Continued from Best Videos 2009

Best Rube Goldberg machine video? OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

My God, was that one take?
Holy crap! That was amazing.

That was incredible. Screw that old Honda Rube Goldberg video, this was way more fun.

No band has benefited more from the internet than OK Go. It's nice to see they're still utilizing it.

Thanks for continuing this thread, Bruno.

OK, I can't stand it any more... Cris posted this video link almost two weeks ago, and nobody has commented on it?

This is the most extraordinary video I have ever seen on YouTube. Many of the comments on YouTube about the video echo this sentiment. Everybody I have shown it to feels the same way. What is wrong with you people?

Watch it several times to follow the story line...

tanstaafl.

I remember seeing a video very similar to that when the internet was younger. I thought it was cool then and just skipped over it this go-round.

It's an exceptional performance that brought a tear to my eye... a year ago.

I'm seriously impressed with the sand artists. This one is probably the most coherent piece I've ever seen- the images are really, really well blended together.

I didn't comment because, for me, it was, "Shrug. Another sand painter."

Not to dismiss the skill involved: The artist in question is an exceptional example of the genre. It's just that I've seen lots and lots of sand painting videos by now.

I'll probably have a similar reaction to the OK Go video. (As soon as I can get it to work: I'm getting errors trying to view it.)

That OK Go vid was awesome...

I would be surprised if you did. I'm sure there are more Rube Goldberg videos out there than sand painters, but this one was special in its creativity, humor, and occasional tie-ins with the music its self, which is what really impressed me.

I would love to get more info on it, like how long it took to put together, and how many times they had to run it to get it to work. There certainly was a lot of destruction in it, so it couldn't have been easy to reset. I'm sure they didn't take a sledgehammer to that TV or drop that piano on every take, though I just remember finding the process behind that Honda commercial to be as interesting as the video itself.

"itself"

Agreed, it was very impressive. You can tell that it was certainly not the first take, as there was already paint on their coveralls. I'm wondering which take it was. And on which *day*... with a setup that complex, I wonder how many days' worth of attempts it took to get that one final good take. The studio audience was clearly excited about having finally gotten a good take.

The paint on the coveralls was a required element, whether or not the posted video was cut/pasted or done as a single take (of many).

Without paint on the overalls, the ending would suffer.

And there were an awful lot of destroyed television sets...

There are a few "making of" vids from OkGo...

Here's a very well done Infographic video on the State of the Internet

Spoiler: Facebook is crazy-huge.

There was so much extraneous crap going on it was impossible to follow the chain of cause and effect.

Making of the OK Go video.

There was certainly a high level of intricacy that could not be followed.
A great shame- because those details are such a delight.

Roger Ebert regains his voice.

The Esquire interview is a great read as well.

You know, when I first read your comment I thought about it, and I agreed with you despite still liking it.

But I just watched it again, and it really does benefit from repeat viewings. I think the first couple times I was just watching to take it all in. After reading your comment, I went back specifically to look for the cause and effect of each action, and I was able to find it at every stage except for one, but I think it was just slightly off camera**. So that was a rewarding viewing.

**The one place where it looks like they might have cheated was on the end of the level change. It's just not clear what is opening that initial curtain. Everything else, though, has a clear cause and a effect. I think my favorite is the thing that starts off the level change, where the ball starts an electric drill that rotates a wheel that types on a type writer, causing the register to advance and knock over a cup.

*edit*
ps- one thing that makes it easy to spot everything is to watch it at 1080p on a large monitor or a TV. There are some very small reactions that set off the very big set pieces, and that might have made it hard to follow.

I think the curtains are opened by bits of string tied to a descending water jug. In the next bit you can see the cameraman and dolly reflected in the shiny metal ball.

The other thing with the paint on the overalls is, if someone were anal enough to care, they could compare the band members' splatter patterns in different segments to verify that they were all from the same take.

Peter

My biggest question at the moment regarding the OK Go video is why they chose to make it. Remake it as it were, because they had quite a nice video for the song already (with a marching band): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythlXAIY

The fact that we're discussing the video right now is the answer to that question.

Remember the treadmills!

The only reason the internet was invented was for shit like this...

http://trololololololololololo.com/

Magic!

Cheers

Cris.

Sorry, I meant why for this particular song, when I assume they could have chosen another possible single that didn't already have a video made for it.

You guys have to check this video out as well. Marble Machine 3 My summary: Holy shit!

It's a long video and pretty slow, but what a bloody amazing creation. Basically a kinetic machine made of ramps, pulleys, gears and other contraptions to move a ball bearing from the bottom of the machine to the top. And repeat this process for 24 hours powered simply by a 21lbs weight descending down a shaft. There's another weight, a counter-weight, which is directly responsible for the ball's travels. This counter weight can raise the ball 42" three times in a single drop. The counter weight can be lifted to its apex with only a 1/16" drop of the primary 21lbs weight. Damn!

Oh, everything is made by hand (using tools of course). Out of wood.

Anyway, check it out.

This is floating around various forums:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caPmw3OVQMo

Not much more I can say than not sure I'd want to let it pass me....

That's a damn fine VFX shot/comp, even for a low res YouTube video.

Seriously?