amazing commercial

[pawtucket]

Read the info first, then watch the clip....link below.

And you thought those people that set up roomfuls of dominos to knock over were amazing. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film linked below. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it.

The film took 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 six million dollars and took three months to complete including 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 advertis ement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (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 hand-made Honda 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 voiceover is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have become.

They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh, and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the wind shield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. Click below.

Commercial

Edited May 26, 2007 by pawtucket

[likeaneagle]

cool...

[Raf]

Rube Goldberg would be proud.

[RainbowsGirl]

Truly amazing!

It is Really too bad that the money was not spent for a far better cause!

[coolchef]

way cool

when you are honda what's $?

just enjoy it in the spirit in witch it was posted rainbow

[Twinky]

Absolutely awesome if you get to see it on a big screen (movie theater).

Not that it isn't awesome anyway.

[ChasUFarley]

very cool

[George Aar]

I dunno, I thnk I smell Bull$h!t.

That may be how they're selling the commercial, but it looks like computer graphics to me. There's too many things in there that defy the known laws of physics, wheels rolling uphill, gears that stop and start rolling, things that start moving seemingly on their own.

Maybe I'm just too much of a skeptic, but I'm not convinced...

[polar bear]

Those tires could not roll uphill, I say computor graphics too. But on the other hand if you can get this "contraption" to open my beer for me, then you have something.

Edited June 7, 2007 by polar bear

[T-Bone]

Do you have to have it do all that every time you want to take the car out for a spin? Well...that would be a handy back-up if the Garage Door Opener went on the fritz...Cool video - thanks, Paw !

[GT]

The commercial is real, no cheats except that it is two takes stitched together b/c they couldn't get a studio long enough to handle the entire sequence at once. The stitching point is where the muffler roles down the ramp.

As for tires rolling uphill:

In answer to the most frequently asked question about the commercial:

The sequence where the tyres roll up a slope looks particularly impressive but is very simple. Steiner says that there is a weight [in each]tyre and when the tyre is knocked, the weight is displaced and in an attempt to rebalance itself, the tyre rolls up the slope.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/hondacog.asp

[Belle]

I dunno, I thnk I smell Bull$h!t.

Maybe I'm just too much of a skeptic, but I'm not convinced...

just too much of a skeptic.... or you underestimate the power of imagination and ingenuity.

'Tis very, very cool!