My husband asked me if I’d heard about the new Honda Ad. I said no – and what was so special about it? Well, he showed me the ad and my mouth dropped open. Wow! I could watch this forever. Well, nearly forever! Here’s some cool background about the ad as well, courtesy of one of Huzza’s mates… Apparently this ad is becoming the most down-loaded ad in Internet history and after watching it I can see why. It’s quite fascinating. No wonder it took 606 takes! I just had to post about it. Read on!
Read the info first, and then watch the clip.
“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. 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 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”.
Brilliant!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I think I’ve seen this commercial. It still doesn’t cease to amaze me. It’s like super dominoes. No, even better than super dominoes. Super dominoes on steroids!
This is a classic commercial. It’s been around for a few years and every now and again they re-use it – and heck – why not! The thing I love most about is that really creative people took pride in doing it rather than resorting to CGI. The first time I saw it in full was in a movie theatre, on TV they often show a shorter version, presumably because the air time managers think we wouldn’t notice a few parts missing.
I did not know it was a few years old – as a moderately obsessive person, I can appreciate the mindset that says – two months in and over 500 times painstakingly setting it all up after a small glitch – “one more!”
Wherever Rube Goldberg is, he’s smiling.
That… is just sweeeeet!
I’d have lost patience and just said, “Screw it! We’re going CG on this one!”