Difficult is worth doing

[billvon 2,991]

Just finished the shooting of a car company commercial entitled "difficult is worth doing." It will be a 90 second very skydiving centric commercial involving a lot of RW and some accuracy landings. The primary market will be the UK, where apparently they have a thing for long cinematic ads. (Sort of how people in the US look forward to the Superbowl ads, per the director.) It should air in June or thereabouts, and I'm sure it will be YouTubed.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get time off for this shoot with very short notice (less than two weeks.) It immediately followed the Texas diamonds event, and most of the people on the shoot came from that event; it made an excellent warmup for the sort of stuff we were doing.

Thanks to BJ for asking Amy and I to come along, thanks to Melanie for building us our very own hangar (with bathrooms!) and especially thanks to all the other organizers, skydivers, cinematographers and pilots who made the shoot successful, safe and a lot of fun for everyone.

(BJ recurring quote of the week: "This one time, on Drop Zone . . .")

[fmmobley 0]

Awesome... Be sure to post more info on how we can see it when you have it.

... Marion

[Booster_MPS 0]

What were the formations for the commercial?

[billvon 2,991]

A steering wheel (easy, although they wanted the center to "rise up out of it")

A coil spring (hard)

A flash camera (hard)

And many details on those components.

[shermanator 4]

as long as it is not equate driving the specific model car with base jumping and ice sailing.

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[katecooper 0]

Hey Bill
you missed the Tea Pot we built today. One take--complete with steam rising from the spout (smoke on jumpers feet).

oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!

kate

[Peej 0]

Hey Bill,

Sounds cool, who was the director?

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[cpoxon 0]

Honda launches skydiving ad campaign

Quote

Honda takes a flier with skydiving push

Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk,
Monday May 12 2008

Link to this video

Honda is taking the bold step of running a series of unbranded TV ads about skydiving to build interest ahead of the launch of a car model.

The campaign, developed by ad agency Wieden & Kennedy London, consists of four short teaser clips that are devoid of any Honda branding.

Each of the clips, the first of which breaks during The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip on ITV1 tonight, talks about different aspects of the skill needed to create large skydiving formations.

"We are hoping to give people insight, to let people in, to a certain degree, with what is happening," said the Honda account director at W&K London, Jonathan Tapper.

"With previous ads such as Cog and Choir we have been open about how we made them because the story behind the production is often as interesting as the commercial itself."

The only clue as to what company, or product, is behind the ads - which vary between 10 and 20 seconds in length - is a web address that flashes up at the end, www.difficultisworthdoing.com.

The website address sends viewers to a blog that has information on skydiving but gives nothing away about the wider upcoming ad campaign.

"By giving people understanding about the ad before it launches, not after, it gives substance and authenticity to what Honda is saying," Tapper said.

"Honda was in at the start of the whole epic two-minute ad wave with 'Cog'. We want to evolve that and move beyond just delivering straight commercial messages."

Honda has been promoting the strapline "Difficult is worth doing" on outdoor billboard sites for the past few weeks with no further information other than the company logo.

Edit: another video

Quote

So, has anyone ever built a tea-pot before?
...
[Stunned silence]

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[Squeak 17]

One of the guys in the "how to" clips looks like Andy (Popsjumper) in the white suit red grippers, picking up a rig.
Was that you andy?

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[cpoxon 0]

Quote

One of the guys in the "how to" clips looks like Andy (Popsjumper) in the white suit red grippers, picking up a rig.
Was that you andy?

I think that is Carl Daugherty.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[cpoxon 0]

So, a teaser just aired in the UK and it was this one

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[jsaxton 0]

Quote

I think that is Carl Daugherty.

Correct

[Chilly_Dk 0]

http://difficultisworthdoing.com/

Also;

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QHunQqwoeeI
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pDwievf_rIA
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pRxK1CbWrLQ
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kjL5tO9xKZA
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_LJ1Ro1VwxQ
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vyeg1JFelZg
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MOYhx_zIEJs

And

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/12/advertising
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2008/may/12/honda.final.mark
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2008/may/12/honda.wind.tunnel.ad
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/808571/Wieden---Kennedy-launches-unbranded-Honda-ads/


Yeah, this was a lot of fun, and quite challenging as well. Really looking forward to seeing the final result.

It's all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.

[katecooper 0]

I've had several people email me saying they saw me on Irish and UK tv in the last day or two. How cool is that! :D Thanks BJ and Honda and the rest of the crew. It is going to be fun to watch the progressions.

Oh, and this dropzone.com conversation is linked to the difficultisworthdoing.com website....

kate

[billvon 2,991]

>Oh, and this dropzone.com conversation is linked to the
>difficultisworthdoing.com website....

So behave yourself, Kate!

[cpoxon 0]

A bunch of Brits have just spelt out the letters H O N D A in freefall on a live UK TV ad in the skies over Lillo. Watch it here:

High quality - SkydivingMovies.com
Low quality - Facebook

Being discussed on UKSkydiver.co.uk

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[jcunniff 2]

Quote

A bunch of Brits have just spelt out the letters H O N D A in freefall on a live UK TV ad in the skies over Lillo.

Wow! Nice job. Talk about handling the pressure. I was wondering if they'd get it done, the N took a bit of time.

[Scrumpot 1]

Very, VERY cool!

Great stuff, guys!!
Thanks for sharing!

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[Stuntbabex 0]

Wow! That was awesome!

[LongWayToFall 0]

Sweeeeeet! Cool scenery with the clouds while in the plane and on the jump as well. Hope this gets some good coverage, and maybe introduces a few people to the sport! Not that we need any more britts in it though. HA! just kiddin

[cpoxon 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmePHwX_2-k

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[tetra316 0]

So did they really do the crew to spell Accord too? It almost looks digitally altered but then again its youtube.

[LongWayToFall 0]

Its gotta be real. that was sick!

[Remster 30]

Quote

Its gotta be real. that was sick!

I'll let Bill confirm, but my bet is that the ACCORD CReW spelling was digitally done.

Remster

[billvon 2,991]

I believe the CRW guys spelled out the letters; they were later edited together. (We were out in the desert while they were doing that.)