Slick tracking shot in the new OK Go video


The group OK Go performed at the opening of my university’s academic year back in late August and the lead singer said that they had just returned from Japan. It looks like they spent some time while there creating the video to accompany the release of their new single I won’t let you down. The group has developed a reputation for creating highly choreographed complex videos that are done in a single take and the new one follows that pattern, with a lot of people engaged in high-precision maneuvers on nifty little motorized unicycles that I had not seen before, though they seem like they are way cooler than the Segway.

What I was curious about was how they did the single tracking shot that started from indoors, went to high above and looking directly down, went down to ground level again, and ended up going high again, especially the last bit when it goes high into the sky and above the clouds.

The precision and overall slickness of the video is pretty impressive. The catch is that I got so absorbed with the visuals that I had no recollection of the song until I had seen it several times.

Update: Here’s more on the video and the unicycles which are called the UNI-CUB and is made by Honda.

Comments

  1. moarscienceplz says

    What I was curious about was how they did the single tracking shot that started from indoors, went to high above and looking directly down, went down to ground level again, and ended up going high again, especially the last bit when it goes high into the sky and above the clouds.

    The TV show Stargate SG-1 did something similar with a cameraman using a Steadicam and walking onto/off of a crane platform. But this goes much higher, so it must be a drone. I am amazed at how steady the camera is, though.
    BTW, nobody mentioned this, I may be just stating what is already obvious to everybody, but they used an undercranked camera to speed up the action and synced their mouths to a slowed down soundtrack. That is why they move so quickly before the clapper frame.
    Also, there must have been some sort of computer control of the umbrellas at the end. My guess is that each person had a beeper controlled by a master computer, and they would know to open their umbrella whenever they heard the beep.

  2. Mano Singham says

    moarscienceplz,

    You’re right about the speeding up. You can also see it when the dancers move.

  3. kevinalexander says

    and they would know to open their umbrella whenever they heard the beep.

    I think you’re right. At first I thought the bit at the end must be post production, no way they could coordinate that many dancers but then I thought if each had an ear bud a computer could count down ‘three two one…’

  4. Pierce R. Butler says

    Honda has a ways to go to catch up with the motorized unicycles in Heinlein’s The Roads Must Roll (an otherwise horrible sf story), but that’s a damn good start!

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