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606 Takes To film Rube Goldberg-like car ad
wagdog writes "Many have no doubt seen the
Rube Goldberg-like multistep mechanical chain reaction
TV advert for the Honda Accord. Many thought this was yet another example of the pervasive use of computer graphics in TV commercials. Amazingly
the entire delicate set up of car parts that constitute the facinating sequence is almost 100% realtime live action
requiring an astounding 606 takes to get right
. There is one cheat however -- can you spot it?"
From 606 to 404 in under 6 seconds.
That green slime had it coming.
...suitable for mirroring: http://www.honda.co.uk/newcars/300k.swf (4.1 meg or so)
('course, it's slashdotted now.)
The record number of takes for a single shot in any movie is 125 in The Shining.
Why do I h8 apple?
I know that as of 2001, the world's record for the most retakes of a particular scene was held by Stanley Kubrick -- 160 retakes of one scene in The Shining. If car commercial film retakes count for this as well, these guys have set a new world record by far!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
here's a link to the most excellent kinetic art video:
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/vid/thewaything
of course, if they hired the pair to do the stuff for the Commercial, then.....it's not a ripoff. (hope they made some bucks)
Err, if you RTFA you'd know the tyres had weights in them.
Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.
Not so impressive. It's full of holes.
I searched throughout the entire Rube Goldberg site and couldn't find ONE SINGLE MENTION of his more-famous daughter, Whoopi.
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Man, how things have changed. I can still remember when Cadillacs had a 500 cu. in. (over 8L) displacement engine with enough weight and torque to affect the earths spin if you stomped on the gas. Then again, recalling the old ways of the Detroit assemply lines which built these things, Rube Goldberg would have been proud.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I have it loaded and in my browser, but I'm unsure on how to extract the video segment so I can torrent it up :)
.swf file to figure this out, btw...)
It's a short (18k) flash file that then loads another flash file (called 300k.swf) that's about 4.1 meg. So, if you can figure out where your 300k.swf file is in the cache, you should be in business.
(I used flasm (http://flasm.sourceforge.net/) to disassemble the original
The video itself plays within a Flash movie.
Not only will you need Flash to watch it at all, but you'll need the latest version of the Flash player in particular (6, which can include video).
Of course, it's a moot point anyway because Honda.co.uk can't take the Slashdot burden.
Experts agree: everything is fine.
Hmm. I thought the real Cadillac of autos was the ... err ... what's it called? Cadisomething.
I wasn't familiar with Rube Goldberg's work before this, but it looks like a carbon copy of Heath Robinson's style. Anyone agree with me here?
Mirror
But I wonder what aspect of the domino effect appears to turn the steering and apply the brakes of the car that rolls off the ramp at the end?
http://torrez.org/media/movie/cog.mov
Here's a link to those who'd like a non-slashdotted .mov download of the ad.
Thanks be to widepipe.org for the link...
MORTAR COMBAT!
"...The idea for the advert derived partly from the old children's game Mouse Trap, and from the wacky engineering of Caractacus Potts's breakfast-making machine in the Sixties film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
HOGWASH! Nothing else exists like this except "The Way Things Go"
No mention of the Swiss artists, so I guess they didn't work on it. Anyone who has seen "The Way Things Go" will immediately recogize the ripoff. they have Tires going uphill too! And it all takes place in the same narrative format: one long left to right sequence (the original is actually almost 30 minutes long, compared this this thing from Honda...)
£750,000 for an ad which will run for 7 1/2 weeks - I'm sure it's not unusual; just don't forget what you're really paying for when you buy a car - a big chunk of the cost of autos is just covering advertising - it's the same with many consumer items.
I wonder what the math is on the idea of lowering advertising costs to bring down end price of the product which might increase sales, balanced against the decreased exposure which might decrease sales. As long as people are willing to pay what they are currently paying, I guess it doesn't matter.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Click here all you bittorrent users
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)
I'd say Robinson was more about social commentary than Goldberg. His typical drawing would be an overall look at a machine, sure, but there was usually something dilapidated about the workings of it, and there was something sort of comic-tragic about the people in the figure -- they're seriously working to maintain the thing despite its ludicrously overcomplex design, and it's running down despite them.
Goldberg is more of an engineer's taste -- he was an engineer to start with, wasn't he? -- and the idea is really to play with the idea of the machine to make it as ridiculous as possible. His machines aren't attended by a bunch of sadly intent factory workers, they're what my Great Uncle would call "flights of fancy." You hear about contests in the U.S., for fun, to build elaborate "Rube Goldberg contraptions" to perform simple actions.
Heath Robinson would have appreciated Metropolis more when it came out.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Can someone explain the speakers that vibrate the windscreen? When i first saw it i just thought it must be CG or mixed, but to be completely real is amazing. The speakers just dont look real though... But this certainly has to be the best car advert ive ever seen. It really makes a change from all those stupid "mix together lots of random shots of a car driving by with music and happy people" adverts.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
There is only one cheat. And he lives with strongbad. The Cheat!
By far the most elaborate & amazing Rube-Goldberg apparatus ever filmed is "Die Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go) by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss (http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html).
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It includes not only complex mechanical agglomerations but all sorts of homemade pyrotechnical concoctions. These guys really new their inorganic chemistry.
Fischli & Weiss filled a warehouse with dozens & dozens these devices linked in series with the output of one element trigger the next one in the pipeline. The camera just keeps walking down the line following the action. You get the feeling the devices are set up in a large circle inside a huge empty building with the camera in the middle slowly turning to follow the train of activity.
The audio is quite intense, as well. Each device has its own very distinctive sound, which helps to make the video quite animated.
Most incredible of all, they appeared to do it with a minimum of subtle takes. There seem to be only 4 or 5 cuts in this 45 minute video, and some of them require repeated viewing to pick out.
Despite the fact the primary actors consist of auto tires, ladders, plywood sheets and soda bottles, DLDD is remarkably fun to watch. I highly recommend it.
You can pick it up on DVD or VHS at many spots on the net. Here's a link to DVDPriceSearch.com's comparative price listing:
http://www.dvdpricesearch.com/cgi-bin/d
If you live in the UK,
:)
Call the Honda Contact Centre on 0845 200 8000 and ask for a free DVD of THAT Honda ad. They also got it on VHS if you prefer.
They got 20,000 copies. So dont rush
"the suspension is so smooth, you can't tell that you're on a road at all"
I take it you're an AMERICAN "driver" and the above statement qualifies as a GOOD THING?
That was classic intercourse!
Something Awful actually redirected hits from /. to goatse.cx once when they were linked to by the front page.
I wonder how the host of goatse felt about all that traffic, since I doubt SA asked for permission....
Thanks, but soon all Americans will know about Tyre. After all, war is god's way of teaching Americans geography.
There are two good mirrors on the Distributer Mirror. And Im sure a few more will come soon.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Contrast this with Russian Ark. You really have to watch the trailer for an idea of its scale and majesty, but for those of you without Quicktime:
single
continuous
shot
--Dan
There is one cheat however -- can you spot it?
He's probably hanging out with Strong Mad in the basement, playing the Trogdor arcade game.
I'm not interested in buying a Honda Accord, a Pentium 4 3Ghz, a copy of EverQuest, or a copy of Firefly on DVD.
Are doomed to watch it in car ads.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
Are you retarded? The original post said 240HP, not 190... ...anyway, I don't think most (intellegent) people buy an Accord for bench-racing.
...what a fun way to burn Karma!
If you want to go fast in a straight line cheaply, buy anything with a Chevy 350 and build it up; if you want to go REALLY fast, stop pussing around with cars and buy a motorcycle.
second society
So, how many of you are now driving new Honda Station Wagons?
"Derp de derp."
Will be modded offtopic, but it's a worthy sacrifice.
I have a '94 Accord with 203,000 miles on it, and the only damned thing wrong with it is the power antenna got stuck in the "up" position because my brother kept yanking on it. No mechanical problems whatsoever other than regular maintenance-related issues. Wonderful, wonderful car, and please don't compare it to an American automaker that couldn't make something that ran well over 100,000 miles if their industry depended on it (which it doesn't because people think a new car every 5 years is somehow necessary).
They'll probably make millions selling the out-takes to obsessive geeks.
I find this deliciously ironic, because the voiceover on the final ad goes something like "Don't ya love it when things just ... work?"
:-)
Well clearly things didn't "just work" if they needed 606 takes to get it right!!
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
...Im going to go download the new Animatrix trailer while all of you are slashdotting Honda's servers!
"Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines."
Achieve Name Recognition.
Inform the Public of something new
Remind the Public that they exist.
Create an image/rep/brand.
Honda does not need any more Name Recognition. People know that Honda makes cars.
Honda has no need to tell anyone anything new. Frankly, they have nothing new to say.
Honda DOES need to remind us that they are still around. I haven't thought about them a lot.
And it CERTAINLY wants to create an image of being cool.
That is what this add is designed to do.
Basically, they are just showing off - but that will make some people think, Honda is a cool company, not like Oldsmobile, or staid like Cadilac.
This is a very effective commercial.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
You can easily see the break in the wood ramp. There's also an electrical contact that the cylinder makes to make the window roll down.
Here's the synopsis:
1. Transmission bearing rolls, hits second bearing.
2. Second bearing rolls, hits third.
3. Third bearing rolls, hits contration to release cam shaft.
4. Cam shaft rolls, hits tailpipe.
5. Tailpipe spins, hits valve stem on hood.
6. Valve stem hits other valve stem.
7. Second valve stem hits third valve stem.
8. Valve stem falls off hood, hits something.
9. That something hits a spring loaded mechanism mounted to engine valve cover.
10. Spring loaded mechanism hits radiator.
11. Radiator falls, hits tire.
12. Tire hits weighted tire on ramp.
13. Tire rolls uphill, hits second weighted tire.
14. Second weighted tire rolls uphill, hits third weighted tire.
15. Third weighted tire rolls uphill, hits disc brake rotor(?).
16. Rotor falls on string, pulls seat back to it's full upright position.
17. Seat triggers release of windshield wiper mechanism.
18. Mecanism trips oil can.
19. Oil can pours onto platform, weighting one end down.
20. Platform tilts, releasing bearings(?) which roll into engine head.
21. Engine head on lever causes battery to rise.
22. Battery makes electrical connection, makes fan run.
23. Fan runs, which causes it to move. It moves forward, disconnects from power source, and runs into metal wire, releasing nut.
24. Nut drops, causes muffler to roll.
***CGI CUT***
25. Muffler rolls into strange contraption.
26. Strange contraption flings nut.
27. Nut hits tire on front end of car.
28. Tire rolls onto wire.
29. Wire sets into motion contraption made mostly of connecting rods.
30. Connecting rod starts metal cylinder rolling.
31. Metal cylinder hits connecting rod contraption and stops.
32. Potential energy stored in contraption causes rod to swing and kick off the metal cylinder.
33. Cylinder hits window, makes electical contact.
34. Electrical contact rolls down window.
35. Cylinder rolls again, past window onto new ramp, then off ramp onto "oh shit" handles.
36. Cylinder rolls off "oh shit" handles, onto battery, makes electrical contact.
37. Contact causes winshield squirters to spray water on windshield.
38. Windshield sensor detects "rain", turns on wipers.
39. Wipers crawl across floor, trip emergency brake.
40. Emergency brake sets window mobile in motion.
41. Window mobile causes wind, pushing over plastic panel.
42. Plastic panel has metal cylinder on top. Cylinder rolls into shock spring.
43. Shock spring has metal rod in it, which spins down.
44. Rod makes electrical contact, starts stereo.
45. Stereo connected to woofers under windshield.
46. Vibration causes spring to roll onto clutch pedal.
47. Depression of clutch pedal activates assembly which presses "hatch close" on door key.
48. Hatch closes, unbalancing platform.
49. Platform tilts, car rolls.
50. Car hits something that causees the Accord banner to unfurl.
-------------------------------------------------
The fact of the matter is that this ad is sufficiently unique to entice people to voluntarily view it, and that's a rarity in this day and age. After all, I normally skip commercials with my PVR, yet I and tens of thousands of other people just watched a 2 minute car commercial, voluntarily.
In other news today scientists have discovered the cause of El Nino to be an underwater cable that periodically heats up and boils large amounts of the Pacific Ocean. Telephone officials have traced the cause to stories posted on "Slashdot.org" that link to Asia.
It's a good thing the world sucks or we'd all fall off.
Most people here must not ever drive in big cities. Especially in the parts of big cities that are frequently used for 'cruising'. With cars that shock and awe using incredibly loud volumes (especially bass).
Is it so hard to believe that a spring could be kept from rolling off a slightly curved surface by, say, a single grain of sand? And that 16 speakers might serve to shift that grain of sand and start the spring rolling?
For that matter, the spring appears to be in the center of the glass initially, so it could just be balanced really well.
If I could change one thing about the commercial, it would be the end: In mine, the car would roll to a stop, and just as it did so, it would bump against a small cog on a wooden plank...
-Elentar
The wheel it turns, around and around, with an ancient rumbling sound.