One of the regrettable casualties of the digital revolution in visual effects was the of decline of the use of miniatures. But every once in a while a project comes around that practically demands the use of miniatures and the lost art is revived.
It is just so impressive to see the tiny, intricate and completely realistic details that the artists and technicians are able to put into their work. And there is an authenticity in the natural imperfections that come with working with things that are "real" as opposed to the mathematical perfection that computers are so good at replicating. So it was a joy to work with the talented crew that was assembled for these holiday Honda spots.
In these spots the creative called for live action footage of actors and vehicles composited into a series of miniatures sets. There was a lot to figure out and plan for in advance to make sure that, not only could we shoot everything we needed in a very tight 9 day shoot schedule, but that the scale and angle of the shots would be able to be seamlessly merged later on in post production. Obviously previs was an important first step in this process and we frequently referenced it while on set shooting.
9 miniature sets
24 hero trees
200 small trees and bushes
600 lbs of baking soda "snow"
2000+ really small Christmas lights
1 miniature motorized ski lift
UPDATE:
Honda came back for another round in 2016. What a great campaign.