Film Work

It can be an absolute pain in the arse. One bloke with a show MK2 Golf (probably not your idea of a classic, but a car that would have had a lot of cash tied up in paintwork etc.) hired out his car for a cadburys ad. It came back with a load of scratches and various other problems due to them swapping the windows for filming etc.

In message , Doki writes

Agreed. Having had to stand around whilst film crews work on public roads on several occasions, I have to say I would never let them within a mile of any car I owned unless it had very little value and I really didn't care what happened to it.

I guess it must vary with the production team then. I know a couple of people from forums whose cars were in Life on Mars - they got to drive their own cars on set (as well as sit in the Cortina!). They and their cars were very well looked after.

But on the whole I concur, having heard quite a few people say that the cars don't get looked after. To most producers, I guess they're just another prop, and largely regarded as expendable.

Only consider it if you take the car to the location and drive it yourself. But don't expect to make a fortune. Just a possibly pleasant day out with a bit of spending cash at the end.

A classic car 'starring' in a film etc is merely a prop and *will* be treated badly. Trust me. ;-) Because of this, most are bought in for the series rather than hired.

Beware the various companies who charge you to put a picture of your car in their brochure (or, presumably, website these days).

If you do get a booking, check the production company's insurance very carefully. Ignore the paragraphs of lawyerspeak - you just need confirmation that the car will be returned to you in the condition it was when you handed it over - irrespective of fault. In other words, if it throws a rod during filming it's up to them to pay for an engine rebuild. Sounds harsh, I know, but they've got more money than you and they must be made aware of the potential risk to them should something 'orrid happen. If they won't accept this, walk away - they can always get another 1927 Bloggsmobile Farquhar elsewhere, can't they?

As Dave says, you won't make a fortune - £175/day up to £400/day if you have something particularly in demand. Rarely reflects the value of the car - series like Life on Mars and Heartbeat use a lot of sixties and seventies "cooking" cars, so a Hillman Minx may well be worth more in terms of daily rate than a GTO Ferrari. Just depends what's wanted at the time.

I looked into this several years ago, but concluded the return did not justify the time. Now, as a pensioner (!) with time but no money it is much more attractive.

Geoff MacK

Worth remembering that prime time (ITV1, BBC1) shows can easily cost

1/2 million per hour upwards. A classic worth ten or twenty grand is lost in the noise.

Ian

The budget for props will only be a tiny part of this, and very very few

20 grand cars will be written off. They'd likely buy a second near scrapper and tart it up to look good enough on camera. The only decent car I've seen written off recently was the Ford Zephyr in 'The Royal' a couple of series ago. Which was used for most of the episodes, so the cost spread over them. It also was a pretty spectacular accident which may well have needed a decent car to perform it. Still near broke my heart, though.

The one that upset me was the Jowett Javelin that they drove over the edge of a quarry in Ballykissangel. You saw it upside down, and it really was the Jowett underside (I used to own one, and would recognise that layout anywhere) and it certainly didn't look like a near scrapper.

Jim