This is VERY cool

 

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

 

Read this story about the commercial...

 

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 is

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 the

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.

 

I first watch that about 4 years ago in college, what a small world the internet is. Great Commercial :clap:

^Me too.  Makes me wish (sometimes) that I worked for an Asian OEM

 

The windshield wipers were my favorite

I don't quite see how the tires are made to go up the ramp or the window rolls down, can anyone tell?

 

Very neat btw, I've watched it about 7 times.

Awesome!  ebaum's world has a bunch of these Rube Goldberg-esque "inventions" from a Japanese TV show somewhere in their archives.  This is the largest scale one that I've seen, though.

I don't quite see how the tires are made to go up the ramp or the window rolls down, can anyone tell?

I remember reading a description of the tires once.  They put some kind of weights in them to make them do that (so it's not exactly "natural").  The window... the thing that rolls toward it looks like it goes over some wire, so I'd guess that probably triggered something electroincally.

 

Anyway, cool video.  I too saw it several years ago.

^I think the weights were all lugnuts or other car parts...so it ended up as natural as any of the other tricks, I guess...