...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.
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.
