Remember that rad video that OK Go did on the treadmills? Well the band has a new video that’s equally as rad. The band’s latest video is for “End Love” off their 2010 release Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. I hooked up with OK Go drummer Dan Konopka to find out more about this epic video. Read what he had to say below. And while your at it, download the video for free HERE.

Hey man! How’s it going?

Very well my friend. Enjoying a little bit of time off at home.

Ok. So let’s just get right to it. This video is bananas! Who’s idea was it? Who directed it?

Thank you! The idea came from Jeff Lieberman and Eric Gunther who co-directed the video. In large, it was a whole group production effort to get this thing to go – all our videos are kind of that way.
Jeff has 4 degrees from MIT and is the host of the Discovery Channel show Time Warp. Eric is an MIT grad as well and good friends with Jeff. Eric and Jeff were on all logistics and Eric really helped us with the choreography.

And it was filmed in Echo Park in Los Angeles, correct?

It was filmed around the center section of Echo Park, starting next to the fountain pump and follows the walk way around the center of the park.

It’s like a time lapse photography video, which means it took some time. How long were you guys actually there?

Well the whole shot was 18 hours. But that didn’t include the test run we did 2 days before. We were trying to get 2 full takes so we could cut between shots, but at about 7pm the first day the dolly we were using to move the camera over the terrain completely broke! It was nerve wracking spot to be in – we then only had one chance to get this thing down in one swoop. We ended up using a plywood boards to get the camera around the park.

The choreography is one thing, but how the hell did you sync up the vocals?

To get the vocals to match up was a funny trick. Basically to achieve this effect, the music had to be slowed down way below comprehension. The trick was understanding the way your mouth would look saying a word like “the” over the course of 5 minutes. For the extra slow “sitting in the sleeping bag scene” we video taped ourselves singing the parts in real time, then played it back slowed down on video monitors set next to the camera – so we could then try to match our lips to the pre-recorded lips.

I noticed you had a goose following you guys around. How did that work out?

That was completely random. Orange Bill is what we named her. Her name is actually Maria or Natalia or something. She at first didn’t like us, and would peck at us wherever we went. She followed Andy back to his car once quacking. By the middle of the final take I think she felt comfortable with us around – in her park. She is definitely a special part of the video – but totally unplanned.

Ok so tell me about this other video with Animal of The Muppets. Ira Glass from This American Life was there and Zach Galifianakis was in the background. There’s gotta be some story there.

So first, all of us in the band love the Muppets. Everything they are is genius to us. OK Go and the Muppets seems like a natural paring, a nice matching of bizarreness!
So anyhow, a few months ago we got to know the Muppet people/producers, etc from when we recorded a cover of the Muppets Theme Song for a Muppets music tribute record coming out next year.
When we got word they were going to be at the Webby Awards in NY we knew we wanted to do something fun with them.
They told us Animal and Floyd were going to accept an award so Tim and I came up with the idea of having a blowout, impromptu, bizarro staring contest.
Ira is an old good friend of ours and happened to be a presenter at the show and was happy to help set up the bit.
We ran it twice and knew it wasn’t quite right. Tim insisted one more try and then randomly, Zach was just in the hallway outside standing, minding his own business – we asked if he would participate.
At first he seemed like he wasn’t sure about being a part some crazy clip, but we assured him all we needed was for him to sit and watch. That was the third take and the keeper. Zach was perfect and I luckily didn’t lose it looking at Animal.

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