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Special Effects Spots

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What is the most expensive special effects commercial of all time? No one seems to know. But several ad executives say one of the most costly--$1 million to create and air just once--has to be a 1984 ad for Apple Computer that aired during the Super Bowl.

The spot, which showed a futuristic vision of George Orwell’s 1984, featured hundreds of actors and required numerous effects. Among them was a Big Brother character illuminated on a big screen. A woman in Olympic garb, apparently competing in the hammer throw event, tossed a ball-and-chain hammer at the giant screen and destroyed it.

More special effects commercials are filmed in Los Angeles each year than anywhere else in the world. What is it that makes a special effects ad really special?

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“The best special effects ads,” said Ted Goetz, president of the West Coast chapter of the Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers, “are those you don’t even realize have special effects.”

For example, numerous airline ads that appear to be shot in foreign countries are actually shot in production studios.

Perhaps one of the biggest boons to West Coast special effects companies may be Japanese advertisers. Among them, Nissan and a Japanese unit of Coca-Cola, have recently created ads with costly special effects, made exclusively for the Japanese market. “Usually, the Japanese use more special effects when the dollar is weak and the yen is strong,” said John Dykstra, chairman of Apogee Productions.

What about those “miniature” scale models used in commercials that look like the Empire State Building or even the surface of the moon? Ever wonder what those can cost? Executives say a simple space ship can be built for $5,000, while a complex cityscape can cost up to $50,000.

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