Sunbeam Alpine in music video clip

michael-king

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Back in 1997 I was contacted to ask if my Alpine could be used in a James bond spoof music video clip. The band was a Melbourne group the "screaming jets". I left uni early that day with a borrowed hardtop on.

The car got filmed for about 2 hours, the hardtop clip in front of the attractive female driver kept falling down as we rocked the car side to side to fake the driving on the blue screen. I had to go in and re-clip it a few times.. i still remember the tight body suit suggestively unzipped that i had to lean over and into! Anyway... i digress..

I did a search on youtube.. and sure enough.. there it is..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfUdLkHL3lc

enjoy the view.. The alpine shows up at the 8sec mark then longer at 3:00 min mark.. you can see the soft top folded in the back.. i hadn't installed the hood boxed.. i had only just fitted the soft top the week before.. the filming paid for that!
 

venice532

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possible dents

Michael thought of that, the guy in the video is laying on top of a borrowed hardtop.
Bob
 

michael-king

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Michael thought of that, the guy in the video is laying on top of a borrowed hardtop.
Bob

Actually Bob J.. when i first heard what they wanted to do I was a little concerned.. as it was borrowed. Was also the first time i drove my car with a hardtop and what made me want to get one.. though the borrowed one didn't have a proper headlining, just black felt stuck to it.

I posted a bit more info on another site re this.. so will just do a CTRL +C CTRL + V to explain what went on and also why it wasn't an issue :)

It was quite a fun day.. but a bit of prep.. i had cleaned and polished the car... but it rained on the way to the studio.. so chamoised the car down when i got there. Then they had to cover all the rego and other stickers on the screen so we made some mockup Russian registration stickers and covered the others with black tape. I had to remove the front number plate as well.

We knelled behind the back of the car and shook it side to side.. That's why the front shots are so low down and also the side shot is a close-up in the window. The Bond character had a big woolen pad stuck to his underside to stop his buttons scratching the top and they used a rig to lower him on the car that was belted around his waist so no pressure on the hardtop. I was more worried that his feet were going to go through the rear window when they lowered him.

Its a pity I didn't have my camera with me at the time, should have taken photos of the car in the studio and with all the people walking around it etc... but that was before the digi-cam days.. and no mobiles with cameras.. then again.. i might have forgotten to take pictures of the car!

I also notice it has the large thin rim wheel i used to have on the car... I think i took that off mid 1998 or so... hard to believe this was over 16 years back.. watching the video reminded me of so many details of the day..
 

steven

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Hope you don't mind if I include this in my next newsletter, Michael. Need something interesting as our club seems to have less and less active menbers.
Steven
 

michael-king

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Steven,

i was debating about including it in the August SCCV Torque.. so you might steal my thunder!

That said i have 2 articles lined up already for the magazine... one on DCOE installations on rootes motors and one on aftermarket conversions for the cars... but as August may be my last edition.. i might put the video slip one in anyway... you can use what i have posted if you want.
 

venice532

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dcoe

Hi Michael, if you can post the article on the dcoe conversions here, I'd like to see it.
regards
Bob J.

"one on DCOE installations on rootes motors and one on aftermarket conversions for the cars.."
 

michael-king

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I was out in the Alpine today and had it parked on a well known shopping strip, lots of people walking around it and looking at it while i was getting lunch.. when i came back a guy came up and asked if I would let them use it in a video clip.. It's a good local band with a song i like.. so said I would consider it... might be the alpines second shot at fame!

Not so sure i liked his comment though... "it's such a cool car.. its like a red batmobile" :rolleyes:
 

Tiger tamer

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I would'nt be offened

I was out in the Alpine today and had it parked on a well known shopping strip, lots of people walking around it and looking at it while i was getting lunch.. when i came back a guy came up and asked if I would let them use it in a video clip.. It's a good local band with a song i like.. so said I would consider it... might be the alpines second shot at fame!

Not so sure i liked his comment though... "it's such a cool car.. its like a red batmobile" :rolleyes:

Michael
Makes a change from Maxwell Smart though. If he thinks it is a red Batmobile that's OK. He thinks it's cool, that's the main thing.

And getting asked for it to be used in their video clip, is cool.

Cheers Mal
 

michael-king

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weekend shoot

Well the car is being feature din the video.. and the good news is it will probably get a few minutes of screen time... so some Sunbeam/Alpine promotion, we are not sure if it wil be hardtop on or off.. will depend on weather. As a side note they want the car t break down at the end.. i told them if they had told me that in advance i wouldn't have done the service and we could have done it for real :p

For the video they wanted a "classic" look.. so the 14" panasports with 195's have come off and some stock MKI Tiger wheels and trims have gone on. my Alpine now looks like a dinky toy!
 

cadreamn67

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Actually looks very stunning! Brand new, time warpish. Almost scarily so. If it is a toy, someone did a lot of work getting the background to scale...:)

Gene
 

michael-king

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rigging test

Rigging test for the cameras today.. Alpine will be featuring a lot.. should be fun. all touch wood.... i would post more pics.. but apparently the new photo limits are so daft they dont accept 728 x 1024 :mad:
 

michael-king

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Back from 3 day shoot with the alpine.. if some of the stuff makes the final cut there will be some great PR for sunbeams.. closeups of the badges, lettering etc... fingers crossed!

will post pics tomorrow
 

65beam

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video

Michael,
you haven't mentioned the name of the group or the song in the video. will it be seen outside Australia?
 

michael-king

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OK here are some pictures from the shoot .. i did some driving in some large panning shots dressed in the main characters clothes so i guess i will be in the video (though not like i will be identifiable!) the car will probably get quite a bit of airtime both in backgrounds and in feature shots. They ran out of time to do 2 cams they wanted.. one chase view from another car and the coolest one (so sad) was a live elevation tracking shot where 1 car would have driven next to the alpine with a gryo cam so it would be a side view and of the whole car as it drove along the coean.. oh well.

Bob.. it's an Australian singer and the video will be seen outside AU.. i believe they will have an online release date for the video on 7th October and will be provided to various intl music outlets. i wont be naming it until after release.. not meant to be out yet.. so will respect that. I wil post the link once it is out. Hopefully i will get copies of the distance shots where i drove and will post them if i get them.
 

michael-king

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I saw the first cut of the video today, they say its about 60% complete.. will be interesting to see how much of the Alpine footage stays in it.. will be able to post a link to the final in 5 days.
 
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