When Practical Effects Aren't So Practical

Twenty years ago, a film crew dropped a quarter-million bouncy balls down the hilly streets of San Francisco to advertise Sony Bravia color TVs. Today, that stunt would be done with special effects, but everything was real in that finished ad that won numerous awards and is still being watched on YouTube all these years later. It certainly wasn't easy to film.

Director Nicolai Fuglsig had to get permission from the city, notify everyone in the area, and promise to repair any damage. Then he had to round up 250,000 bouncy balls, which temporarily wiped out the US supply. Then the crew had to invent cannons to launch those balls. And people were hired to retrieve those balls after they bounced down the hills- day after day for a week. At one point, extra people were hired to sort the balls by color! When the filming was through, the bill just for broken windows was $74,000. Read the story behind the filming of this legendary television ad that never even aired in the US at SFGate. (via Damn Interesting)