Saturday, November 17, 2012
Red Bull Releases Ridiculous Rube-Goldberg-esque Kluge
Geekosystem: Red Bull did another sports thing! This is The Athlete Machine, a collection of Rube Goldberg devices connected by a series of impressive feats of derring-do performed by what we assume are well known extreme sports athletes. After Felix Baumgartner’s jump from space, it seems Red Bull figured the best way to top something huge is by linking smaller, slightly less awesome things together into a sort of extreme sports Voltron.
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14 comments:
Gahhhhh so cool! While this looks really cool, it actually probably was not that hard to do. Each of those machines was so separate and there were multiple shots so that if one section messed up it wouldn't be that hard to reset. This does not how ever make it any less cool! I like the idea of making athletes into a machine, I mean better to channeling all of that energy into something then just wasting it. Also they have a huge set up and the fact that it starts off with someone sky diving just makes it intrinsically cool.
This is great but I think it was totally faked and not true. The thing that I always find cool is that these machines are on continuous shot of fill not with brakes and so you can see if it does not work. Don’t think that I don't think this not amazing the things that they did to contact all of them is amazing and really interesting. Also the people cannot go wrong unlike a machine that could. I hope that they continue to do things like this. I wonder how much of a can of Red Bull goes into these type of things with how expensive the drink is. With this and the space jump just happening recently ago there must be a lot of money going into this program and I am glad that they do things like this.
I still have nightmares of the rube goldberg project but this was really entertaining to watch. While im not a fan of human interaction within rube goldberg machines because then they are not longer independent machines. however what impressed me the most was the rally car drifting a full 720 degrees enlosing in closer and closer while still precisely hitting its targets. that is damn hard trick to pull off. Though i do find it humurous that it was all just so he could get his redbull
I agree with Sean, the car was great...but I'm not a big fan of how they used the athletes. For instance, the golfing segment seemed a little too easy - they cupped the platform in and surrounded it with a mesh catch. Amaze me!
It seemed like the Rube wasn't as dependent on the human interaction as the other elements. Was this rube supposed to be a rube or a highlighting of the skills of the athletes? I was unimpressed by the skill required, for the most part.
The Ok Go Rube was much more impressive. Freshmen - go check out that video: http://littleurl.info/okgorube
So I want to work for Red Bull, plain and simple. I went to the Maker Fair in NYC and Red Bull had some very interactive booths. I think this video was really interesting and creative to incorporate live action.
I kind of with Robert and unlike him I really hope this machine are true and one fluid sequence. Honestly I do not really care and I just going to hold out hope that it is a true Rube- Goldberg.
Red Bull does some pretty kool things for publicity. I approve.
Dear SoD Class of 2014,
Do not bring a motorcycle into Thirty-Three. That is all.
I disagree with some of the comments above. This is by far the coolest rube goldberg-esque machine. I thought the integration of the athletes was great, even if the segments were not all equal in level of difficulty. I found the mechanical parts and human elements to be equally captivating and impressive. It's amazing that Redbull chose this as part of their marketing campaign and executed it with the athletes they sponsor. I think it was a unique and unexpected way to incorporate a lot of the things the company depends on to draw in customers. I'm very impressed. I also was amazed by the filming. One thing that we discussed in PTM last year was that it is hard to capture and completely understand a rube goldberg with film. They did a spectacular job with that. It was not perfect filming, of course. Some parts still got lost, but it was pretty easy to follow what machines were in progress at what time.
Red Bull has devised some crazy stuff here and in other videos they've released. Firstly, I will agree this is more Rube Goldberg esque but I think that's the point. The video is displaying the ingenuity of the machine as well as the talents of the athletes. It goes without saying that a good number of those tricks are much more difficult and technical than they may appear, and this goes for the both the athletes and elements of the machine. Also, props for including the chainsaw and belt sander, those are easily two of my favorite moments.
You know you're jaded when all you can see is all the poorly executed pipe and drape! This must have been really fun to engineer, and some of the element choices for the reactions were very creative (extension ladder, hexagonal barbell, chainsaw?!) But I could have hoped for some more creative transitions. When a complicated and well-designed reaction just leads to a guy having his bike handed to him, it kind of fizzles for me. Of course the guy then rips a fucking front flip off a 10 foot platform, which gets my attention. The blurb under the video finds a way to link this video in theme to Felix Baumgartner’s stratospheric jump last month, and I personally think that's a mistake. If you can compare this to that, I don't think you understood what Baumgartner’s jump really was.
For further reading this week... This guy spent ten years building this life size re-creation of the old Mouse Trap board game. Was it worth it? You bee the judge:
http://lifesizemousetrap.org/
And any discussion of Rube-Goldberg devices has to include my favorite computer game from my youth (yes I had one too): The Incredible Machine!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine_%28series%29
There's a game app for it now too for all you nerds:
http://disney.go.com/disneyinsider/mobile-apps/the-incredible-machine
I do agree that I really enjoyed the inclusion of athletes into this Rube Goldberg machine. On a practical note it also gives them a bit of control over the timing of this machine but it also give them uncertainty because it is always possible that one of these athletes will make a mistake. I think that this was wonderful Rube Goldberg machine and I would like to know some of the challenges that they faced shooting this or was it all super easy.
Red Bull definitely has a marketing scheme down. Invest lots of money in really cool stunts. Why not? To make it relevant to us, all these things need carpenters ad project managers! It would have been more interesting to see the skills matter much more, and if the athletes could have been more a part of the machine then just a separate trigger. That would be something more challenging to figure out. Mixing the human with the machine was an interesting choice though, it makes the point of getting a Red Bull more worth it. You just worked hard, go have an energy drink.
I saw this video on another website the other day an had no idea till the end that it was a marketing ad. Red Bull always thinks of new inventive ways to promote their products, that's probably one of the reasons that they're so successful! They always are thinking of different ways to attract their consumers and main target age group, which is something you are always having to think about in theatre. When you have to publicize a show you are constantly trying to think of ways to attract all varying age groups and ethnicities to come see your show!
Ok, this was really not that impressive coming from a successful professional company. It seemed so amateur. I think the rube-goldberg machine in Home Alone was just as well thought out.
Red bull lost some serious points as far as creativity goes in advertisement. It sort of looked like a project some high schoolers would put together during the summer. The one shot at a saving grace could have been the athletes, but they were a let down as well, none of the things they did were even close to awe-inspiring and they seemed so separate from all the machines. This advertisement idea has the potential to be really impressive, i think perhaps fewer, more impressive things as opposed to more, less impressive things might be more successful.
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