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It's More than a Prius Commercial

comments (10) July 23rd, 2009 in design, videos

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judith neukam, senior technical editor

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Produced by: ToyotaUSA

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If you jump up every time a TV commercial starts, this is one to watch. You see a car driving across a bland white landscape and as it passes, the rocks turn into grass, and the landscape turns into flowers, trees, streams, waterfalls, and even undulating clouds are in the sky. What's fascinating is that this brilliantly colored scene uses people to create the landscape and texture. Each blade of grass is a costumed person as is each ripple in the stream. The clouds are people too.

The costumes made by Kristy Cameron and Bob Buck for the Prius “Harmony” commercial are like images from a child’s eye: bouncy clouds, smiling flowers, and exuberant splashes of water. They come to life when 200 costumed extras are turned into a cast of 1,000,000 with the use of electronic technology. We were amazed to discover that it took nine 12-hour days to make the costumes, which sounds like pretty fast work in my book.

It all moves so fast on the television screen, it’s nice to be able to see it here and pause to get a better look at the costumes and see how the transformation happens. Ah, the power of fabric. All of my sewing friends are talking about this commercial and the many ways it has struck a chord with them. What have you seen lately that puts your creative heart aflutter?

posted in: design, videos, art-to-wear

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Comments (10)

candoitall writes: BEST COMMERCIAL EVER! SO MUCH TALLENT THAT IT REFRESHES YOUR SOUL! THANK YOU TO THE CREATOR AND ALL INVOLVED.
Posted: 11:38 am on August 14th

cavalierking writes: This is the most amazng use of people and animation I have EVER seen. Kudos to all involved! Keep up the great work.
Posted: 8:27 pm on August 10th

SewJoe writes: I was also completely amazed by this commercial when I saw it several weeks ago. As an avid stitcher and former costumer, this is the kind of stuff we costumers live to sew!
I would also love to say that I am the happy owner of this 3rd Generation Prius! We turned in our klunker & got the cute little white one, never thought when I first saw that commercial that I would actually get to own one. :~)
Posted: 8:11 pm on August 10th

DeeCoz writes: Thanks so much for the background story on this charming commercial. We have had our second-generation Prius for five years. The commercial captures the childlike enthusiasm we still have for this car, and the hope it represents for creating a better future.
Posted: 7:19 pm on August 10th

yvette727 writes: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS COMMERCIAL...............
Posted: 6:26 pm on August 10th

Skymom writes: Thanks for letting us know how this was made. I love this ad...it's one of the few I really watch, and my whole family enjoys it (even the guys). I can hardly believe they made all the costumes in 9 days, although maybe if there were several of each type they got into a production-line groove...

Posted: 6:49 pm on August 1st

Paula7 writes: I absolutely love these commercials. they are extremely creative. wish all commercials could be done so well.

Posted: 11:34 am on July 30th

DK123 writes: I saw the commercial the other night and thought about the costuming and how they got all the people. figured some of it was computers. Thanks for posting, it is fun to pause and look at the details.
Posted: 9:12 am on July 29th

Jim_Dennison writes: Thank you for putting the commercial before us in this format. I saw even more than I could find on TV. I was dumbfounded when I saw it on televison. What an outstanding job and what creativity!!
Posted: 8:36 pm on July 27th

SewistKitty writes: I absolutely love this commercial. The music meshes with the characters and what they are wearing. I think that it is so creative. I admit that I love musical commercials.
Posted: 4:19 am on July 24th

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