OK Go - Making Music Into Transmedia

OK Go is a music group known for their innovative music videos. Their fame started over five years ago when their music video for "Here It Goes Again" became popular for its quirky creative use of treadmills.

For every song OK Go has released, they have made a music video to go along with it that tries to top their last video. "Here It Goes Again" was made with little to no budget and no camera movement at all. Their videos have since expanded to include marching bands, green screens, guile suits, Rube Goldberg machines, musical cars in the desert, and much more. Some of them seen here:

Moving on from all of this though, they recently came out with their latest music video "I Won't Let You Down". This is the most professionally produced video I have seen from them, and the great part is that it goes far beyond the music video. But before I get too ahead of myself check out the music video below:

Pay close attention to the movement of the camera. The ending is the most impressive. And don't forget: one shot. 

The video's true quality came with their effective use of the Movi rig. 

This rig allowed them to have shots at eye level with the actors and then sporadically go to an ariel shot over the entire scene. But what I actually want to talk about is the transmedia aspect OK Go added to this video.

What is transmedia?

A lot what is sounds like. Different forms of media that are presented in a unified ways to create one larger piece of media  – all promoting the same materiel. In this case, their music video. For this they created an entire website with articles, games, and interviews pertaining to the video.

http://iwontletyoudown.com/

The Game, labeled as "Pre-Visualization", let's you design your own formation of characters and share it with friends as a video concept. This project goes above and beyond any music video I've seen, and I give several hats off to OK Go for not only surpassing the creativity of other music groups, but continually surpassing their own creativity. 

Help Save Drive In Movie Theaters!

As the digital age progresses many icons of our past are being left behind, including drive-in movie theaters. Since 1933, drive in theaters have been a staple of American Past-time for youth and adults alike. It is no secret that movie theaters, especially drive ins, have not been doing so well due to the economy and the rise in pirated movies. All theaters are being forced to switch to a new kind of digital projector if they want to be able to play current movies at a high quality. This means spending tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single projector in order for the theater to still function. With less than 375 drive in theaters in America left, this has become a real concern of many movie fanatics. Honda (yes the car company) decided to do something about it.

I have only ever been to 1 drive in during my lifetime so far. I was on a family vacation to Wisconsin when I was in 8th or 9th grade (don't ask me why my family chose to go to Wisconsin...) and one thing my mom planned for the trip was a stop at a drive-in movie theater. We saw a double feature, first was Journey to the Center of the Earth, and after that was The Dark Knight. Despite how awful Journey to the Center of the Earth was, the drive-in movie theater proved to be one of the least shitty parts of my shitty family vacation. It was honestly an experience I remember to this day, and one I would not wish to forget. There is something about the atmosphere of a drive in that changes the movie-going experience. There is more of a sense of community and family. I hope that I get the opportunity to return to another drive-in during the near future.


So far Honda has donated 5 projectors to drive-in movie theaters across America and helped raise enough money for 4 more. They are urging for you to help however you can, whether it be a monetary donation, visiting a drive-in or even spreading the word. More information can be found at http://projectdrivein.com/.

For anyone interested in attending a drive in movie theater, the closest one to Ithaca is in Elmira, and about an hour away from school.