March 30 2007
Video: Supersized Rube Goldberg Contraption
posted by Steven Shaw at 8:43 amThe crew that assembled this series of pulleys, pendulums, rolling balls and slinkies must have the patience of a Vatican football team’s worth of saints. We don’t know how much experimentation went on to get it right (there are edits here) but we do know that respected inventors such as Dr. Emmett Brown and Nick Park’s Wallace would be proud. If they were real, that is.
These sorts of convoluted, absurd machines, often used in cartoons or movies, are known as Rube Goldberg machines in the USA, and are referred to as Heath Robinson Contraptions in the UK. Interestingly, in an interview with the makers of Lost on ew.com they called the show “a massive Rube Goldberg device, in which all the components of the machinery are humans.”
From Break.com
March 30th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hhmmmm, some people obviously have far too much spare time… ;O)
March 31st, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Oh dear… I guess Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse didn’t get the joke of these contraptions: An enormous (and ultimately pointless) expenditure of ingenuity and effort on a task that could be achieved quite simply.
Then again, they could be admitting that the third season of Lost is a bloody tedious mess – which deserves a Pulitzer for Acute Self-Criticism.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:52 am
I think you nailed it there Craig. Lost, that is, and the futility of buying into this latest season. I watch it and think: The Prisoner stopped at 17 eps; Buddy Holly died at 22. My dad, who was a trumpet player in the dine and dance era, used to tell me: “Leave them wanting. But leave them.” No-one really wants answers to that show, there’s no fun in resolution. In Movie or TV Land, resolution is represented by either a kiss or a death; we’ve seen both of those in Lost already. Please, just leave us a bloody great big enigma, take a note from H.P. Lovecraft and never, ever show the monster. Whoops, too late…
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I stopped watching Lost midway thru the second series! My life is neither worse nor better. Anyway, as for this clip — well, i much rather prefer Wallace & Grommit. Too many jump-cuts in this one for me to believe they made it all in one go.