One of the stars of a racy new spot for Honda Canada from Metro Films is a sixtysomething Hollywood projector.

The spot, directed and shot by Miroslaw Baszak, features different angles of the car with images of race cars and their drivers projected onto it. It is a mix of traditional camera, motion control, projection and Flame effects, and before the catchy audio portion was added in by Keen, cost $200,000.

Rather than adding in the images reflected on the car during post, a nine-foot-high projector was transported from California and used to project light images onto the vehicle’s surface.

Built in the 1930s, and modified since, the Hansard projector is primarily used for rear-screen projection in Hollywood films. It delivers a very flat, even light and synchs camera straight to the projector, thus eliminating flicker.

The greatest challenge for Baszak came with creating a contrast on the vehicle so the projected images would be balanced.

‘We had a number of shots from different sources, basically videotape of [racing] footage, and we had to transfer it to film and then project it with this huge arc projector,’ says Baszak. ‘The footage wasn’t very uniform in terms of exposure, some was very bright and some very dark.’

To save time and minimize frustration, some things such as a window shot, were done in Flame.

‘When we lit for the windows the angles had to be perfect to pick up the images on the camera,’ explains Mike McConnell, executive producer at Metro. ‘As we moved the camera the image would disappear, so we decided once we were on-set that we would cheat and do it on the Flame.’

To finish off the spot, the agency wanted to see images projected on the hood, side, top and windows of the car. Rather than using four projectors to achieve the effect, one was used in conjunction with some motion control.

Various angles of the car were shot and then composited in Flame, making it appear as though the images wrap around the car.

A teaser is running in advance of the main spot, which goes to air Sept. 29. And the commercial was such a hit with the client that footage will be recut for a third spot.

Petra Burka produced for Metro, David Hicks of Panic & Bob was the editor, Linzi Knight designed the titles at Red Rover, and Flame effects were handled by Mike Morey at dave.

Agency credits go to creative directors Steve Conover and Robin Helsby, who also wrote the spot, art director George Gilewski and broadcast producer Ann Caverly.