V_Key received this through her College PR studies
Below is some background on it...and the link to it.
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) 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
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.
Lecturer & JMC Webmaster
School of Journalism and Mass Communications
San Jose State University