Inside the cavernous Budapest train station, over 60 people from 10 countries worked together to bring to life a single-shot music video for OK Go, with Universal Robots' technology at the heart of the operation.
“The main idea behind the video was to use mirrors to create different visual effects. The concept revolved around multiplying reflections as a metaphor for love,” Miguel Espada, co-director of OK Go’s video for the song Love, said in a statement.
“To achieve an infinite reflection, a reflection of a reflection of a reflection, it’s enough to place one mirror in front of another. But if those two mirrors aren’t perfectly parallel, the reflections curve and ruin the illusion. Achieving that level of precision with traditional analog methods wasn’t viable. We also wanted the effects to be dynamic. The mirrors needed to move and change shape. Robots were clearly the best choice.”
The band had already decided to use robots before Miguel joined the project. “When the band started thinking about the various tricks that could be done, they realized they needed to control the mirrors' position with great precision. That’s when robotic arms came into play.”
The co-directors, Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy, and Miguel, ran several workshops to conceptualise the scenes. “First just with robots in Los Angeles, and then with robots and mirrors at the Universal Robots showroom in Barcelona.
“For me, choosing UR robots was a no-brainer. I’ve worked on several projects with them over the years and know their versatility and ease of use very well.”