Brett Doar is a multi-disciplinary artist, engineer and contraptionist known for building Rube Goldberg machines and other interactive and kinetic devices. Doar is best known for his roles as a primary engineer for the Rube Goldberg machine in OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" music video, [1] lead engineer and creative director for "Red Bull Kluge," [2] and creator of GoldieBlox's "Princess Machine". [3] He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. [4]
Doar was born in Cambridge Massachusetts and was raised in Charlotte, NC. As an undergraduate he studied architecture, linguistics, literature and screenwriting at 4 universities before earning his B.A. from New School University in New York City. He earned an M.F.A. from the Arts, Computation and Engineering program at UC Irvine in 2009. [5] He has worked as a commercial fisherman in the Bering Sea, a bus driver, a film and video editor, and a teacher at the preschool, middle school and university level.
Doar was a primary engineer of the Rube Goldberg machine for OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" music video, which premiered on YouTube on 2 March 2010 and achieved over 6 million views within six days. [6] Following the viral success of this music video, Doar built a Rube Goldberg machine for The Colbert Report which was set off by Stephen Colbert in front of a live audience to coincide with OK Go's performance on the show on 29 April 2010. [1]
In 2013, Doar created the "Princess Machine" that was featured in an ad for GoldieBlox. [3] The ad launched on YouTube in November 2013 and garnered over 8 million views in 4 days. [7]
In 2014, Doar created the machine used in the promotional trailer for the Android release of the mobile video game, Leo's Fortune. [8]
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, better known as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction–type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.
OK Go is an American rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, and Andy Ross, who joined them in 2005, replacing original guitarist Andy Duncan. The band is known for its quirky and complex music videos which are often elaborately choreographed to be filmed in a single long take.
Damian Joseph Kulash Jr. is an American musician, singer, songwriter and music video director, best known for being the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band OK Go.
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is a contest in which students ages 8–18 build Rube Goldberg machines to complete a mundane task in a minimum of twenty steps and a maximum of seventy five, in the style of American cartoonist Rube Goldberg. The contest is held both internationally and, during the Covid-19 pandemic, digitally. Live regional contests and local and regional winners are eligible and invited to compete in the national contest.
"Here It Goes Again" is a song by American rock band OK Go, the fifth single released from their second studio album, Oh No (2005). It was the band's only single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 until "I Won't Let You Down" in November 2014 and peaked at number 36 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the band their second UK top-40 hit. The music video, featuring the band dancing on treadmills, became a staple on YouTube, at one time being one of their most-watched videos, with over 61 million views.
"Girls" is a song by American rap rock group the Beastie Boys, released in 1987 with a music video as the seventh and final single from their debut album Licensed to Ill. This song was never performed live and it is one of the few songs on the album that are not in the vein of their standard rap songs.
"This Too Shall Pass" is a song by American rock band OK Go. It was released as the second single from their third studio album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, in January 2010. The band took the unorthodox route of creating two official music videos for the song, both of which premiered on YouTube. The first features a live performance of the song in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Marching Band. The second features a giant Rube Goldberg machine, constructed to operate in time with the song. The popularity of the second music video of the song has been compared to that of the band's video for "Here It Goes Again", helping to boost live performances and single song sales for the group but not significantly improving sales of the Colour album. Difficulties with EMI, their corporate label, in marketing and distribution of the videos led the band to form their own independent label shortly after the videos' releases.
Adam Sadowsky was an American entrepreneur and actor.
James Frost is an English music video, commercial, and film director.
"White Knuckles" is a song by alternative rock band OK Go from the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. The song traces its roots to Prince's style of funk and R&B that brought him to fame.
"Needing/Getting" is a song by American rock band OK Go, from their 2010 album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. A music video, released in February 2012 as an advertisement for Super Bowl XLVI, features the band performing the song by driving a Chevy Sonic through a rally car course, striking musical instruments on the sides of the course with extensions from the car to create the music.
GoldieBlox is an American toy company that markets interactive toys designed for girls. GoldieBlox, which pairs a construction kit with a storybook, launched in 2012 as a prototype on Kickstarter. Its Kickstarter campaign led to more than $1 million in pre-orders placed in the first month. It went on to sell in retailers including Toys "R" Us and Amazon. None of the original construction kits or storybooks are still sold, with the company shifting its focus to crafting kits for girls.
The rock band OK Go has earned considerable fame for their creative but often low-budget music videos, most of which have been promoted through Internet video sharing sites like YouTube. Many of these have become viral videos; the 2006 video for "Here It Goes Again", in which the band performed a complex routine with the aid of motorized treadmills, has received over 50 million views four years later. Their video for Needing/Getting, released February 5, 2012 in partnership with Chevrolet, debuted during Super Bowl XLVI and has over 32 million views on YouTube. Samuel Bayer, who produced many music videos in the 1990s, asserted that OK Go's promotion of music videos on the Internet was akin to Nirvana's ushering in the grunge movement. Many of the videos also use long or single-shot takes, which Salon's Matt Zoller Seitz says "restore[s] a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers' humanity shine through and allowing them to do their thing with a minimum of filmmaking interference". The success of OK Go's music first won the band the 14th Annual Webby Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year. The video for "This Too Shall Pass" was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards."This Too Shall Pass" won the LA Film Fest's Audience Award for Best Music Video, UK MVA Awards – Music Video of the Year Winner 2010, among others.
Debbie Sterling is an American engineer, businesswoman and the founder and CEO of GoldieBlox. Sterling is an engineer, spokesperson, and advocate for women in engineering and technology. Sterling was named Time's Person of the Moment and Business Insider's 30 Women Who Are Changing the World. GoldieBlox was named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2014. The Toy Industry Association awarded GoldieBlox the 2014 Educational Toy of the Year.
"Upside Down & Inside Out" is a song by American rock band OK Go. It was released as a single from their fourth studio album, Hungry Ghosts.
Joseph Herscher is a YouTube personality known for his channel Joseph's Machines. Herscher is a kinetic artist who specializes in making comical chain-reaction machines. He made his first machine, the Lolly Machine, when he was five.
The 2010 UK Music Video Awards were held on 12 October 2010 at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square, London to recognise the best in music videos and music film making from United Kingdom and worldwide. The nominations were announced on 20 September 2010. American rock band OK Go won Video of the Year for "This Too Shall Pass " directed by James Frost, Synn Labs and OK Go.