WTF 4 variations #2 - OK Go video remix

THIS IS FOUR VIDEOS (#5-#8), NOT ONE VIDEO.

This is a set of 4 different videos showing variations of an idea. It is not a single splitscreen video. It is not intended for the whole thing together to be aesthetically pleasing. It is just a technique to show you all four variations at once, to save you time and to let you compare them.

"WTF" is a song from OK Go's 2010 album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky. It has an official music video, and released raw greenscreen footage inviting video "remixes". In these videos you'll find a nerdy study of the original OK Go video, exploring variations of the "trick" of the original video, using only the original video for source content.

In the first set of 4 variations, I used only the original data and some simple, song-independent algorithms.

For the next 8 or so variations, I'm introducing one new source of information: the song tempo and time signature. By making use of nothing more than this information we can create some rather different effects, and they can be synchronized to the music.

In the first 4 variations, I experimented with trails backward and forward in time. From now on I'll stick to backwards in time only.

For those of you trying this at home, the song is at 150bpm, which means 2.5 quarter notes per second. The music is in the time signature 5/4 (except for the "there's just this thing about you" measures, which are in 4/4), which means each beat is 0.4 seconds and each measure is 2 seconds. The video frame rate is 29.97 frames per second, so one beat is within 99.8% of 12 frames, and one measure is within 99.8% of 60 frames.

In audio processing, an echo effect is created using a "delay", and feeding the signal back through the delay. We're going to begin exploring visual echoes in this set, but the actual technology I use is different, because green-screen imagery works differently from audio.

The OK Go WTF effect is a lot like a delay with its feedback set to 100%, but not really, because the opaque stuff keeps "replacing" what's there and preventing the whole thing from degenerating into noise the way a real delay would. So the next few variations should be understood as experimenting with this idea of "video echoes", which is only metaphorically like audio echoes, and not a literal adapatation.

TOP LEFT: The original OK Go effect showed infinite trails into the past trailing behind things that happen on screen. The "spacing" in time of the trails was the frame rate of the camera; about 1/30th of a second. In this video, you can see "trails" showing what happened in the past one beat earlier, two beats earlier, three beats earlier, and on to infinity. As a result you get a cyclic "echo" effect, where one beat's worth of time seems to repeat over and over.

The jerkiness is because the greenscreen video file is 29.97 fps, but the actual content appears to be 24fps; every fifth frame in the file is a duplicate (and I didn't notice until I saw this jerkiness).

TOP RIGHT: This is the same as the top left effect, but the spacing in time is one measure instead of one beat. This makes the "repetition cycle" long enough that it starts to have a different feel. It reminds me of Michel Gondry's video of "Come Into My World" for Kylie Minogue. That video, however, carefully splices together its figures so they stand in front of each other "correctly", whereas here the "newest" is always "in the front", even if the character is actually further away.

BOTTOM LEFT: This is very close to the original OK Go effect, except the trails only last for exactly one measure. This makes the "end" of the trails synchronized to the music as well, although this is only obvious in a few places. (Note: the effect is always a 5/4 measure in length; the 4/4 measures are not handled specially, and the same is also true of the top right.)

BOTTOM RIGHT: This is an illustration of what it looks like to treat digital video with the same math that we do digital audio, ignoring the "opacity" information provided by the green screen. (You could do this to any old video, without needing the greenscreen.) I put every greenscreen image onto a white background, and then run it through an audio-style echo effect. The "delay line" is set to one beat, with 60% feedback, and there's no special mixing of the direct and delayed signal (i.e. the video is 60% delay, 40% most recent image).

All of these videos are created using custom software I wrote explicitly for processing the WTF video. This includes my own green-screen processing, which is why the green-screen removal isn't very good in places.

Because the image processing is different from audio processing, a traditional delay with feedback isn't suitable even for video delay effects; instead I use a separate tap for every echo you see. This is how the video on the bottom left was created; in the next set of variations I'll further explore the effects that can be done with this multi-tap "delay".

Category:

Music

Tags:

• OK Go
• okgo
• wtf

[TheMessenjah01]

WHooooaaaaaa haha

wow these are crazy

I might have to say I like the top left (#5) the most. The quarter-note delay was sweet, and I just love that it just continues forever. Definitely one of the coolest video remixes I've seen so far.

[silverspaceship]

Thanks!

The top left of this one is my favorite one on this screen too. There are some great bits, like when Damian walks towards the camera after beach ball baseball. I considered doing the rainbow remix this way too... maybe I should have tried it.

[BusinessmanWhosBusy]

THUMBS UP FOR TOP LEFT GETTING ITS OWN VIDEO!! :D

[IrishKeshiHead]

Dear god, it was madness.. sheer utter madness.. but awesome at the same time.

[missannikaaah]

it makes me dizzy 0-O

[ComicalCorner]

i mean left

[ComicalCorner]

i like the bottom right one

[chalamalekon]

i like the video in the top left corner that was great

[TheDoofuspower101]

THE VERTIGO SUCKS, I only liked the other 3

[starmanlover]

i might sound crazy- but would it be possible to combine the top right and the bottom left? that would be siiiick

but i love this- its so cool!!

[JMIRANDA99]

i like the two that are on the left

[TheCaliger]

Yes, the top left was the best, in my opinion, too.

Though, you didn't make this to be artistic, etc. the way the four videos are next to eachother, it still brings it out.

I enjoyed watching them all, thanks for doing this.