OK Go's Rube Goldberg Machine

OK Go, a rock band famous for their videos, wanted to feature a 4-minute-long sequence of a Rube Goldberg machine in an upcoming video. Working with Syyn Labs to create this video, there were certain requirements they had to fulfill. It had to be interesting, not “overbuilt” or too technology-heavy, and easy to follow. The machine also had to be synchronized with beats and lyrics to the music and end on time, which is a 3.5-minute song. To add to the challenge, the machine also had to play a part of the song, and to be filmed in one shot. The machine also had to use two floors, so there was a large amount of space this machine had to fill.

According to Wikipedia, a “Rube Goldberg machine” is an over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion. It is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg. An example would be a complex machine doing multiple things just to wipe a man’s mouth with a napkin.

The engineers at Synn Lab had a tough challenge, but their hard work paid off in a jaw-dropping video.

“We sat down and tried to plan out everything ahead of time. We created a lot of module designs, work on timing, etc. Then we found that strategy was horrible. It was much better to walk the space while listening to the song (100s of times) and wave hands around. We knew we had to fill the space and get from point A to point B in the song. Once we nailed down a few key parts we were able to start working off of them and fill in the gaps and join modules up” said Daniel Bubsy, one of the designers for this video, in an interview with Becky Stern.

The designers mention that to get the video shot in one take was challenging in itself, because sections of the machine triggering at the wrong time, or a band member accidentally triggering a machine, and even a machine malfunctioning and therefore ruining the video.

“There was a little assist in the curtain pull, because the curtains had a tendency to stick together, so if that was having trouble there was someone available to pull a little string to help things out. The impact of the falling piano and shopping cart often set off the mousetraps, the crossbow, and sometimes the chairs right after it. We had to go back and re-engineer some of it, put cushions under the mousetraps, etc. The bands had to run from station to station, and were extremely good at keeping false triggers to a minimum. I think it only happened once or twice” says Bubsy.