Thursday, March 4, 2010

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Machine Video)


Ok, I am into country music, but this I would categorize under the heading if interesting.  I have always enjoyed watching the many domino setups that are put together for the Guinness book of world records and when I saw this it caught my eye.  I don't know how many will like it but even if you don't like the music I hope you at least enjoy video that was directed by James Frost and Syyn Labs for the alternative rock band OK Go
 
Well the band, who's
low budget, award winning "treadmills" video which has has garnered almost 50 million hits on YouTube, wanted to feature a 4-minute long Rube Goldberg Machine in an upcoming video.  So they contacted Syyn Labs to help them build it.  The requirements for the machine was that it had to be interesting, but not overbuilt, nor too technologically heavy, and easy to follow. Like their "treadmills" video, it also had to be built on a shoestring budget.  They needed the machine to be synchronized to the beats and lyrics of the music the composed and it had to end precisely at the same time as their 3.5 minute song.  Oh yea, the machine needed to play a part of the song, and be filmed in one shot. To make the whole video even more challenging, the space chosen was divided into two floors and the machine would have to use both both.
 

"We had our work cut out for us; every facet of Syyn Labs
expertise was required to meet this tremendous challenge." 
   
As you can see in the video, their work payed off because the machine the shoot was accomplished in one take and fit the song.  Well thay say it fit.  However, every time I watch the video I fail to hear the lyrics or the music because I'm so caught up in the workings of the machine.  Well, I hope you enjoy this tremendous work of art that was put together for the video, I did.