This was forwarded to me and is worth a look ...
Andy


New Honda Commercial in the U.K.

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.  The film cost six million
dollars and took three months to complete.  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 down loaded
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 handmade 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
voice-over 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.


http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/hhonda-ad-300k.swf




===============================
Andy Novobilski, Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. & Acting Dept. Head
UT Chattanooga Computer Science
(423) 425-4202