LA-based rock band OK Go is no stranger to innovative music videos. Their single, “Here It Goes Again,” was accompanied by a treadmill-orientated dance routine that sent the clip viral upon its release in 2006. Now, the band is hitting headlines once again for their creative and resourceful visuals for "Obsession."
The video sees the band singing, dancing, playing instruments, and even being suspended from the ceiling, whilst 567 printers behind them print off an uncountable array of coloured sheets. The sequence starts off straightforward enough, with the printers producing plain white papers. But watch long enough and the clip becomes impossibly complex, with the printers forming different patterns, sequences and even a landscape. It leaves one wondering quite how many hours of planning and choreography went into producing the 3-minute-and-43 second visual. But fear not: all of the paper used to create the video has been recycled, with all the proceeds donated to Greenpeace. The effort seems to be paying off, though. At the time of writing, it has received almost 1.5 million views on YouTube in 24 hours. The video comes with a warning to those susceptible to seizures due to containing lots of flashing colors. Watch the awe-inspiring clip above.
[via TechCrunch]
I think that the recycling and Greenpeace part is just an attempt to balance out the fact that they're probably well aware that it was wasteful and environmentally unfriendly rather than the reason for the video. It's really no more of a stunt than any other music video. At least this one is somewhat creative and fun, unlike so many of the cookie cutter music videos you so often see.
It's pretty clear that supporting an environmental cause is not the primary goal of the video. It's just an incidental note to preempt criticism given the nature of the video. They had an artistic concept and they saw that it was pretty environmentally unfriendly so they recycled the paper and donated the proceeds to charity to mitigate that.
The primary goal here is and always has been the artistic expression in the music video itself. So in that sense, they would have done it either way. At least by recycling the paper and donating to an environmental charity, they went through the trouble of doing a little bit of damage mitigation.
Sometimes concepts you come up with are wasteful or not environmentally friendly. When you have that situation, you have a choice whether to pursue it or not. A lot of people just go forward and don't think about damage mitigation at all so while I agree with you that it's wasteful, I'll give them a pat on the back for at least trying to make it less wasteful than it otherwise would have been given that they were going to make the video anyway. Obviously, if they actually cared all that much, they wouldn't have made the video in the first place, which is why I think it's pretty clear that it wasn't their priority here.
that was awesome. and to think i spent an hour today try to get just one photo to print. how did they do it ?
That was awesome!!!!! And look at this one form the same people!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvW61K2s0tA
So this is why ink is so expensive. Also, recycle and proceeds given to greenpeace? Ive been recycling paper for years, and never been paid to do it.
This OK Go video is "so-so".
It's not innovative like "This Too Shall Pass" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w) or
"Upside Down & Inside Out" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGJA9i18Co)
The new video was disappointing.
i think this is a really creative video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXHrNYydwAY