Here It Goes Again Ok Go Video
The band had already earned a reputation for creating jaw-dropping, instantly viral music videos, from their relatively simple treadmill choreography to an intricately arranged Rube Goldberg motorcar. But for the band'south 2010 striking "White Knuckles," pb singer Damian Kulash and his sister Trish Sie (who co-directed both videos together) wanted an even more impressive i-accept video — merely this time, they wanted it to characteristic animals.
"The original plan was we were going to have chimpanzees in spacesuits trying to exercise the treadmill dance, just to make fun of ourselves," Kulash tells EW. "We never got the chimpanzees in spacesuits, but that's where information technology started."
Eventually they landed on the idea of having a agglomeration of dogs performing detailed choreography for 3 and a one-half minutes. Simply there was just one problem with their grand plan: Every animal trainer they asked said it couldn't be done.
"Some people merely didn't really get it," Kulash recalls. "They were like, 'Here are the things you can railroad train a domestic dog to do, as long as it's xv seconds long.' And nosotros were similar, 'No, we want them to do something for three and a one-half minutes.'"
After an exhaustive search, they finally establish a willing partner in animal trainer Lauren Henry, from Talented Animals, only to see their next large obstacle… funding the thing. "Nosotros called dog food sponsors — Purina almost did it with u.s. — only in the cease, we just had to pay for ourselves considering it was also of import," Kulash says.
Finally, the real work began. First the band planned the dance using stuffed animals as stand-ins for the dogs. So 12 trainers taught xiv rescue dogs (and one caprine animal!) the choreography for three months. The band arrived on set in an empty plastic factory in Oregon a week before cameras started rolling, and they were all impressed with how well the pooches were performing the dance.
"At that place were some things that they could never learn, but some things were fifty-fifty better than we had imagined," Kulash says. "It was incredible — the dogs screwed up less than humans do. Dogs are very predictable. What they want is food. And occasionally affection. And in one case in a while they want to check out each other'southward asses."
Only a last-minute addition to the pack of pup performers inverse everything when Kulash'southward own canine, Bunny (bottom right photo, on the right), was recruited on fix. "Bunny was a bad dog by and large, merely Bunny was so incredibly food-motivated that the trainers were like, 'Y'all could railroad train this dog to practise anything,'" Kulash says. "She was then into food that if you lot put a bunch of Cheez Whiz on a lawn tennis ball, anything she could comprehend, she would practice. It was just a matter of teaching her and getting her to comprehend what y'all wanted. And she was a dream on set, more often than not."
OK Go shooting the music video for 'White Knuckles'
| Credit: OK Go
For 72 takes, Bunny performed her part beautifully. And there was merely one day left of filming to go. "We were going to get an even better take the next day, we were pretty sure of it," Kulash remembers. Simply subsequently take 72, the band threw a party for all the trainers, the crew, and Kulash's parents, who were visiting the set up. Later the political party ended, Kulash let Bunny and his other domestic dog, Dora, out to pee, and while Dora returned immediately, Bunny disappeared for an 60 minutes and a half.
When Bunny finally returned, she was safe… but she also reeked. "She smelled like the worst bog sewage. It was so bad," Kulash says. "I don't know what she did. She must take establish a expressionless brute — but also in, similar, a swamp."
Kulash done her all night, and to his human being nose, she eventually smelled normal again. "Just the next day when nosotros got to set, none of the dogs would work," he says. "We were like, what'south going on? Did they know that yesterday we had a wrap party besides early on? Are they just revolting? When nosotros finally got to the section where Bunny comes in — it's about a tertiary of the style through the video, and it took us like ii hours to just get to that betoken because none of the dogs were cooperating — she gets sat down on that little table next to Spike [bottom right photograph, on the left], who smells her and was like, 'Holy s---, what are you?!' Like this incredible 'What have y'all become, Bunny?!' And nosotros realized that, to dogs, Bunny was not anywhere close to clean."
They tried everything to become Bunny smelling normal over again, even going so far as to wash her in peroxide to become rid of the stench, but naught worked. And after filming 52 more (failed) takes, they ended up having to utilize take 72 — the last full-take shot before Bunny's disappearing act. "The entire balance of the shoot was gone because of Bunny," Kulash says. "We never got a improve accept because of that little… well, bowwow."
Bunny died years later, and Kulash loves how she'll forever be immortalized in "White Duke," alongside all the other rescue dogs who pulled off what and so many trainers said couldn't be done. And after all the hard work and the uphill battle they weathered before and during the shoot, Kulash knows their task could have been even more difficult if they'd picked a dissimilar animate being to star in the music video. "Luckily, they're not cats," he says. "Can you imagine?"
A version of this story appears in the April consequence of Entertainment Weekly , available on newsstands March xviii . Don't forget to subscribe for more than exclusive interviews and photos, simply in EW.
Related content:
- Scout OK Go irksome down time in 'The One Moment' music video
- OK Go render with the first zero-gravity music video ever
- Sentinel OK Go's mind-bending music video for 'The Writing's on the Wall'
hootonwastabory1945.blogspot.com
Source: https://ew.com/music/ok-go-white-knuckles-music-video-untold-story/