I was watching television tonight and there was this commercial on about drunk drivers. The video showed drivers with their cars full of alcohol. I have found out that it was produced for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which makes sense. My big question is if the cars filled with alcohol were actually filled with liquid somehow, or if it is completely digitally added. Not of much importance, but something that peaked my curiosity. I tend to believe it was added digitally, but I can’t really convince myself of either. Here is the address to the youtube version. So, is the liquid digital, or real?
The liquid is real, but there’s not as much as it seems. The camera is only very slightly higher than the top edge of the liquid, so you can’t really get a good perspective of how far into the car it goes. My guess is that there is a wall of some sort between the driver and the liquid, keeping most of the car fairly dry and drivable.
There is one exception, where you can see pretty far into the car, and you can see that there is loads of liquid ruining the car. This the very last of the several scenes, where it is all coming out of the driver’s door, which is wide open. I’m guessing that one was real.
Making a car waterproof is easy enough. Especially if you only need it to retain the liquid for a few minutes.
And when we’re talking the budget of a national commercial, even a federally funded one, the cost of a car or two is pretty low - especially if you buy cars that are in decent shape body wise but have blown engines, etc…
There’s no reason to believe that these cars were actually being driven while they were filled with liquid. Being Sat in, sure, but running?
Although in the door-opening scene it seems like the ‘wine’ (which looks like a lot more like it’s supposed to be blood the first time you see it) is mostly coming from the sides and around the door. I imagine it was better to rig up a few hoses than to fill up the car for each take. The driver doesn’t seem too vinomadefied either; his shirt looks relatively dry.
Some people are able to interrupt their regular breathing for a short time so that no liquid enters their lungs; they resume breathing when the liquid is gone. Perhaps the actor is such a person.
Probably just long enough to compose the shot, roll tape, take a breath and hold it while an intern pours the “beer” in through a hole in the back of the helmet then jumps out of shot, short pause, open the visor and breathe again.
I’m sure it felt weird and was really messy, but not superhuman.
IDK but in an episode of “Dude what would happen” (basically a teen mythbusters) they filled a car completely with water and fish, wore air tanks, and had no problem driving it around. So it’s not like CGI was needed.
I actually have a bet going with someone. They think it’s real liquid and I don’t. He is making the same argument as most people here but think about this… The scene where the red liquid is coming out of the car, the man is wearing a white shirt. Though his shirt looks a little wet it didn’t have any taint of red. If the liquid was real the white shirt would show some clue that the liquid was in fact real. If anybody knows where to find out fir real if it’s real or not please email me iluvmkna@aol.com. I would like to win my bet but keep hitting dead ends in my research. Thanks
Well, to be fair, that was the British Leyland challenge and the driving them around filled up with water challenge was a dig at their notoriously bad build quality. Presumably most modern and/or non-British cars would do better. It’s on part 3 starting at about 3:00 if you search for “british leyland challenge” on youtube.
I’ve seen enough actual footage of cars filled with liquid to believe that the commercial doesn’t need to go all on fake.
OTOH, I find it entirely plausible that the commercial might use actual liquid, but post-production the color/accoutrements.
At this point in motion picture magic history, I have to think that there is near equal incentive between CGI and real liquid. Probably the best financial compromise is to habe real liquid combined with post-production coloring etc.
But I’m not in that industry to know for sure.
I think it’s too close to call. We’d have to actually investigate the people involved I think. to find out for sure…I don’t think mere speculation or extrapolation would suffice…
