The $6,000,000 ad

[dkmiller68]

This has probably been posted before, none the less...


This is totally amazing! LR



This is extraordinary spot for Honda UK.. The site and
explanation of how it was made follow.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/honda.php


And you thought those people that set up room full 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. 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 advertisement 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
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. It looks a
bit weird in the commercial.

[Joe_Black]

That's a very cool commercial from a few years ago and got quite a bit of "urban legend" status. There was a little bit of CGI involved and it was done in two separate studio productions.

Some interesting info on the complete background can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/autos/business/hondacog.asp

A great view for those fans of Rube Goldberg contraptions!

[dkmiller68]

Thanks Joe, I had been thinking that maybe I should have 'snoped it'. I guess I wanted to believe what came with the link.

[Daver]

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. It looks a
bit weird in the commercial.

My BMW has "rain-sensing" wipers. In the rear-view mirror mount There's an IR transmitter and receiver. Water drops on the windshield cause the refractivity of the windshield "lens" to change, reflecting some of the IR back onto the receiver.

There are a few other strategic features highlighted in that commercial. Like the electronic lift gate. Chevy was bragging about that on their new Tahoe. Only took a few years for Chevy to catch up on that one...probably less time than it took in the past.

-Daver

[transio]

"Cog" is one of the greatest ads of all time.

More recently, Honda has produced another great one: The Power of Dreams (neat a capella performance)

[mbeach]

More recently, Honda has produced another great one: The Power of Dreams (neat a capella performance)

It's like the "That Guy From Police Academy School of Music" Chorus...