567 printers create animated backdrops in OK GO’s OBSESSION video

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Music – By the time you finished to watch OK GO’s Obsession music video all the paper used for it has already been responsibly recycled. The American pop-rock band teamed with paper company Double A and digital artist Daito Manabe at creative agency SIX Inc who conceived and designed the first ever paper mapping video.

“The OBSESSION project was about finding a new sand box, a new area to play with”. Says OK GO’s Damian Kulash. Two walls decked with 567 printers create an animated cartoon-like performance which features an ever-changing multicolored backdrops. An engineered choreography illustrated by Karen Singh and is performed to the camera with 1 millimeter accuracy. Thanks to treadmills and cables, the musicians dance and sing floating around in zero gravity

OK GO Obsession - Frame from the official music video.

Frames from OK GO’s Obsession music video.

“The smoothness of Double A paper made this video possible.” Explains Jin Saito, creative director at SIX INC. “As we used a huge scale of paper the video had to be shot in one single take”.

The video was shot in one take over five days but took more than two years and three trips to Japan from initial concept to release to be completed. “We’ve been recording really slowly. It has been a trial and error process to make perfect synchronizing system.” Says Kulash.

Obsession was directed by band member Damian Kulash, Jr. & Yusuke Tanaka. Towards the end, when the video seems about to finish, OK GO bring the vibe back and are ready to fly again. “We wanted to fly off the planet”. Double A is linked to the Meitong Island in Thailand which appears in the backdrop over which The musicians scenographically fly over.

As for the copious amount of paper used in the video, the band added the disclaimer that all the paper was recycled and a donation had been made to Greenpeace.