Doug DeMuro Reviews a Quirky Porsche Cayenne Camera Car
For his latest video, YouTuber Doug DeMuro reviews a very special Porsche Cayenne which is used to film exciting cinematic shots and costs $500,000.
The popularity of crossovers and SUVs is at an all-time high right now, and this market trend has compelled sports car manufacturers to develop their very own highriders. When Porsche first introduced its Cayenne SUV, the car faced some criticism for its controversial styling. Over the years, Porsche Cayenne has become one of the best-selling nameplates in the Stuttgart-based car manufacturer’s lineup. Other than hauling kids on school runs, Cayenne also found an exciting application as a filming rig.
For his latest video, YouTuber Doug DeMuro reviewed a very special avatar of the performance SUV, which costs half a million dollars. The Cayenne camera rig is used to film scenes where the SUV needs to keep up with fast cars at high speed, and its high ground clearance allows the vehicle to go off-road to get difficult shots. The camera car started its life as a standard Cayenne, which was then wrapped in a matte-black vinyl to ensure that the glare from the car’s paint does not reflect onto the objects in the frame.
Spending $500,000 on a camera car to film commercials might seem like an unnecessary expenditure to the regular Joe, but Doug explains why most film crews use a Cayenne camera car instead of having a cameraman stick of the windows or tailgate to film a shot. Doug explains, “There is a really good reason that’s primarily time. The arm can get a shot on the left side of the car, get a shot on the right side of the car, of a car passing, the arm can go and see it from different angles, all at once”.
He further explains,” if you’re sitting in the back of the car with a camera, and you want a different angle, you have to stop the whole production, get out and come in front of the car, reset everything, focus all that stuff. It’s just a lot more challenging, and time can be very important when you’re in the car commercial shooting business.”
The companies that retrofit the camera crane on top of the SUV usually prefer using a Cayenne that comes equipped with roof racks from the factory. The entire crane set up only weighs 500 lbs and can rotate in all directions almost instantly. The camera itself can pan and rotate around its axis. The camera’s weight is offset by counterweights on the other side of the crane, which are completely adjustable. Interestingly enough, the Cayenne camera car has found a new utility during the ongoing pandemic.
Doug offered an interesting insight on how the Cayenne camera car helps with social distancing, “this little box in here (inside the cabin) broadcasts live to YouTube. So you’re filming something, you can have a live stream of what you’re filming going onto YouTube which is important in the days of COVID.” He further adds, “clients don’t wanna get in such cramped tight quarters with the people shooting the video, so they can watch from home on YouTube, and then provide instructions from there.”
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