OK GO: Special Effects By Physics, Not CGI

[Broomstick]

Check out this video:



Put it on full screen.

Actually shot in zero-g. If you watch closely, you'll see where gravity resumes (they actually get up to 1.8g between 0g intervals. Yes, they did edit out most of the non-zero g (just a bit at the beginning and end with gravity). Only 58 "puke events" happened during filming! (No, 0g is not quite as fun as it looks....)

There bunches of stuff out on the web about how they did it and various details.

[SpottedKitty]

"Video not available in your country". Could you describe it a bit more? I've seen lots of neat/weird/hilarious zero-g videos.

[Broomstick]

Well, poo...

Can you see this one?

[SpottedKitty]

Hooboy.

Incredibly neat and very cleverly edited to take out the gaps between the zero-g segments. The paint balloons were a good touch; liquids really do behave very oddly (see the videos Chris Hadfield made when he was up on the ISS recently).

I wonder if this is going to catch on with better-known bands?

[Mr Bean]

Hooboy.

Incredibly neat and very cleverly edited to take out the gaps between the zero-g segments. The paint balloons were a good touch; liquids really do behave very oddly (see the videos Chris Hadfield made when he was up on the ISS recently).

I wonder if this is going to catch on with better-known bands?

Spectacle videos are a dead art with bands. Explosions? Sure, 100 well drilled and attractive dancers? Sure, taking a basic gimic and building a video around? Nah it's kind of OK-GO's thing mostly because it's there's idea and if there's one thing modern music suffers from it's packaging, take band take music insert into wrapper and produce.

[Broomstick]

Also, as fun as all that looks (and I'm sure there was some fun there) as I noted in the OP there WAS puking involved in the project. Not all that many people are willing to throw up on a regular basis for their Art. Most do, eventually, get used to zero-g to the extent the puking stops but my brief experiences with this sort of weightlessness (yeah, I flew airplanes, we did a bit of that sort of thing, although not for as long intervals as shown here) is that it's not really a good sensation. In fact, I prefer 2g to 0g in some ways, although pulling g's isn't all happy fun times, either.

They had similar problems filming Apollo 13 - plenty of behind-the-scenes vomiting went on for that one, too. Humans evolved under 1g and that's what we're adapted to, stray too far from that condition and your body will let you know. Even among professional astronauts there are problems with this sort of thing (also alluded to in Apollo 13).

[SpottedKitty]

Even among professional astronauts there are problems with this sort of thing (also alluded to in Apollo 13).

Also in the TV specials here in the UK covering the first British ESA astronaut Tim Peake being launched to the ISS recently. Apparently it usually takes anything from a couple of days to a week or two until your brain gives up on the obviously insane signals coming from your inner ear and just ignores it. After that, most people are pretty much all right.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Only 58 "puke events" happened during filming! (No, 0g is not quite as fun as it looks....)

And, how many farting events were recorded in the intervals of high-g?

[salm]

That is a really cool video. Sounds like it would be a real bitch to film. Best part is the two ladies forming a circle, rotating and then disappearing in the back of the plane. It looks like a cheap 80s effect.

[Broomstick]

Only 58 "puke events" happened during filming! (No, 0g is not quite as fun as it looks....)

And, how many farting events were recorded in the intervals of high-g?

Having experienced 3-4g's myself, I can not recall any greater tendency to fart. Lower air pressure can cause that (among skydivers it's known that happens on the ride up).

There are a number of behind-the-scenes videos released by the band - filming was a bit of a marathon.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

It may have been air pressure I was thinking about. Conceded, and apologies, Broomstick.

I am viewing the vids now, in between plumbing old threads on this board. So far, the behind the scenes vids are as interesting as the one you originally posted.

[salm]

(No, 0g is not quite as fun as it looks....)

I think this is probably wrong. My cousin went on a 0g flight in France and said it´s one of the most awesome things he´s ever done.

[Broomstick]

Then he is one of a fortunate minority - most people find zero g for more than a few seconds to be nauseating. Eventually you can adapt, but it takes awhile. Most astronauts spend their first week or so medicated against motion sickness.

[salm]

Not necessarily. You get a shot before the flight which helps against getting sick. And either way, you can have alot of fun even if you have to throw up.

[Broomstick]

You get a shot before the flight which helps against getting sick.

^ That's kind of my point. If you need medication to avoid puking then it's not an inherently wonderful experience.

And yes, you can have fun, but it's despite the motion sickness.

[salm]

You get a shot before the flight which helps against getting sick.

^ That's kind of my point. If you need medication to avoid puking then it's not an inherently wonderful experience.

And yes, you can have fun, but it's despite the motion sickness.

I assume that you don´t feel motion sick when medicated. It´s like the stuff they give you on ships. It keeps people from throwing up by keeping them from getting sick.

And why can something that requires medicine not be a wonderful experience? After all, the medicine eliminates (if sucessful) the negative sides of the experience, leavin gonly the positive ones.

This company claims that very few people get sick:
http://www.gozerog.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=faq.welcome

[Broomstick]

I assume that you don´t feel motion sick when medicated. It´s like the stuff they give you on ships. It keeps people from throwing up by keeping them from getting sick.

I wouldn't know - I'm one of those really odd people that just don't get motion sick so I never taken anything of the sort.

I do know that virtually everyone who takes those drugs feels tired/sleepy and fatigued. A sufficient jolt of adrenalin will help contradict that for a short while, and probably a lot of caffeine can help.

And why can something that requires medicine not be a wonderful experience? After all, the medicine eliminates (if sucessful) the negative sides of the experience, leavin gonly the positive ones.

The point is that without the medicine it wouldn't be a pleasant experience, and if virtually everyone needs a drug to enjoy it then it's not an inherently pleasant experience.

Bravo if the experience can be improved enough to enjoy it, but without the drugs you get icky side effects.

[Elheru Aran]

I'm in a bit of a strange situation as far as motion sickness goes. I don't have any inner ear (or middle ears rather), so I have no physical sense of equilibrium. That means that I "balance" by tactile and visual inputs (the feel of the floor under my feet, visual horizons, the feeling of gravity, etc).

Which brings rise to how might I deal with zero gravity... while I would be able to see what was 'up' and 'down', obviously floating in midair I wouldn't be touching anything, and I wouldn't have any feeling of 'down'. But on the other hand I wouldn't have any issues with a physical sense of balance being severely disrupted.

Guess I need to take one of these flights some day and find out!

[Broomstick]

You might well have no zero-g sickness at all.

It's caused by the fluid in the semi-circular canals getting wonky - we've all seen how fluids act strangely (by our normal day-to-day 1g standards) in zero g, and the fluid in the inner ear is no different. This generates some VERY strange inputs to the human brain, which are usually interpreted by the brain in such as way as to trigger nausea and vomiting. It's only after the brain becomes accustomed to such inputs that the sick feeling goes away (and it doesn't always go away - some people never adjust).

If you don't have semi-circular canals your brain will never receive such inputs and thus zero g might not make you sick at all. You might find that lack of a gravity defined "up" or "down" disorienting, but you'd probably get used to that fairly quickly.

It would be an interesting experiment to try.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah, nearly all the guts of my ears have been ossified by this point. I'm fairly certain that includes those semi-circular canal thingies. Apparently when I came home from the hospital after my bout of meningitis, my mom has mentioned that I had balance issues for some time, but as I was only ~1yr old, I adapted fairly quickly. Darkness, blindfolds, and uneven/shifting terrain really wreak havoc with my balance; the closest I've ever gotten to dizzy was in a carnival funhouse, where I walked through one of those spinning barrel things in the dark.

Maybe for my 60th birthday, eh?