| "This Too Shall Pass" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by OK Go | ||||
| from the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky | ||||
| Released | 2010 | |||
| Recorded | 2009 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, power pop | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Writer(s) | OK Go | |||
| OK Go singles chronology | ||||
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"This Too Shall Pass" is an alternative rock song by OK Go from the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. The single was released in January, 2009. The band took the rather unorthodox route of creating two official music videos for the song, both of which premiered on YouTube. The first features a live performance of the song in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Marching Band. The second features a giant Rube Goldberg machine, constructed to operate in time with the song. The popularity of the second music video of the song has been compared to that of the band's video for "Here It Goes Again"
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The first video for the song was released on YouTube on January 12, 2010, to coincide with the release of the album and the single. Directed by Brian L. Perkins, it was filmed in October, 2009, in South Bend, Indiana. The video is somewhat unusual in that it does not feature the album version of the song. Rather, it features an original recording that was actually performed live during filming of the video. OK Go's Tim Nordwind noted that the song lent itself well to large orchestration.[1]
In the video, the members of OK Go are seen in a field wearing marching band garb. They begin to march, and as the song progresses, they are joined by the band with members of the Notre Dame's Marching Band many of whom arise from camouflaged positions in the field.[2] They are also joined in the final chorus by a children's choir cobbled together from two local South Bend preschools. Like many of their other videos, the marching band video was shot in one take.
The marching band video was created to bridge the time between the release of the album and the expected completion of the Rube Goldberg video. The band had originally planned to release the marching band version after the debut of the Rube Goldberg video. However, they found time during October 2009 to work with the Notre Dame band, and realizing the length of time to complete the Rube Goldberg machine, went ahead and completed the marching band version.[1]
The second and official music video for "This Too Shall Pass", similar to the band's video for "Here It Goes Again", features a four-minute, apparent one shot sequence of the song being played in time to the actions of a giant Rube Goldberg machine built in a two-story warehouse from numerous random objects.[3] As the song and machine operate, the members of the band are seen singing alongside the machine, with the members being shot at by paint guns at the song's finale. Parts of the machine are synchronized in time with the music; in one instance, water glasses are used to repeat part of the song's melody in the fashion of a glass harp. One part of the machine shows the "Here It Goes Again" video on a television before it is smashed by the machine.[3] The MAKE magazine 1993 Ford Escort racecar used for the "24 Hours of LeMons", appears in the video along with a LEGO version of the car.[4][5]
The video's inspiration was from the band, who wanted "a giant machine that we dance with", a long-term aspiration of the band.[3][6] They sought help from creative minds at a "Mindshare LA" gathering, hosted by Syyn Labs. From this pool of talent, about 55 to 60 people from Syyn Labs (including some that had worked on the NASA Mars Exploration Rover program) Caltech scientists and MIT Media Lab helped to design and construct the machine.[7][6] Damian Kulash's father (Damian Kulash Sr.) also participated in the machine's construction. The team had to work on a limited budget, using recycled trash for many of the props in the device.[4] The team avoided the use of "magic"—automated devices like computers or motors—and instead focused on purely physical devices.[3] The total time to create the video from conceptulization was about six months, with two months of planning and four months for design and filming.[1] The warehouse where filming took place was in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, and was secured by Syyn Labs in November 2009.[3] The final construction within the warehouse took over a month and a half during January and February 2010. The band members helped in the last two weeks of construction. Once the machine was completed, the filming, using a single Steadicam, took two days to complete on February 11 and 12, with an estimated 60 takes for the machine to properly function; many of the takes ended only 30 seconds into the process, where a tire would fail to roll properly into the next section of the machine. Syyn Labs had a group of 30 people to help reset the machine after each failed take, a process that took upwards of an hour.[3] There were no significant injuries during filming; one of the band members once was hit hard with paint at the end, while the Steadicam operator nearly got hit with one of the barrels at the end of the mechanism in the shot used for the final video. His reaction may be seen in the released version of the video.[8]
Several elements of the machine had to be properly adjusted to match the timing for the song. The group broke the song into sections, triggered when the machine passed certain gates, as to account for small changes in timing that could occur (up to 0.5 sec, according to Brett Doar, one of the machine's designers), allowing the band to continue to lip synch while the machine operated.[8] Smaller objects like dominoes were found to be the trickiest to set, as their patterns would be less predictable than larger and bulkier objects, which are more predominant in the later parts of the machine.[6] Once the machine transitioned to the downstairs portion, it would generally run the rest of the course untouched.[8] Furthermore, the time of day and temperature would play a big factor in how some small components would behave, forcing the team to readjust the timing.[6] Ball tracks and other features had to be wiped clear of dust and debris to prevent slowing down rolling objects.[3] A carved wooden ball track shown early in the video was created to have motions timed to the music, but required a low inclined angle that would often cause the balls to skip out of the tracks.[3] Kulash noted that their largest "nightmare" for the machine was a set of mousetraps, triggered to release a display of colored flags; they were found to be overly sensitive to earlier actions of the machine, such as the dropping of a piano, and redesign and padding was needed to be used to prevent the traps from being set off .[6] The timing had to take in account the movements of both the band members and the cameraman; Damien Kulash estimated that though the machine was able to complete its opening at least three times, these shots were botched, because either the band members or the cameraman had fallen behind the action of the machine.[6]
While the video was filmed as a single shot, they planned on using post-editing to slow down or speed up certain parts of the take to keep it in time with the final soundtrack.[8] There is a noted cut in the video, in which the camera passes through a set of curtains on the transition to the downstairs portion of the machine; according to one of the machine designers, Hector Alvarez, this cut was introduced by the band, speculating it was introduced to avoid a shot of one of the band members or cameraman in frame or otherwise to keep the machine video synchronized to the machine.[8] On Buzz Out Loud, Adam Sadowsky, president of Syyn Labs, said that while the machine worked in its entirety 3 times, and no cut was needed, the decision was made so a better result on the downstairs portion could be included in the final version.[9]
The video premiered on YouTube on March 2, 2010. Within a day of the video's premiere, it was viewed more than 900,000 times.[6] The video achieved 6 million views within six days, which was comparable to the popularity of the "Here It Goes Again" video, and was considered "instantly viral" by CNN.[10]
The marching band video sparked much controversy online immediately after its release. Because of deals between the band's label, EMI, and YouTube, the video was not embeddable, frustrating many fans and music industry professionals who wanted to post the video on their blogs, nor was viewable across the globe. The band, led by singer Damian Kulash, explained the label's rationale via the band's blog and through an op-ed piece in the New York Times. According to Kulash, EMI disallowed the embeddable play of the video because they only receive royalties for views on the YouTube site itself. He further pleaded to allow embedding of their next video, citing a 90% drop in viewership when EMI disabled embedding on existing videos, affecting the band's own royalties from viewership.[11][12][13]
The band was able to secure the rights to allow the "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg video to be distributed via embedding prior to its premiere, in part due to funding support from State Farm Insurance, which helped to settle issues with EMI.[1][14][7] Despite this, the band has since decided to break away from the EMI label, in part due to the issues of video embedding, and has become its own independent recording label.[15]
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