[Rikao4]

Steve McQueens son did a doc. on the making of movie,
recall him saying the shot of the car going thru the 'Martini' sign was not planned.
Rika

[masraum]

a little searching on google images...

[masraum]

And if you do a search on google you find several pages (many that the pics came from) that have text on the filming.

[DaveE]

The "Porsche" crash was actually done using a Lola T70 with 917 bodywork. Lolas were past their prime and no way were they going to demolish a 917. If you look closely at the car during the slo-mo scene you can even see the the color of the lower bodywork / fuel tank area is different. The car was rigged with remote control equipment for the crash. The 'Ferrari' through the billboard was also a Lola with the Ferrari bodywork.

[}{arlequin]

i think steve's post covers most. lots of different rigs. the speedvision version of le mans covers the rest, including how dangerously unstable the cars have become when driving fast w/ those "weights" suspended outside of their wheelbase/track

[scottmandue]

I'm surprised a search here didn't bring up any threads, we discuss this movie here every few months. Seems we are divided by the guys who love the movie like you and I and some who find it boring because of the lack of dialog. You say the doc is out on DVD... hmmm I may have to look into picking that up.

In the documentary he says at one point the one of the film cars (908?) was leading the race so they went to the director and told him if they stopped pitting to reload the camera they would win the race.

IIRC The director said the producers would rather he come back with film than a trophy.

[RickM]

Originally posted by scottmandue
I'm surprised a search here didn't bring up any threads, we discuss this movie here every few months.

You can add Grand Prix to the mix as well.

[masraum]

Cool site

http://www.a2zracer.com/page33.html

I've been wondering forever what/where the significance of the 2 finger salute was.

Steve giving the "two finger salute" in the film Le Mans


Hundreds of years ago when the English and the French were doing battle, any English longbowman who fell into the hands of the enemy often had two fingers of his "string-pulling" hand loped off. Should he escape, this would prevent him from plying his trade. So in Battle, English longbowmen would taunt the French by raising the two fingers across the lines to show they were still potent warriors.

In the last scene of Le Mans, the movie filmed during this race, Steve McQueen, salutes Ferrari driver Erich Stahler, played by Siegried Rauch.

A 917 was wrecked during filming. Fortunately it was later resurrected.

Here are the remains of the camera car 917K, after driver David piper blew a tire at Arnage while ahead of Parkes' 512 Ferrari. The Porsche crashed into barriers at both sides of the track, broke in two, with both halves coming to rest in a ditch. The crash cost Piper his lower leg. Fortunately the aft camera seat had been removed. None of these shots appeared in the movie.

David Piper, you may recall, had been Tony's co-driver at Daytona four months earlier. David owned his own 917K, and asked Tony to drive it at Monza a few weeks later. It was the beginning of a fine friendship. Piper eventually mended so well nobody could tell he lost a leg, and Tony would drive his 917K on three continents.

Believe it or not, the 917K was so valuable, it was reconstructed with help of 917-034 chassis and body.

Retaining its original chassis number, the rebuilt car went on to win the Daytona, Monza, and Zeltweg races

the following season! Considering how "right" a car must be to win, those mechanics were miracle workers!

[Hugh R]

Originally posted by masraum
a little searching on google images...

Look at the camera dolly with the operator hanging out there at speed in the rain. That's crazy! We use hot head remote operated cameras for most of that kind of stuff now. I just noticed that Bob Relyea was the Executive in Charge of Production. He's a Prod Exec. at Warner Bros. now, I'll have to see if he has time to talk to me.

[masraum]

They need seating like that for ALMS races!