Lexus Actively Safe TV Spot "Hydrant"

It's difficult to fix your world in less than 30 seconds. Two new Lexus TV spots attempt to show how that might be done.
The campaign, titled "Actively Safe," highlights the benefits of active safety features offered in the automaker's new 2008 RX 350. The spots, Hydrant and Hospital, show what it might look like to reverse the effects of an accident. But what's most surprising is how Lexus chose to do this -- or perhaps more accurately, not to do it.
Tapping into Danish director Nicolai Fuglsig, Lexus decided to attempt a CG-free special effects extravaganza. Nicolai Fuglsig, known recently for the award winning Sony Bravia Balls

and Mercedes Clouds

Fuglsig used timing and an army of workers to pull off this smooth visual transition.
The spots may look effortless, but they were anything but. Each one required more than 50 actions to be performed in less than 30 seconds, and the pinpoint accuracy of actors, stagehands, heavy equipment operators and more than a few barnyard animals.

"It was the ultimate race against time," says Fuglsig. "If someone was half a nanosecond late on their mark, we'd have to do the shot all over again."

The sets began as elaborate dioramas built by production designer Floyd Albee, who trained alongside architect Frank Gehry. But scale models couldn't answer certain questions: How can you make asphalt move? Is anyone strong enough to hoist a stone fountain? What if the boy in the bed drops his bear?

All that was settled during pre-production and a day or two of rehearsal. For "Hydrant," most of the surfaces and moveable objects -- including the "roads" and "masonry" -- were fashioned from fabric or foam so they could be easily maneuvered. A damaged car that gets pushed out of the scene was on unseen rollers. The pigeons that take flight were concealed in an actor's raincoat. The butterflies (400 were used in all) were hidden in a newspaper.

Too bad nothing worked like it did in rehearsal. Even with an assistant director counting out seconds through a bullhorn, actors and crewmembers missed cue after cue. The roads got so waterlogged from the gushing water they were nearly impossible to move by mid-day. An actor who missed a mark got knocked over by the moving car. Pigeons flew away too early and the butterflies refused to fly at all because it was an unseasonably cold day. To make matters worse, shooting had to wrap by 4:30 p.m. to allow the 20 homing pigeons enough daylight to fly home.

In the end, it took 35 attempts to get the right shot for "Hydrant."

And, yes, all those hard-working pigeons made it home before nightfall.



Once I DVR the Hospital spot, I'll get it posted.

Segments taken from BroadcastNewsroom.com