We have written before about the lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from the band OKGo. It’s not a hard argument to make as the band continues to make incredibly innovative and popular music videos.
Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Adam Sadowsky from Syyn Labs gave an Ignite talk on how his company helped the band build the Rube Goldberg machine that was featured in the second version of the “This Too Shall Pass” video.
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The video is 3 minutes and 54 seconds of an incredible engineering feat, compounded by what Sadowsky described as some of the “10 Commandments” that dictated how the machine was built and the video was filmed: No magic. The machine should start the music and should play part of the song. The band should be involved. It should be messy. And in keeping with what’s become OKGo’s trademark, filmed in one shot.
Sadowsky listed some interesting statistics from the video production. There were 89 distinction actions in the video. It took them 85 takes to get it to work. 3 pianos and 10 televisions were destroyed in the process. And they had to make 100 trips to Home Depot for parts.
And in the end, to add to an incredible video, Sadowsky said these were the “life lessons” from the undertaking: “The small stuff stinks,” but it’s essential. Planning is important, but you must stay flexible. Put the “reliable stuff” at the end of the project, so that if things crash, you don’t need to rebuild everything. And finally, “life is messy.”
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