Posted on 04/04/2006 12:49:05 PM PDT by Sunsong
And you thought those people that set up roomfulls 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.
The entire sequence is computer generated.
Nearly every car commercial you see on TV now is CGI.
There appears to be something on the ramp to keep them in their initial position, so, yeah, weights along the rims would make them accelerate as the weights moved out towards the horizontal from the rim center, and then slow down once the weights passed the horizontal.
I think I'll disassemble my Accord to see if I can duplicate it all.
= )
Its from around 1997 if I recall.
FR link to original: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/903195/posts
The link may only last for one hour, since it's an archived article. If so, use the FR search for Keyword - either MDM or COG. Title: Lights! Camera! Retake! (check out this cool video)
(snip) At one point three tyres, amazingly, roll uphill. They do so because inside they have been weighted with bolts and screws which have been positioned with fingertip care so that the slightest kiss of kinetic energy pushes them over, onward and, yes, upward. During the pre-shoot set-ups, film assistants had to tiptoe round the set so as not to disturb the feather-sensitive superstructure of the arranged metalwork. The slightest tremor of an ill-judged hand could have undone hours of work.
Thanks for that! That is really neat!
Wow!
Here's the original article from the London Telegraph. It's all real. Telegraph article
Just because "nearly every" car commercial is CGI does not mean that this one is.
The whole appeal of this is that it was done for real, a la Rube Goldberg.
Phony ads are backed up with phony press releases, you wouldn't believe what lengths these people will go to create interest and image.
I'd ask you to trust me but that would go against my own advice.
You're wrong. It was real. It wasn't CGI.
The real deal, the genuine article!
And boy what a smooth ride that new Honda is, test drive one today and see for yourself!
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