Difficult is worth doing

The New Honda TV Ad: "Jump"

It has been a long journey. A year in the making but we have finally completed the new Honda Accord TV commercial.  There have been a lot of challenges along the way, we have learnt a lot and met some amazing people.

Thank you to all those who have been involved in the making of this film.  It is certainly a testament to the philosophy "Difficult Is Worth Doing."

So here it is the new Honda ad: "Jump."  We hope you enjoy it.

Blue skies guys. You were all amazing.

The Accord rushes to set

The new Honda Accord racing to the drop zone. Showing us what it is made of.

Difficult is definitely worth doing

Success was achieved last night for the UKs first live TV spot. The Honda skydivers successfully formed the letters H.O.N.D.A during free fall before deploying their chutes and all coming safety back down to earth.

Congratualtions guys. Great work

For more skydive action keep checking www.difficultisworthdoing.com as we will be releaseing the new Honda TV ad here first before it goes live on TV on Sunday 1st June.

Getting Close Now

The new Honda Accord ad that we have been documenting the production of over the last few weeks goes live in the UK on Sunday 1st June.

But before this; in the spirit "Difficult Is Worth Doing," Honda are attempting to do a formation jump live during the last ad break in Come Dine With Me.  Tune in tonight on Channel 4 at 8:10pm. 19 Skydivers will attempt to exit a plane and sequentially form the letters H, O, N, D ,A  in free fall. 

Good luck guys. Blue Skies.

Day 9: Chicken Scratches

It is very evident that at the heart of this sport is planning, planning and more planning. Even before the 'dirt diving' and 'creeper' rehearsals start every eventuality is mapped out so that no scenario is left to chance. Like a ballet, every move is choregraphed and calculated to make sure that all the moves come together when under the pressure of the performance.

BJ walked us through how he maps out his formations.

Day 9: Chicken Scratches

It is very evident that at the heart of this sport is planning, planning and more planning. Even before the 'dirt diving' and 'creeper' rehearsals start every eventuality is mapped out so that no scenario is left to chance. Like a ballet every move is choregraphed and calculated to make sure that all the moves come together when under the pressure of the performance.

BJ walked us through how he maps out the formations.

Day 8: The Yellow Team Hang Out

The ground is coming up up quick!

Back on the ground we are preparing the landing zone.  The biggest challenges we face are wind speeds and strangely enough, seeing as we are miles from anywhere; congestion.  With so many skydivers coming in to land in such a small area it is importnat that they are able to clearly define their entry line so not to crash into each other. Once on the ground they will need to gather up their chutes and join their team mates quickly in order to allow the remaining skydivers the space they need to land.

 

An added element of difficultly is the fact we will be using a landing flare to direct the teams to the drop zone. In order to capture the action we have set up 18 cameras that have been buried in the desert floor.  There will also be a heli-cam in the air. If the wind changes direction it is likely to redirect the flare smoke, potentially causing us to lose the shots we have planned as the ground cameras will be blinded by the smoke.  The flare smoke is also used to disguise the producution team on the ground. Should we lose the cover of the smoke it is also likely that the helicam will pick us up in their shots. We are shooting this scene at 5.15 and only have 1 take before we lose the light. Finger crossed.

     

   

Larry Shares His Honda Story

Day 6: The wind picks up

As if creating large scale aerial formation whilst falling at 120mph towards earth was not enough to contend with, landing also holds its own set of dangers and challenges.

As BJ quite rightly pointed out, even though you may be travelling faster in free fall there is very little up there you can bump into, bar another skydiver, and they are not a fixed object. "

The most dangerous part of skydiving is the landing. You can be travelling up to 70mph when you come into land. If you judge the landing wrong you can suffer serious injuries. Wind socks can really hurt if you hit them at speed and crashing into guys on the ground is not much fun either."

BJ and OB talk us through another danger you face when landing in the desert.

Skydive Speak

Hanging out with skydivers, you start to pick up some of the lingo. Here are our favourites so far.

Our Skydive Glossary:

Dirt diving:  Practising the formations on the ground first. Figuring out the sequence of grabs so that in       the air no mistakes are made. In theory!

Eating the Carrot:  Landing into the wind.  So called as you come in to land with the orange wind socks pointing at you. This is much safer than landing with the wind behind you as the wind helps slow your landing.

 

Dead air:  If someone opens their chute underneath you your canopy can collapse. The cameramen have to be very careful when filming below the divers that they clear the formation before pulling their chute as they can cause all manner of problems. Like their job was not complicated enough to begin with.

Free Diving:  A style of skydiving where you create a sequence of formations in free-fall. More balletic than the ground rush stuff.

Dust Devils:  Mini tornados that whip up in the desert. The vortex they create plays havoc with the skydivers coming in to land. They have a tendency to cause your parachute to collapse. Not so fun when you are travelling at up to 70 miles an hour towards the hard desert ground.

 

Drop Zone:  An area where you have permission to land.

Funneling:  Can occur when forming straight line formations (such as we are doing). There is no support for the guy in the front of this formation which makes it hard for them to balance. If the line dips it is hard to straighten it again. If it dips too far then “dead air” is created and the whole line collapses in on it's self.             

Making Doughnuts:  Producing the standard skydive formation of making a circle in freefall. This is the foundation shape for many other formations.

Blue Skies:  The salutation of choice for any respecting skydiver and one that is also very apt for anyone trying to shoot an ad featuring skydivers for that matter.

If you know of anymore it would be great to hear them.