Cool Commercial:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/honda.php
Read the info first, then watch the clip.
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. Everything you see really happened in real time
exactly as you see it.
The film took 606 takes. (Holy cow!) 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. (It's
surprising they kept their sanity!)
The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete
(Wow!) 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 advertisement in
Internet history. (It's easy to see why!) 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!). (That's clever!)
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. (That's beyond belief. This project was far beyond
the genius of Swiss watches!)
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 gotten.
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
windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing
their thing automatically as soon as they become wet.