How Movies Get Vintage And Custom Cars | Movies Insider

In movies and TV shows, cars are important props. They make period films feel like they are set in the past. They help give characters an identity. They add action and speed to chase scenes. We visited one place that supplies cars to film shoots- the Auto Film Club in Staten Island, New York.
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Following is a transcript of the video:
Narrator: In movies, cars get blown up and flipped. They define characters or they're characters themselves. Sometimes they're the center of the shot and other times they're in the background just helping to set the scene. But where do these cars come from? Some of them come from the Auto Film Club in Staten Island, New York.
Max Lucci: We rent vehicles, we modify vehicles, we acquire vehicles.
Narrator: The Lucci family has been in the car rental business for 43 years. Max's father Ralph had an auto body shop with his brother in Brooklyn and they got to know people with old cars.
Lucci: They started getting calls from different prop masters and people in the film industry saying, "Oh, you guys have a body shop where you have all these older cars. I need cars for a period piece."
Narrator: After awhile, they were acting as liaisons between film crews and car owners. Eventually they started buying cars to keep in their own inventory as well. Now, they've got about 190 vehicles available on their lots and a database full of car owners willing to rent. The cars they have range from flashy, polished collectibles to beat-up junkers.
Lucci: Whether it's your pristine garage queen from the '60s or '70s or your jalopy, you know, your Subaru Outback, whatever it may be there's always a character who needs a specific type of car.
Narrator: The way it usually works is a production company calls with a request for a particular type of car. If the Auto Film Club doesn't have the car, they'll act as the agent for someone who does or try to find one to buy. If they do have the car, they'll bring it into the garage and make sure it's running well before it has to be on set.
Lucci: If there needs to be a shot where a car is having a hard brake and it stops right in front of the principal actor or actress, then we'll inspect the vehicle, check out the brakes.
Narrator: This is all part of getting the car stunt ready. They might also prepare a car to burn rubber, be smashed, or get flipped. For the movie This Is Where I Leave You, the Auto Film Club had to find an old Jaguar and then gut it.
Lucci: We removed the motor and the transmission from it, made it hollow, and then we had some people from special effects come in and fabricate a fake-looking motor that we put into the vehicle and then we had to weld a pipe so that the actors who were flipping over this real car could use it to gain leverage and actually flip over this old Jaguar.
Narrator: You might not know it, but you've probably seen some of Auto Film Club's cars. They supplied about 14 cabs for this scene from the 2002 Spider-Man movie. The rest you see were added digitally in post-production. They supplied the cars for Men in Black, including the Zap-Em van and the car that Will Smith smashes through when he shoots the cricket gun. That one was the Lucci family's car when Max was growing up.
Lucci: It used to get driven to school, kindergarten, every single day, we called it Old Betsy.
Narrator: Auto Film Club has supplied cars for Gotham, the Americans, Jessica Jones, and the list goes on. -
Lucci: You can never say no to a potential client because you never know when they're gonna call you back. He told me to call this person who told me to call that guy, who knows a guy in Wyoming. I finally called someone and I said, "Do you have a 1993 to '97 Prevost bus hatch?" And he said, "Yeah, I got one right in my yard."
How Movies Get Vintage And Custom Cars | Movies Insider

[@Poopsticle_256]

But the real question is, does he have a Nissan S-Cargo with many quirks and features?

[@andrewwilson8555]

What’s it’s Doug Score?

[@oooohapenny4707]

They simply MUST have an intricate infotainment system!!!

[@6speedENT]

*AUTOTRADER/OVERSTEER*

[@Poopsticle_256]

Excuse me C.J, but it’s autotrader.com/oversteer ...

[@Poopsticle_256]

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS MAKE A DAMN DOUG DEMURO JOKE C.J.!

[@NachoTV]

Those cars get their second chance to be the star

[@saablazer1658]

Seeing them flip that Jag made me die inside.

[@classiccarfanatic]

Saablazer your not the only one

[@ScottHarrisonRSH]

Agreed!

[@thepowerfulkiller8474]

I cringed when I saw that jaguar getting flipped

[@kronos0848]

Thepowerfulkiller History Being Flipped over

[@thepowerfulkiller8474]

Yeah it just doesn’t seem right to do that to a antique car......someone out there might have wanted it and because of this they couldn’t get to buy it

[@Michael_Shoemaker]

In another generic American Comedy.

[@trashymontyy2385]

Thepowerfulkiller false. Literally put parts back on.

[@sadmanh0]

THEY RUINED AN E-TYPE?!

[@jimmygrant3212]

sadman hoque it’s an early 70’s E Type Coupe ugly and the least desirable of E types and probably full of body filler.

[@robertbarker5981]

I'm not really a fan of the E type, but that was too much

[@Inkreptile]

Nooooooooooooo .... not the e type.....

[@themightydash1714]

Doesn't matter if it was a 70's E-type, that's a £100,000 car every day of the week! Go check.

[@goodial]

some movies have million dollar budgets for these kind of things ... look at Spectre for example. The vehicular costs according to Wikipedia on that one were around 48 million dollars, which included developing and producing several Jaguar CX-75, a car that is originally just a concept car. a mere E-Type 100,000 is peanuts compared to that!

[@curse7519]

Always wanted to know this

[@BlackBullRising]

Curse xT: The other way is for a casting director to post a call for a certain type of vehicle. When I lived in Miami there was an open call for tuners to be in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Most recently I was working on an off road truck that fit the bill for a post apocalyptic ride in Maze Runner: The Death Cure. There's not a lot of money in it unless you're car is a featured car. If you're interested sign up with your local casting company. You can also offer up your home as a filming location.

[@henryd.4802]

Press F for the Jaguar E-Type

[@Kim67749]

That's good business that will never die

[@saugatpoudel4088]

kimani CGI

[@cpufreak101]

Saugat Poudel they still need a few real ones for interior scenes and reference points to add in the CGI ones

[@atranas6018]

kimani at least until CGI take over everything

[@anthonyr1930]

Saugat Poudel CGI would cost MUCH more for the studio than just renting an actual car would.

[@runarandersen878]

Hard to tell. Digital special effects keep getting better. Many jobs don’t exist now because of that.

[@AndrewSVO]

wow, that V12 E-Type was in MINT condition, sad they had to flip it. (literally)

[@mikewazowski865]

Andrew Goldman i actually died when i saw that. going to drink a case of beer and all the alcohol in my house to stuff that memory down

[@TheHua89]

That just broke my heart 😢

[@MiniFR12]

It didn’t seem like it was that damaged - it’ll probably be back on the roads now!

[@x-90]

Andrew Goldman it hurt me so much

[@joaquinaguilera8439]

Andrew Goldman same

[@MoxieBeast]

This definitely makes me feel like an INSIDER 🤗

[@nshekkhalidkhalid6n927]

Bggadfjjllppppposdbbnnbnklp

[@RobShutt357]

A friend of mine owns a similar company in Los Angels called Picture Car Warehouse. They also build custom such as the Fast and Furious cars.

[@SmR8008]

My jaw dropped when they rolled the Jag😦

[@bilalahmed2123]

Poor BMW E36 and Jaguar E-Type

[@m1lkm4n4life4]

Bilal Ahmed why poor BMW? They are so cheap and we have so many in germany

[@jamesramirez3540]

M1LKM4N 4life yea but we get the shit version in the US

[@m1lkm4n4life4]

James LaRemmy shit version with automatic?

[@desmondmoonbear4143]

I know 😭

[@drxbaker]

I drove my own AMC Pacer Woody wagon, Nissan Maxima, Falcon and 66 Volvo for 3÷ years on Stranger Things and many more TV shows and films here in Atlanta. BEST JOB EVER...

[@mech-E]

That poor e type

[@bruhuamf7372]

stfu

[@tearsofthespring9595]

The guy looks like Miley Cyrus!

[@derziegenmann8i734]

The scene with the E-Type really Hurt my soul

[@JB-sv5pr]

How about the Ferrari from Ferris B day off ? Man I always wondered about that baby

[@lisaarmstrong5461]

I worked at the small company in Indiana that made the ugly utility vehicle in the thumbnail probably years before it was painted and decaled like that. It's called an Aeromate probably one of the crappier small utility vehicles ever made.

[@rosemaryspilman9223]

Do y’all have a black 67 Chevy impala? I’ll take that thank you.

[@melvonmitchell]

0:39 GTA V characters, Michael, Trevor and Franklin.

[@lukaslibar7615]

Imagine the work put in the mad max cars

[@WildwoodClaire1]

Every "period" film I've ever seen commits some error with its cars. For instance, the 1948 Packard that briefly appears in "Patton," the 1935 Hupmobile glanced in "Bonnie and Clyde," and multiple post-1934 cars featured in "Public Enemies" (John Dillinger was killed in summer 1934). More recently, the film "Hidden Figures" prominently features a 1964 Ford Galaxie in a scene set in 1961. Of course, the most famous error involving a car in a movie is in "The Searchers." Once you see it speeding up a road in the background while US cavalry cross a stream in the foreground, you can never "unsee" it.

[@manjulavarikolu2428]

I know your thinking about Bumblebee now.

[@fraxiewolf330]

Manjula 77 nope.

[@gabbyomega]

Manjula 77 I was lol

[@AyAy008]

You're *

[@justmechanicthings]

I was thinking about Fast and Furious actually

[@NoThisIsPatrick.]

Iw was thinking about mayonnaise

[@Fullmetalseagul]

It hurts my soul to watch vintage cars get destroyed just for a movie. I'm glad vfx is more widespread.

[@Haanedai]

Wow that's cool. I always wondered this.

[@Marco-xz9sc]

The poor jaguar

[@kbhasi]

Wow, I had thought there were massive prop warehouses before I saw this video. Wow.

[@hairman943]

Everytime I see an old car get beat up in movies it kills apart of me, I just hope they get the attention they deserve after. :(

[@beardedbassterd923]

Harbor Frieght jack. They spend money on great tools!😄

[@UzzyT.]

That last story sounded thrilling, have you got a full clip of it somewhere?

[@MalaysianTropikfusion]

Why would Hollywood directors get their cars from the East Coast?

[@kutter_ttl6786]

Ezehelm If the filming location is on the East Coast then it makes sense to use a local company.

[@MalaysianTropikfusion]

That would be rare, wouldn't it? Like, the whole point of Hollywood is the convenience of being able to shoot in the studios (e.g. Universal), and not having to go elsewhere to shoot.

[@patandbrandi]

Probably a west coast company too

[@kutter_ttl6786]

If you're doing an indoor shot then a studio, perfectly fine. for outdoor shots, however, NYC has certain look to it's streets and sometimes remaking it in a studio isn't feasible so going on location can be the best option. For example, if you're looking for a distinctive location like Time Square or Central Park then what would be better, trying to recreate that in a studio or actually going onsite? Or even trying to get the big city feel of NYC, is it feasible to film that in a West Coast city like LA or film it on the East Coast? I can only speak of my own personal experience but where I'm from, Toronto, it's often used as a stand-in for NYC as it has a similar layout and architecture in its downtown core. Sorry for the essay, I usually try to keep it shorter :)

[@MalaysianTropikfusion]

+Pat +Kutter_TTL Okay, it all makes sense now. Thanks for explaining =]

[@NotSoMelancholy]

I always would’ve thought they just took a car and gave it the body to look like an old car if it was being used for stunts

[@Squicx]

COOL! i have more ideas for my 80s tv show or 80s film

[@cyruscaalim7623]

0:02 STRANGER THINGS! :D

[@maciejknap6284]

Cyrus Caalim no shit

[@theworldoverheavan560]

Cyrus Caalim want to see my stranger things

[@ncp61398]

"subaru outback" *shows picture of a taurus*

[@Simon-un5pv]

“Knows a guy in Wyoming” I highly doubt that

[@mariaysuflor]

Simon Green Shhh... We don't speak about Wyoming. It is a fictional place only found in books.

[@James-zx9sw]

I used to pass this place every day on my way to school

[@anailieva9790]

I only clicked on this video because I saw the men in black film car in the thumbnail😂😂😂😂I love that movie

[@lotusjaggarage2989]

Rip jaguar e type. That actually hurt

[@ZImpresive]

Imagine how much money those Cars are worth for their Historical value.

[@FiniteBlu]

I felt uneasy with that Jag being flipped.

[@antonio1681]

We were bamboozled once more....

[@JustinAbroad]

sometimes they post ads for cars. My dads 32 ford was used and they pay pretty good to rent the car from you

[@nottommy1002]

Craigslist...

[@LivingWithTheGuzmans]

Good video

[@user-pm8kr8kp5p]

Oh, you're here:>

[@AHackerForSure]

Hey! Subaru outbacks can be cool!!

[@ellisellis9117]

car? give me car pls!!😅😅

[@dumpster9048]

ellise ellis I know how you feel bruh.

[@dumpster9048]

Karen White gtfo ugly

[@depthstrider68]

Karen White no one

[@Swrvn]

Buy your own

[@Coronet_shop]

ellise ellis same here i need another project

[@tonylancer7367]

So what about cars that get thrashed? What do they do?

[@josephinksstudionstuff3415]

I wonder how they do that part in movies. When classic cars get damaged

[@xXxGnuVirusxXx]

1:51 harbor freight floor jack. Just saying.

[@combinationpizzahutandtaco3782]

Lol yeah I noticed that aswell

[@GETUPANDGO]

What a great reason to collect a bunch of cars, ha

[@damoncarrawell2906]

I honestly didn't know how bad I wanted to know this until I saw the title

[@ROGER2095]

Need a beater for your big budget movie? I've got a driveway full of 'em!

[@MoonlightMods]

I want to buy one of those old caddies 😍😍

[@perforongo9078]

Were they the people who supplied all the weird vehicles for Arrested Development?

[@ubayyd]

I knew this guy whose family rented out their cars for Bollywood movies, he also saw cars get blown up and met some Bollywood celebrities too lol

[@loonathequeens1605]

Is it just me or is it that I'm getting a car ad on a car video before it even started.

[@evigbevig]

Google now you👩🏼‍💻

[@joshplays5543]

The van was the van from the middle the zap em escape room episode at the end

[@JoeManLARockinEmpire]

OMG they keep them outside in storage. What a shame

[@EricLing64]

Subaru Outback? I don't think those are hard to find. A Brat or Baja on the other hand, well maybe not the Baja, seem to see one every now and then. Though I don't know why either would be wanted for a movie.

[@CIubDuck]

He never said that an Outback was hard to find.. he said that they have all types of cars, exotics like the jag and shitty normal cars like the outback.

[@CaptainAwesome-mz6mt]

I thought they supplied cars to Gotham because I recognised some of the vehicles

[@appalachianridgerunners6571]

I have a old 4X4 61 Chevy step side in my yard, love to rent it. Lol

[@stigsdanishcousin3075]

2:39 how could they😓

[@andrewroanhorse]

We drive vehicles, we wash vehicles, we look at vehicles, we walk by vehicles, we talk about vehicles....

[@beann3808]

That’s where the purge is located🙃

[@MultitaskingGuy]

I hope the zapm van is still the same

[@jacobstienecker]

I call my truck old Betsy

[@teravolt1195]

I guess the same fro streets of old cars to recreate the time period?

[@crzypyromaniac6406]

Did that E-Type get flipped over..... I will NOT forgive you for what you've done today.

[@gabbyomega]

That's awesome

[@bryan1282]

I more surprised about the harbor freight floor jack. I thought pros don’t shop at harbor freight hmmmmm?

[@LGLFanTeam12]

I want them to supply cars for the next Ubisoft's DRIVER TV show, just so that they won't have to wreck too many real classics!

[@spookerredmenace3950]

the Bullitt car? perhaps ?

[@lemuhnn]

Is that an orange gremlin?

[@Inkreptile]

Do they have a jaguar S type 1943 with auto transmission and leeft steering wheel

[@benbencorvair9071]

So do these classics like the Jaguar actually get damaged or crashed?

[@cpufreak101]

Benjamin Ramirez jr judging by how they literally flipped it, yes

[@VC-Toronto]

That Jag may have been an POS to begin with, with a quick trip to the body shop to make it look good from afar. There is a company near my house in Toronto that does the same thing for productions filmed in this area, and its always interesting to see what is at their body shop parking lot, old vintage cars, NYPD cruisers, Yellow Cabs, Meter Maid Cushmans from NYC, various ambulances, etc. I remember when Tommy Boy was filmed with some of the scenes filmed locally, there were 3 Belvederes in various states of repair/damage at one of their shops.

[@ricorunzzz]

Is this the selfie kids dad from super bowl that took a pic with Justin Timberlake

[@TwistedNerve1]

"and the list goes on" I haven't seen that one. Is it any good?

[@bigpat_4295]

Always wondered

[@icamp4funn]

1:31 is that a falcon or commodore

[@twrarmyteddy1990]

1:00 YOO it’s a gremlin I think! One of the worst cars ever.

[@siddarthreddy2787]

Did you have konegiseggs?

[@jnv1971]

I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Yes, sir. Are you listening? Yes, I am. CGI. Yeah ok. Maybe three words...

[@pantelisfoutrakis9843]

Good job

[@juniorl7157]

I work for ralph lucci in 96 to 98 went they make man in black muvie and I have the 1st t-shirt he give me to get food with out problem becouse im mexican and is not mexican people working for movies company on thos times I remember Máx lucci he was 5 year old and I remember my frend Beggi and I remember putting tha big cucaracha in tha green man in black truck. Also they have 2 DB 6 cars from jams bons movie and I have pics from movie with old cars crash in one of sean penn movies that was a great times thaks Ralph lucci

[@beans.477]

I took a tour at universal with the vip pass and they said they make the cars out of wood

[@themightydash1714]

wtf that jag was worth a fortune!!!

[@Redaxi]

Last part LUL

[@deutschlander2004]

So how do they make a movie based in 1940s New York with all of those cars

[@daltondick5223]

I’m destroyed at seeing these classics wrecked. Just build a mock-up for Christ sake!

[@rengoku8852]

Whats the title of the 3 movies at the intro?

[@jaredbattle1880]

That Tesla in the back

[@1986faras]

0.40 Mike Tyson?

[@ooizhingyao8388]

Looks like michael bay told them to customize Bumblebee from the last knight

[@thepebbleman]

Do they have an Initial D AE86?

[@largesoda1729]

Greased Lightning anyone?

[@plazmaballs1024]

It’s called.... MONEY!!!!!!!

[@GregStallion]

“Brook-lan”?

[@jthetowtruckguy1]

Lol. Did car wrangling. .... still have lists of over 12000 units..... have contacts that still renting and towing... look up "picture cars west"... or "911 picture cars"..... just a couple companies out here...