Deeanne Gist - www.deeannegist.com - Inspirational Romance Author

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The Ultimate Science Fair Project

Remember those folks who would set up roomfuls of dominoes and knock them over for a chain reaction? Well, some engineers at Honda did something similar in this commercial that is being aired in Britain. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything happened in real time exactly as we 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. It cost six million dollars and took three months to complete, including full engineering of the sequence.

However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself in "free viewings." (Honda doesn't have to pay for us watch this commercial online.)

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.

Evidently, 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 in the commercial (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two cars.

Weren't the windshield wipers something? They moved like that because on the new Accords the wipers have water sensors and are designed to come on automatically as soon as they become wet.

What do you wanna bet the folks who did this film all got A's in high school when they had to submit something to the Science Fair?

posted by Deeanne at 11:26 AM

5 Comments:

Meg said...: I saw that when it first came out, but it's still just as amazing. This time through, I kept wondering how they kept the camera exactly where it needed to be.

I would love to see the bird's-eye view of the whole room, to get the perspective of how much space they used to pull it off.
Barb said...: Whoever had the patience to put all that together and work through it until it actually all worked deserves a PRIZE! Some sort of lifetime achievement award for commercials!
Jeanne Damoff said...: Wow. Very cool. It's like mechanical ballet.

Hey, I wanted to tell you I saw a full page BHP ad in World Magazine. It featured four books, and yours was first in line! How fun is that? :)
Tiff/Amber Miller said...: That's awesome! As one who loved dominoes as a kid and still does...I love that combination of parts. Some of it seemed hard to believe. The precision, timing, placement of parts.

Oy! Makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Good thing we have those engineer types though. We have them to thank for so many advancements and inventions.

I'll think twice before I pick on them again. :)
Deeanne said...: Cool, Jeanne. I had no idea.

I know what you mean, Tiff. I'm married to one, so I have a particular fondness for those engineer-types.