TheSamba.com :: View topic - Has your Bus been used in a movie or commercial?

Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:27 am

My bus was just used in a movie shoot for an upcoming movie called "The Game Plan" starring "The Rock". It was a short scene depicting an African airport with 60's European vehicles in the background to help establish the location. The storyline of the movie is an NFL football player enjoying the bachelor lifestyle who suddenly discovers he has a 7-year old daughter. The daughter lives in Africa and somehow manages to track down her dad.
I found out about the opportunity through a local VW club member that does movie shoots on a fairly regular basis with a couple of antique vehicles he owns.
Basically I just had to drive up to a small local airport and park the bus where they wanted it. I added a gas can and spare tire to my roofrack for added effect. They even put an African license plate on the bus.

This shot is from the approximate camera angle of the movie camera. Although their camera was up on a boom so hopefully the vintage cars will be more visible:

I also helped them locate 3 other vehicles; '64 Goggomobil TS 250 euro sport coupe, '73 VW Thing, and '69 Citroen 2CV Truckette.

The shoot was very fun to participate in and paid pretty well too.
Has anyone else gotten their bus in a photo shoot recently?

Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:34 am

I thought things were from the 70's not 60's?

Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:47 am

Yustrn wrote: I thought things were from the 70's not 60's?

Yep, you're a sharp one there Yustrn...

The idea was have vehicles that would help establish the scene as being in Africa. They liked my panel bus because it was like a Kombi. They also specifically wanted to find a VW Thing and other European commercial vehicles (Citroen Truckette). The movie is set in the modern day, so they were not limited only to 60's vehicles. They also had a 1990-something Isuzu Trooper in the shoot. It came from a local junkyard.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:56 am

Is always too kool to have your bus make you money rather than your money going into the bus! 8)

Mine's been used twice for a german clothing catalog. Our club's ex-president owned the green & white bus used in the movie "Almost Famous". Also, if you ever get to see him, ask HDF about the use of his '55 Chevy Suburban on a movie. The thing was pretty much "patina'd" but all there. After the weeks of filming when he went to pick it up, they had done a complete paint and upholstery job on it! :o

Fri Oct 06, 2006 9:12 am

My dad has the Tiger striped bus from Nearing Grace... Too bad its a bay, but still is cool, gets lots of attention! http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=362607

Fri Oct 06, 2006 9:35 am

my mango 61 was in a movie called "Histoire d'hiver", a film made in Quebec.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:25 am

it's not a good sign when location scouts choose your local airport because it looks so much like an airport in africa.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:29 am

did you get to keep the license plate?

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:35 am

My pop-top was in Patch Adams.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:36 am

My White Panel was in a commercial for ESPN for a show Bill Walton was doing. By the Bill's wife was on my bed :lol: .

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:54 am

My 63 Dormobile and 63 Beetle appeared in the background in a VW South Africa corporate video about 10 years ago.

And my daily driver panel was recently used in the local launch of Peroni Italian beer.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:57 am

UZI wrote: it's not a good sign when location scouts choose your local airport because it looks so much like an airport in africa.

I'm not sure if that was really the case, although I was wondering the same thing. It's a small airport and it was probably not too difficult to get the use of it for the day. Of course they still had to be open enough for planes to land in case of an emergency, but no planes landed or took off while we were there. Notice in the second picture the sign that says Malakal (Airport). They also used an old airplane, a fuel truck and baggage trolley that were already at the airport.

In addition they had a couple of sets built in two of the airport hanger buildings for some other shots. And they had a Mercedes McLaren on a trailer with a camera rig and truck to do some driving scenes on local roads. They definitely made a day of it.

Alot of the movie is being filmed around the Boston area and they have used a number of other locations, including Gillette stadium in Foxboro, MA, home of the NE Patriots.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:59 am

vw-in-neptune wrote: did you get to keep the license plate?

Nope.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:36 am

I got a couple of photoshoots with my old single cab in it.

Always kinda a cool thing.

Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Mine was just used for some fashion mag's advertisement. The shoot was done in Central Park NYC. This ad is not published yet.

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Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:37 pm

61 Flipseat camper........Forest Gump, hopefully on the road again soon after a full rust oration :shock:

Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:06 pm

My og paint 67 was used in a culombo yogert shoot. I never saw the Ad as it was pulled shortly after airing do to a container size change.
The had painted it with poster paint that I left on the bus for a mounth to take to a few shows. The Ad paid about half what I have into the bus one more shoot like that and it will be a free bus.

Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:12 am

well, its not my split (its still in the garage being worked on), but my bay was just in a bikini calendar (July photo. perfect for my birthday). It should be out soon. It is actually in some promotional photo shoot for a local apartment complex tomorrow as well. Can't wait to get the split done to see what it will be in around here. Being in Lubbock, there aren't too many buses around at all, so the attention is pretty high when you drive around town. I will post pics of the calendar when I get them

Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:02 am

My 66 e-z camper was used about 5yrs ago in a nystate lotto commercial. paid well and was a nice excuse to have a day off. I also had my 75 westy in a photo shoot for macys. Ill have to digout the pics and post them.

Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:03 pm

I love this picture it wasn't in the Geico comercial too was it
the geico comercial splitty motivated me to buy my bus

[email protected] wrote: My og paint 67 was used in a culombo yogert shoot. I never saw the Ad as it was pulled shortly after airing do to a container size change.
The had painted it with poster paint that I left on the bus for a mounth to take to a few shows. The Ad paid about half what I have into the bus one more shoot like that and it will be a free bus.