Saturday, November 25, 2006

Isn't it nice...

... when things just work?

Look at this totally amazing Rube-Goldberg machine in a Honda ad:



"This Advertisement for the new Honda Accord was shot in real time with no CGI involved in the sequence. It required 606 takes and cost $6 million to shoot and took 3 months to complete.

The equipment was so precisely set up that the crew literally had to tip toe around the set for fear of disturbing things, which led to some unexpected problems. "As the day went on, the studio would get hotter," says Steiner. "It meant that the wood would expand and the cog or exhaust that spins around would move slightly faster." These tiny changes made big differences to the precision set-up of the equipment......

.....The sequence where the tires roll up a slope looks particularly impressive but is very simple. Steiner says that there is a weight in each tire and when the tire is knocked, the weight is displaced and in an attempt to rebalance itself, the tire rolls up the slope."
source: steelcitysfinest.com

5 comments:

  1. As messy as heavy ion collisions!
    :)

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  2. Now I remember my reason for buying a Honda! But come to think of it, if I'd a choice, I'd pick a car that's robust to initial conditions over one that's riddled with the fine-tuning problem (the proverbial Rube Goldberg machine).

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  3. Hi Cynthia,

    I can't say I had a particularly intelligent reason for buying a Honda other than the dealer was the only one that I could find who didn't look as he'd sell my granny if he could. But I've had a Honda for some years, and actually bought again one after my move to Canada. The only problems I've ever had were finetuning. Like, air condition, radio, windows, seats, doorknobs etc seem to be rather sensitive to my perfume or I-dont-know-what. Have a Civic though, not an Accord. Not sure how it will do over the winter...

    Best,

    B.

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  4. Hello Bee!

    Doubtlessly, your Civic's ability to survive a brutal Canadian winter will determine if it was designed with intial-condition robustness in mind.

    Kind regards, Cynthia

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes! Very cool commercial. Enjoyed reading more of the behind the scenes stuff. Neat!
    Matt

    ReplyDelete

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