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It took a huge amount of design, engineering, and coordination to create this spectacular Rube Goldberg machine in this internet-sensation OK Go video. We'd like to introduce you to four of the designers!

Dan Busby - Bottom Floor

I was one of the guys who helped build the machine. While we had a few core people that were working hard all the time, it's worth mentioning that our crew was large and extremely talented. Everyone deserves a healthy amount of credit, not just us four.

Brett Doar - The "Trigger Man"

Hector Alvarez - Top Floor

I'm another one of the people involved in the design and build of this craziness. I dealt mostly with the top floor build and lost 2/3rds of my sanity in the process.

Oren Schaedel - Descent

I'm another one of SyynLabs people that built the machine. I was in charge of the descent but besides me, there were many people that made this happen. Many online posts say that it was difficult to make out the details of the mechanisms, I'll be happy to explain those.

The photo above is by Sara Ross-Samko.

We have these four talented makers on hand to answer any questions you might have about the project, so please ask in the comments below! I have a few of my own:

Becky Stern: How long did the setup for the final shot take?

Daniel Busby: The better question is how long setup took AFTER the final shot. About an hour. Most takes went bust early on upstairs, so setups were shorter, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 20 minutes. One comical setup needed to be redone after only 3 of the initial dominoes fell. Once we got to the descent, we knew we were in for a long one.

Becky: How many takes did it require to get the final?

DB: I lost count. I think we did that first sequence about 70 times. When we got past the tire, we knew we had a chance. When the piano dropped without triggering the flags or chairs, we started getting excited. If the sledgehammer blew up the TV we were in the home stretch. It was a tense video to film!

Marc de Vinck: What kind of camera (and camera rig) was used? I saw in the comments it was 50lbs, but how did you maneuver up and down, etc, with such apparent ease?

BD: The camera belongs to the band, and I think it's a Sony something (that's the model, a Sony Something). It's a prosumer HD model, I guess. Mic was wearing a steadicam rig, which is really finely balanced. I totally want a steadicam rig just to walk around in and hold my coffee. We were initially going to lower him down in just a harness through a hole in the floor but it was brought to our attention that the balancing of the rig would pretty much mean that he would just be facing the floor through the descent. So we brought in a really great welder named "Mother" (I think his real name is Paul) who built a little elevator. I never got a chance to ride in that elevator.

I should also mention that when I say "we" I don't always mean that I had anything to do with it.

John Park: What was the process for designing the overall machine? Sketching? Scale-models? CG? Storyboards? Arm waving and interpretive dance?

DB: We sat down and tried to plan out everything ahead of time. We created a lot of module designs, work on timing, etc. Then we found that strategy was horrible. It was much better to walk the space while listening to the song (100s of times) and wave hands around. We knew that we wanted some parts small and some parts big, depending on the scale of the music. We knew we had to fill the space and get from point A to point B in the song. Once we nailed down a few key parts we were able to start working off of them and fill in the gaps and join modules up.

Then of course, the band returned from tour and changed huge sections 2 weeks before filming. It was all for the best however, and everyone understood that it resulted in a better video overall. But, it made all of the previous planning unnecessary.

BTW, there were many discarded sections. At least one of them can be seen in the background behind the bird's nest zipline.

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