Exploring The Shift
The shift is not a thing. It is the action of discovering Self.

I recently posted videos to two Goldberg Machines and yesterday haha.nu (re)posted a video of an 2003 commercial for the Honda Accord, which is probably the most incredible Goldberg Machine you'll ever see. I remember that I watched it for ten times in a row when I first saw it a few years ago, all with my jaw dropped and eyes wide open in disbelief.

There are various sources for the video: The one linkportal.co.uk has good size and resolution. Youtube's version is okay but has streteched proportions. And there is a link in Quicktime format which can be downloaded (right click, save as).

The setup is nothing less than stunning for it's elegance, precision and funny ideas (like the walking windscreen wipers or the use of the rain detector) and also for the boldness and patience in making. Especially given the fact, and this may be hard to believe, that it's all real with no computer tricks or amimated parts and in one single take.

It took the team over 600(!) attempts to get through it without error. Imagining this, I can honestly say that I proably would have been in a state of advanced madness after 50 failed attemtps and probably in an even worse condition after 100. With over six hundred, I guess I'd be blogging from inside a mental institution or watching a ducks in a pond for a year or two before recovering to being able to eat without help from a friendly nurse.

Here is a quote from an excellent background article which is probably necessary to read to be able to wholly and fully appreciate the film.

As take 300 led to 400 which led to 500, a certain madness settled on the crew. Rob Steiner, the agency producer, started talking about "our friends, the parts", but in the slightly menacing tone of a primary school teacher discussing her charges at the end of a trying day. Some workers on the film went whole days without sleep and had to be asked to stay away from the more delicate parts of the assembly. Others started to have bad dreams about throttle activator shafts and bonnet release cables.

When things were going wrong - a tyre that kept trundling off to the left, or a rocker shaft that kept toppling over like a tipsy cyclist - the production lads on the shoot would start grumbling that "the parts are being very moody today".

Having this mind, the slogan at the end of the film definitely gets a much deeper meaning.