From 1986 to 1993, Global TV in Toronto ran late-night programs called Night Ride, Night Moves and Night Walk. Despite being on the air for 7 years, there were only 2 episodes of Night Walk and 1 episode of Night Ride and Night Moves. These were time filling programs in place of a test pattern, when the station went off air each night.
To insomniacs, prison inmates and teenage stoners, these ‘slow shows‘ were some of the best programming on the dial.
The shows were a POV of the cameraman walking or driving through downtown Toronto late at night. There was a jazzy original score by an ensemble including local jazz legend Guido Basso.
In an attempt to keep our YouTube channel ‘current ‘during the racing off-season, here’s our take on the theme called Night Drive. Enjoy!
Ok that is really something. Your take on the genre gave me all the feels. I couldn’t tell what the soundtrack was but it was perfect. What did you use to film this? It was just perfect with the light reflections on the hood as well as the streetlights going by. Wow.
Hey Susan,
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I got the idea after my last driving video (https://youtu.be/_tXmpRNu4Wo?si=CeyfzoWfiV0cOop8)
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This was shot on the elevated expressway in downtown Toronto. The lights, the city skyline, the reflections off the black car just look…cool.
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I suction cup mounted a GoPro to the inside of my windshield, and set it to super-view (fisheye lens). Then I edited the video with Filmora, cropping it down to 21:9 for a suoer-widescreen, cinematic look.
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The video didn’t look good ((the camera picked up every water spot on my windshield) so I used a filter called Fantasy which cranked up the contrast, over-saturated the colours, and gave a blue tint to the footage.
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That ethereal music is a style called ‘synthwave’ or ‘retrowave’. Dark and spooky in a 1980’s sort of way. Almost like modern Musak, it’s royalty free (YouTube is really touchy about copyright protected music). I just played it through my car stereo so the camera would pick up some V8 engine noise along with the music. I think the kids call it ASMR, but I may have missed the mark on that.
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The idea has been in my head for 35 years or so. It was time to film it. I’ll try again this winter (during a snowstorm) with a better microphone and a clean windshield!
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Chris