Monday, January 08, 2007

Most amazing TV commercial

Get ready to be astounded by the following Honda commercial. Before you watch, read on...

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 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) are 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.

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.

Here's the link:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/honda.php

It's worth the two minutes to watch.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

A Super Guy

Turns out the superhero I'm most like is none other than the superest dude of them all. I was surprised by the results -- especially because I answered the "likes to wear a cape" question in the negative. Go figure.

Your results:
You are Superman
























Superman
90%
Spider-Man
70%
The Flash
70%
Iron Man
65%
Robin
55%
Green Lantern
55%
Catwoman
55%
Supergirl
50%
Wonder Woman
40%
Batman
30%
Hulk
30%
You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.


Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test