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"It's a tie between No. 6 and 5. I'm leaning toward 5. Unbelievable destruction. Fifteen to twenty cars a day. Nonstop." That's Dennis McCarthy recalling which movie in the Fast & Furious franchise he's had to supply the most number of cars for. Dennis is a "picture car coordinator." Within that innocuous title is perhaps one of the most envious jobs in the car business: Dennis builds vehicles for movies, TV, and commercials. You know, a couple little movies you might have heard of… Batman Begins. The Green Hornet. Man of Steel. Herbie Fully Loaded. Also for the hottest franchise starring cars, Fast & Furious.
Not bad for a hot rod builder.
Born a gearhead, he began reading car mags at 6 years old, then opened a hot rod shop called McCarthy Automotive in Burbank, California. But hot rods were never actually the most profitable part of his business. He was also servicing trucks and working on equipment for nearby NBC and Disney studios. Then one day Universal came by looking for a vehicle to be modified for a film. That happenstance led to a series of movies, and Dennis ultimately got involved in his first true car movie, Tokyo Drift, and has been with the F&F series since. He now works in a 28,000-square-foot facility in Sun Valley, California, housing his now-named company Vehicle Effects, with anywhere from 12 to 70 employees, depending on the project. And it's where he built the vehicles for Furious 7, in theaters April 3, 2015 and starring Vin Diesel and a lot of cars. (Watch The Furious 7 Trailer Here)
Furious 7 had to top the previous F&F movies, so the stunts got…bigger, the action got bigger, and Dennis's call to duty got…bigger. "We had a shorter prep time than with any of the other Fast movies. It's a lot of pressure to get everything finished in a short amount of time. And the off-road sequence required a whole different game plan," Dennis explained. "It's one thing to make a car stop, go fast, and handle great, but to make it jump off a 20-foot drop-off and land and continue to go is completely different." The general way it works is, a producer calls Dennis and pitches the movie idea, then sends him the script, and he figures out the best possible cars to use to match the personalities of the actors and the story and the terrain, plus how many cars will be needed. He then has to coordinate with the stunt-department's needs, the special-effects side, get the logistics on locations, and hire drivers, car carriers, and big flatbeds. During the build process, Dennis will keep in contact with the director and producers, showing in-progress photos and sometimes having an artist do a rendering of the final product. In fact, the director might not see the actual car until the day of filming because it was finished just the day before—like in the case of Furious 7. They were bolting pieces onto the car while it was on the trailer and the paint was still damp.
Dodge gave Dennis around seven 2015 Challengers for a snatch-and-grab action sequence. The automaker also provided a 2015 Charger, which at the time of filming was only a prototype—the only version of the car in existence. Manufacturers will sometimes provide vehicles for production like with Furious 7, which allows Dennis and his crew to focus on only cosmetics and modifying for the stunt crew, such as disabling the ABS and removing airbags and traction control. "All the standard safety equipment kind of goes out the window because it doesn't work for this kind of driving style," Dennis laughed. For non-action scenes, occasionally he'll use a car he's seen before, like the '69 Tornio built by Rad Rides by Troy, or the '68 Maximus Dodge Charger he spotted at a SEMA Show, both used in Furious 7.
Where things get interesting is with the older cars needed for movies like in the F&Ffranchise. They get built from scratch, "just like any hot rodder would do." Dennis will peruse craigslist.com, ebay.com, and the same places enthusiasts do. For Furious 7, he had to find five '67 Camaros. Rusted, damaged specimens were fine, because his team typically just bolts on quarter-panels and replaces the floorboards, then everything underneath becomes modern power. And there's usually a pattern: fuel-injected engine, Turbo 400 transmission, Ford 9-inch—"things I can put on different cars as needed. It simplifies the process. Interchangeable, regardless of make." Since cars get pushed hard during F&F movies, there's always a risk of damaging one or parts failing, so he opted to standardize the drivetrain for ease, and to also make sure the set never runs out of cars or that a failure holds up production. And there had been close calls in the early years, like the time he had put a guy on a plane from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico just to deliver some parts.
Any car you see in a Dennis movie has a duplicate (except cars that don't move at all), even if it's one just driving down the road, because anything could happen and he can't risk not having a backup vehicle—or 12. In the case of the F-Bomb Camaro built in our sister magazine Hot Rod and starring in Fast 4, seven duplicates were made—"but without the 1,200 horsepower."
What happens to the cars after filming? "The few that survive will come back to our shop and we start the process of restoring them for marketing and press events. TheFurious 7 premiere will have cars, and Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood have some on display," Dennis said. "They really go all over the world—Singapore, Abu Dhabi—they have an afterlife just moving around for people to see and enjoy."
Dennis manages to have an afterlife too, following the hectic pace movie after movie. Next up? Captain America 3. But is there a movie gig he'd like to have in the future? He told us a remake of a coast-to-coast race along the lines of Gumball Rally or Cannonball Run, movies he grew up with. "For me, any movie that has just a large amount of fast cars is something I'd want to be involved in."
Sounds like what Fast & Furious 8 needs. And we know the guy to call.
Ref:hotrod
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