Ok...how did they do this video?
 

This technique seems to produce a POV much like you see when playing a first person video game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUE-4FbM_XI

My first instinct is that it was shot simultaneously from multiple angles and then they used a 3D modeling program to shift the POV like that.

Anyone? Nate?

-gb-

This is a modified "bullet time" effect, seen some years ago on Gap TV ads and (in a lower quality method) during NFL football games, where the same frame of time was used temporally in sequence to give the illusion of a frozen moment, and 3D space as the "camera" - actually multiple cameras, where switched. This particular video is slightly different in that it uses sequential frames, providing the look that time keeps moving. So, it's just a modification of what is now a tried and true technique.

This is the "Party Version" music video for "Do What You Want," and it was directed by Michael Gondry's brother, Olivier, reportedly made in June, 2005.

Thanks Eric, and BTW, I've seen the wall paper version of that video also. I've watched all their videos because I like their musical and visual style. My instincts were that multiple cameras were rolling. It is similar to the effect used in The Matrix, but without any frame being frozen in time.

-gb-

Imagine about 12 DVXs mounted on a 8ft length of curved speedrail. I've also seen this done with maybe 15 Arri 35-3s on I think it was a Puff Daddy music video...I seem to remember seeing the "Making The Video".

This is more of a big job for the editor, because he's doing so many 1 frame cuts.

In December 2004, when I bought an FX-1 for my company at Samy's in LA, the guy at the counter was telling me about a production company that had just bought 75 of them for a similar rig on a commercial. I guess when the commercial was done, they were to be returned and sold as open-box specials.

Thanks Nate. I was going to contact you off the forum because I figured you'd have the 411. Knowing that this band doesn't usually put a lot of high end production dollars into their video, I was thinking maybe a different trick might have been used.

I was more or less wondering what software or plug-in might be used to generate the interpolated frames between shot angles to create the illusion of rapid motion in the POV.

-gb-

Look for the Beastie boys vid, shot in Time Square NY, several years ago.
They formed a ring of DVX100's pointing inwards and up.

Great effect, creating sequential POV in a circular field, with several frozen moments.

iPaul

I can see how that would work, it's essentially the "Matrix" effect. However, watching the Ok Go video, I felt that the POV swings were of such magnitude and direction that I would have seen other cameras. Pointing all of the cameras inwards and up, would eliminate the other cameras from each camera's POV.

-gb-

Whatever the technique used I hope it remains a deep dark secret and doesn't become well known enough for folks try to be 'cool' using it as the 'effects de jour.' Guess I'm just an old fogey - I enjoyed the retro touches of the band and the music but I found that camerawork and editing to be absolutely awful, while technically sophisticated it's amateurish in conception, visually confusing and disorienting to the point of my having to just give up on it half-way through. A POV should not change before the brain has a chance to orient itself to the first angle and understand its context, IMHO. A few seconds of that technique for some specific dramatic point would be fine but an entire musical number feeling like I'm being tossed inside the drum of a giant clothes drier, no thanks!

I felt a bit uneasy with the rapid POV changes, reminded me of being in a first person shooter video game.

As for the band and their music, I like the retro touch also. The ingenuity of using 6 treadmills in a choreographed fashion is what also something I like to see. I like that there is some originality in their videos.

-gb-

That's another reason I DIDN'T like the camera technique - I thought the staging, set, costumes, etc were interesting and I found myself very frustrated that the bloody camera wouldn't hold still long enough for me to actually SEE and appreciate them.