My buddy Russ sent this link:

Everything you see really happened in real time, exactly as you see it. The film required 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again.

Really, go see for yourself. It's absolutely amazing. Two minutes of pure genius.

Honda Accord Commercial.

(in the extended entry is the full text that Russ included, but seriously, follow that link first)

Subject: [Buy Sell Trade] "Rube Goldbert" mechanics . . . . I think you'll fine this intereting.
In case you missed this one
There are NO computer graphics or digital tricks in the film you are about to see.
Everything you see really happened in real time, exactly as you see it.
The film required 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually
very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again.
The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over,
they were ready to change professions.
The film cost 6 million dollars and took three months to complete, including
a full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it's two minutes long so
every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out
enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. However, it is
fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history.
Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free"
viewing. (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!)
When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately
without any hesitation -- including the costs.
There are six and only six handmade Accords in the world. To the horror of
Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film.
Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and
complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars.
The voice-over is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda
executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics
have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real.
Oh ... about those funky windshield wipers: On the new Accords, the
windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start functioning
automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit odd in the
commercial. As amazing as this is, the commercial is actually based on an
earlier film from the 1970s called "How Things Move" by two Swiss
self-destructing artifacts artists.
Some sharp-eyed folks claim that tires rolling UPHILL necessarily require
computer-generated effects. Not so. The sequence where the tires roll up a
slope looks particularly impressive but is very simple. There is a weight in
each tire and when the tire is knocked, the weight is displaced and in an
attempt to rebalance itself, the tire rolls up the slope.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/honda-ad.html

Posted by: Ted at 06:32 PM | category: Links
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