honda video

[weewillie]

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 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 t hree 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. < B R>
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.


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

 

[vagt6]

Link does not work. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/nonono.gif

 

[weewillie]

works for me Mark

 

[Steve_S]

The commercial was released in 2003. While it's true that it was shot without any computer graphics, it is not one continuous shot. There was no sound stage available that could accommodate the entire set, and there was too much risk of something going wrong. So they shot it in two parts and spliced them together with a small CGI edit around where the muffler rolls down a ramp.

The $6M cost is actually in pounds, and refers to the entire advertising campaign, not just the video shoot. Total planning time is reported to be significantly more than three months but I don't know exactly how long.

The executives knew the commercial would not use CGI, so that bit of information is misleading. What did surprise them however, was that there was no "trick photography".

 

[swift6]

From what I remember, this was done by a group out of Germany that does large 'active' art installations that do just that sort of thing. Like a giant mousetrap game mixed with Rube Goldberg devices. Really fun to watch.

It was commisioned and used by Honda UK. A friend of mine works for Honda UK and he showed me a 'pre-production' version before it was released to the public while I was visiting one time. I believe that Honda Uk released the commercial in the spring of 2003.

 

[thebear54]

I have viewed that commercial a thousand times and I still can't get enough of it. It is saved in my favorites on the computer.
Wonder if it ever received the rewards it deserved?

John