History Main / DrivingADesk

** ''Film/ANewHope'' actually had a cut rear-projection scene of Luke and Threepio driving in Luke's landspeeder looking for Artoo.

* Played for StylisticSuck in {{Music/{{Devo}}'s video for "Through Being Cool".

* Lampshaded in ''Film/StrangeBrew''. Doug takes his hands off the wheel and turns to Bob. He asks if he ever notices how [[HollywoodDriving in movies people can drive without looking at the road]] and without the background matching their steering.

* Notably averted in ''Film/{{Ronin}}'', with the actors being driven around in right-hand-drive cars (in France, where everyone drives on the right) so they could act in sync with the actual driving being done, and spliced with external shots. Even ''more'' averted: like ''Touch of Evil'' elsewhere on this page, some of the actors (Skipp) did their own driving. Frankenheimer's directorial advice? "I don't want to see brake lights."

* Parodied in ''Film/{{Amelie}}'': One of the things Amelie does not like are drivers in American films who don't watch the road. Cut to a scene from the American film ''Father's Little Dividend'' where the actor drives a desk and looks at his passenger 99% of the time. In the DVD director's commentary, Jean-Pierre Jeunet comments on how difficult it is to find a clip exhibiting this trope when you're specifically looking for one.

* Conan O'Brien does this, too, but... he's ''[[TropeNamers actually driving his own desk]]'', "turning" with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgV-WEE1Ec a prop steering wheel]]. Subverted when he actually [[http://vimeo.com/9004717 drove a motorized desk around the Universal Studios lot and had a drag race with a guy in a forklift]].[[note]]Just...reread that sentence and drink up the CrazyAwesome, if you will.[[/note]]

* Done in many {{Sit Com}}s, including ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and ''Series/DharmaAndGreg''. Particularly jarring on {{Sit Com}}s shot at a different framerate than what the backgrounds are shot at. Or when the footage is rather grainy and of obviously lower quality than the main footage, like in Joey's Big Break on ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when he and Chandler are driving out of Manhattan for Las Vegas. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography The footage is also of the Queensboro Bridge, not the George Washington Bridge]].

* Notably averted in ''Film/{{Ronin}}'', with the actors being driven around in right-hand-drive cars (in France, where everyone drives on the right) so they could act in sync with the actual driving being done, and spliced with external shots.\\\
Even ''more'' averted: lLike ''Touch of Evil'' elsewhere on this page, some of the actors (Skipp) did their own driving. Frankenheimer's directorial advice? "I don't want to see brake lights."

* Parodied in ''Film/{{Amelie}}'': One of the things Amelie does not like are drivers in American films who don't watch the road. Cut to a scene from the American film ''Father's Little Dividend'' where the actor drives a desk and looks at his passenger 99% of the time.\\\
In the DVD director's commentary, Jean-Pierre Jeunet comments on how difficult it is to find a clip exhibiting this trope when you're specifically looking for one.

* Conan O'Brien does this, too, but... he's ''[[TropeNamers actually driving his own desk]]'', "turning" with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgV-WEE1Ec a prop steering wheel]].\\\
Subverted when he actually [[http://vimeo.com/9004717 drove a motorized desk around the Universal Studios lot and had a drag race with a guy in a forklift]].[[note]]Just...reread that sentence and drink up the CrazyAwesome, if you will.[[/note]]

* Done in many {{Sit Com}}s, including ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and ''Series/DharmaAndGreg''. Nearly all car scenes on ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' budget-savingly took place at night with a car mockup simply placed in front of a black background.\\\
Particularly jarring on {{Sit Com}}s shot at a different framerate than what the backgrounds are shot at.\\\
Or when the footage is rather grainy and of obviously lower quality than the main footage, like in Joey's Big Break on ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when he and Chandler are driving out of Manhattan for Las Vegas. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography The footage is also of the Queensboro Bridge, not the George Washington Bridge]].

* Notably averted in ''Film/{{Ronin}}'', with the actors being driven around in right-hand-drive cars (in France, where everyone drives on the right) so they could act in sync with the actual driving being done, and spliced with external shots. Even ''more'' averted: lLike ''Touch of Evil'' elsewhere on this page, some of the actors (Skipp) did their own driving. Frankenheimer's directorial advice? "I don't want to see brake lights."

* Parodied in ''Film/{{Amelie}}'': One of the things Amelie does not like are drivers in American films who don't watch the road. Cut to a scene from the American film ''Father's Little Dividend'' where the actor drives a desk and looks at his passenger 99% of the time. In the DVD director's commentary, Jean-Pierre Jeunet comments on how difficult it is to find a clip exhibiting this trope when you're specifically looking for one.

* Conan O'Brien does this, too, but... he's ''[[TropeNamers actually driving his own desk]]'', "turning" with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgV-WEE1Ec a prop steering wheel]]. Subverted when he actually [[http://vimeo.com/9004717 drove a motorized desk around the Universal Studios lot and had a drag race with a guy in a forklift]].[[note]]Just...reread that sentence and drink up the CrazyAwesome, if you will.[[/note]]

* Done in many {{Sit Com}}s, including ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and ''Series/DharmaAndGreg''. Nearly all car scenes on ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' budget-savingly took place at night with a car mockup simply placed in front of a black background. Particularly jarring on {{Sit Com}}s shot at a different framerate than what the backgrounds are shot at. Or when the footage is rather grainy and of obviously lower quality than the main footage, like in Joey's Big Break on ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when he and Chandler are driving out of Manhattan for Las Vegas. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography The footage is also of the Queensboro Bridge, not the George Washington Bridge]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Airplane}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Drive-desk-Airplane_9032.jpg]]]]

!!Examples:

[[folder: Film ]]

* Given a vigorous LampshadeHanging (as is everything else) by ''{{Airplane}}'', which moves from speeding and traffic accident backdrops to raiding Indians, with the driver turning the wheel wildly on straight sections and going straight when the background's showing a windy road.

* Many of Alfred Hitchcock's movies. Especially notable for its rather seamless use in ''NorthByNorthwest'', in the scene where Cary Grant is chased by a crop duster plane.
* The ''AustinPowers'' movies do also use the technique as a joke.

* Done deliberately in ''KillBill''.

* Done deliberately in ''Film/OSS117CairoNestOfSpies'', among many other elements (successfully) intended to recreate the "flavor" of 50' and 60' movies.
* Early ''Film/JamesBond'' films were offenders in this category. ''Film/DrNo'' has a particularly {{egregious}} shot of a nervous SeanConnery being pursued by a car that appeared at least twice as large as his own.

* One impressive subversion occurs in ''TouchOfEvil'': a fairly long sequence where Charlton Heston is actually driving (and acting) as he sends his car zipping down narrow back-alleys and blowing straight through intersections.
* Done purposefully in the 1960s pastiche ''Down With Love''.
* Used for the famous forest speederbike scene in ''StarWars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi''.
** ''ANewHope'' actually had a cut rear-projection scene of Luke and Threepio driving in Luke's landspeeder looking for Artoo.
* Notably averted in ''Ronin'', with the actors being driven around in right-hand-drive cars (in France, where everyone drives on the right) so they could act in sync with the actual driving being done, and spliced with external shots.
** Even ''more'' averted. Like ''Touch of Evil'' elsewhere on this page, some of the actors (Skipp) did their own driving. Frankenheimer's directorial advice? "I don't want to see brake lights."

* As noted by [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Tom Servo]], ''PumaMan'' can rear-project major cities as he flies, like a puma.
* Parodied in ''[[{{Amelie}} Amélie]]'': One of the things Amelie does not like are drivers in American films who don't watch the road. Cut to a scene from the American film "Father's Little Dividend" where the actor drives a desk and looks at his passenger 99% of the time.
** In the DVD director's commentary, Jean-Pierre Jeunet comments on how difficult it is to find a clip exhibiting this trope when you're specifically looking for one.

* Lampshaded in ''StrangeBrew''. Doug takes his hands off the wheel and turns to Bob. He asks if he ever notices how [[HollywoodDriving in movies people can drive without looking at the road]] and without the background matching their steering.
* Bad rear projection can look positively surreal in some old comedies, like when W.C. Fields goes out to milk the elk in ''The Fatal Glass of Beer'', seen at 3:20 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAKCwXkDl74 here]], or when a heavily sedated Stan Laurel drives Oliver Hardy home in ''County Hospital'' at 16:15 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Qz9-W_Sug here]].

* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' uses this as Rick and Ilsa drive through Paris, then through the French countryside. RogerEbert admitted that despite his love of ''Casablanca'', this scene looked like [[SpecialEffectFailure the worst rear projection effect he ever saw]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Used for comedy in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', due to the necessity of churning out a new, live show every week. Notable offenders include the recurring "Toonces, the Cat Who Could Drive a Car" and "Butabi Brothers" sketches.
** [[http://ckjcwf.ytmnd.com/ Here's an example of sorts.]]
* Conan O'Brien does this, too, but...he's ''[[TropeNamers actually driving his own desk]]'', "turning" with a prop steering wheel. See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgV-WEE1Ec here]].
** Subverted when he actually [[http://vimeo.com/9004717 drove a motorized desk around the Universal Studios lot and had a drag race with a guy in a forklift]].[[note]]Just...reread that sentence and drink up the CrazyAwesome, if you will.[[/note]]
* ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' still does this.

* Done in many {{Sit Com}}s, including ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and ''DharmaAndGreg''. Nearly all car scenes on ''[[Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock From The Sun]]'' budget-savingly took place at night with a car mockup simply placed in front of a black background.
** Particularly jarring on {{Sit Com}}s shot at a different framerate than what the backgrounds are shot at.
** Or when the footage is rather grainy and of obviously lower quality than the main footage, like in Joey's Big Break on ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when he and Chandler are driving out of Manhattan for Las Vegas. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography The footage is also of the Queensboro Bridge, not the George Washington Bridge]].

* A staple of ''TheMightyBoosh'' starting with series 2.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' did this a few times, but most notably in "The Claws of Axos", in which bluescreen was used. How can we tell bluescreen was used? ''Someone'' forgot to add the scenery later!
** Jossed. According to the production notes, the scene was filmed without special effects -- it was just the dreary English sky that looked like a cromakey backdrop. Also, the scene was shot on film, and the BBC hadn't yet figured out how to do color separation/bluescreen on film yet. Besides -- the predominant color for BBC cromakey at the time was yellow (for instance, see the Master's TV screen in ''The Sea Devils''.)
* ''PeeWeesPlayhouse'' did this with Pee-Wee's scooter in the end credits. It was a combination of this trope and the ChromaKey regularly used by the show.

* ''HRPufnstuf'': Witchy-Poo drives her FlyingBroomstick with a steering wheel, except her movements of the wheel don't seem to affect which way the broom goes at all.
* The more-than usually surreal ''ThePrisoner'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" has a car chase sequence in which the title super-assassin tries to make Number Six crash his car by making the back-projection road behind him spin around.
* Done in ''TheAquabatsSuperShow'' episode "[=EagleClaw=]!" with Eaglebones' motorcycle ride, mixed with real time footage of Eaglebones actually driving down the road.

* Like everything else in ''Series/{{Bottom}}'', the back projection when Richie and Eddie are 'driving' was [[RefugeInAudacity sped up to such a ludicrous rate that it couldn't help but be hilarious]].[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music Videos ]]

* In the video for ''Vacation'' by Music/TheGoGos, they're supposed to be the water skiers seen in the video (and on the album's cover). The band members were actually filmed standing on boxes, invoking this trope.[[note]]The skiers seen in the video's wide shots were professional water skiers who acted as body doubles for the band.[[/note]]
* Played for StylisticSuck in {{Music/Devo}}'s video for "Through Being Cool".

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' features an especially low-tech variation. For any driving scenes in the various in-universe ''Dangeresque'' movies, Strong Bad would film himself in a stationary car, outdoors. To simulate the car's motion, another character would repeatedly run past the window while wearing a prop on their head.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''ItalianSpiderman'', in its many homages to poorly-made foreign movies, includes this in the motorcycle chase scene.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** ''ANewHope'' actually had a cut rear-projection scene of Luke and Threepio driving in Luke's landspeeder looking for Artoo. It got cut because it was, compared to the rest of the film, SpecialEffectsFailure and didn't really advance the plot.
* Used in ''TheManWhoSavesTheWorld'', with StockFootage from ''StarWars'' played behind the characters to simulate a space battle. Including the edits.

* Mostly averted in ''Film/ForrestGump'', as Forrest is almost seamlessly integrated into the historical footage, but they did a much better job digitally erasing Gary Sinise's legs. In fact, there's only one scene in the ''entire movie'' where the digital erasure of Sinise's legs fails: when he's picking himself up after the party girls leave on New Year's Eve. Watch carefully and you can see Sinise is clearly propping himself up on supposedly nonexistent legs.

* A relatively recent dramatic example is the taxi ride sequence QuentinTarantino's ''PulpFiction''. Tarantino had access to better technology but used this technique as an homage to movies of the 1940's, especially noir flicks.

* Like everything else in ''{{Bottom}}'', the back projection when Richie and Eddie are 'driving' was [[RefugeInAudacity sped up to such a ludicrous rate that it couldn't help but be hilarious]].

[[/folder]]

** Subverted when he actually [[http://vimeo.com/9004717 drove a motorized desk around the Universal Studios lot and had a drag race with a guy in a forklift]].[[hottip:* : Just...reread that sentence and drink up the CrazyAwesome, if you will.]]

* In ''Series/{{MADtv}}'''s parody of ''TrappedInTheCloset'', there's a scene where R. Kelly drives in front of a green screen image ''without a car'' (he at least still has a steering wheel).

Rear projection essentially fell out of use with the advent of the ChromaKey, which nonetheless kept some of its problems. It was finally sealed up with the prevalence of computer graphics and special-built flatbed-like vehicles to carry and film cars (such as the one [[http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q26/extremehead/crash91.jpg shown here]]). Used nowadays, rear projection or poorly done chroma key is mostly considered a SpecialEffectFailure. The title is a reference to how they always end up looking like ConanOBrien driving his desk.

* Used for comedy in ''SaturdayNightLive'', due to the necessity of churning out a new, live show every week. Notable offenders include the recurring "Toonces, the Cat Who Could Drive a Car" and "Butabi Brothers" sketches.

* Conan O'Brien does this, too, but...he's ''[[TropeNamer actually driving his own desk]]'', "turning" with a prop steering wheel. See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgV-WEE1Ec here]].

* ''Dukes of Hazzard'' anybody?

* Done in many {{Sit Com}}s, including ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and ''DharmaAndGreg''. Nearly all car scenes on ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock From The Sun]]'' budget-savingly took place at night with a car mockup simply placed in front of a black background.

* Lampshaded and played for laughs in a PublicServiceAnnouncement starring [[WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Selena Gomez]] and her [[HotMom mom]].

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' did this all the time in its later seasons. It looks especially cheap because the backdrop footage is shot at a faster framerate than the bluescreen footage.

* ''PoliceSquad'' did this, and would employ some sort of gag nearly every single time. Some were obvious, like the "Little Italy" gag (which was reused for ''Film/TheNakedGun''), or the bit where Lt. Frank Drebin narrates that he "drove back to the office" and is then shown driving his car in reverse. And some were more subtle, like the times Drebin drives through red lights and barely avoids getting hit by cross traffic, or the bizarre scene where Drebin is seated in the backseat of the car with his disembodied hands steering.

* A truly glaring example in an early "I Love Lucy" episode; there is no "desk," usually there is at least the windshield frame between the viewer and the characters, usually with windshield removed, whence no rear view mirror, portions of the upper dash may even be visible. In this case there is nothing between Lucy and Desi in the front seat except a steering wheel and a steering column which is visible below where it would be hidden by dash or even engine compartment. In fact the passengers are visible down to, and briefly past, the waist line. Possibly Rule of Funny.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Because RealDreamsAreWeirder this is seen in Xander's dream in "Restless" when his girlfriend Anya is driving their ice cream truck. "I think I've figured out how to steer by gesturing emphatically."

* Parodied in the SouthPark episode "Mecha Streisand" when Chef's driving and the background behind him is a live action mountain road.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Because RealDreamsAreWeirder this is seen in Xander's dream when his girlfriend Anya is driving their ice cream truck. "I think I've figured out how to steer by gesturing emphatically."

* In ''MadTV's'' parody of ''TrappedInTheCloset'', there's a scene where R. Kelly drives in front of a green screen image ''without a car'' (he at least still has a steering wheel).

* In the video for ''Vacation'' by TheGo-Gos, they're supposed to be the water skiers seen in the video (and on the album's cover). The band members were actually filmed standing on boxes, invoking this trope.[[note]]The skiers seen in the video's wide shots were professional water skiers who acted as body doubles for the band.[[/note]]

* Used for the famous jungle speederbike scene in ''StarWars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi''.

Rear projection essentially fell out of use with the advent of the ChromaKey, which nonetheless kept some of its problems. It was finally sealed up with the prevalence of computer graphics and special-built flatbed-like vehicles to carry and film cars (such as the one [[http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q26/extremehead/crash91.jpg shown here]]). Used nowadays, rear projection or poorly done chroma key is mostly considered a SpecialEffectFailure. The title is a reference to how they always end up looking like Conan ([[ConanOBrien O'Brien]], not [[ConanTheBarbarian the Barbarian]]) driving his desk.

Unfortunately, rear projection can cause a number of problems. These included the steering of the driver clearly not matching the movement of background, a conspicuous lack of wind or movement on the part of the passengers, and a noticeable difference in film quality between the live actors and the pre-filmed backdrop.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Airplane}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Drive-desk-Airplane_9032.jpg]]]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:Music Videos]]

[[AC:WebAnimation]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

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* As noted by [[MysteryScienceTheater3000 Tom Servo]], ''PumaMan'' can rear-project major cities as he flies, like a puma.

* Notably averted with {{Bullitt}} with the famous car chase.