The story of Nokia in the style of Ruba Goldberg

    Hello, Habr!
    As you already know, on April 25 of this year, Nokia’s Devices & Services mobile division, responsible for developing mobile devices and services, officially became part of Microsoft . For many, this was pleasant or at least promising news, while someone, on the contrary, took her bayonets. Nevertheless, nothing negates the importance of this event both for the development of Nokia smartphones and for the industry as a whole.

    Wanting to somehow mark this moment, we (read the mobile unit) made a video symbolizing the history of our company and the transition to a new "united" era. But, since a simple fashion video is boring, we created our Goldberg machine with Nokia 3310 and buns.


    In fact, the video titled History in the making is an allusion (or, if you like, a continuation) to the Microsoft video "Child 90s" about Internet Explorer 6 and a touching Russian dedication to the bygone era of Windows XP.

    Child 90s:


    Goodbye Windows XP


    Shooting our video, we decided to take a slightly different path, creating a Goldberg machine from objects and products that are somehow connected with the history of the two companies.

    For reference: the Goldberg machine (sometimes called the Robinson-Goldberg machine by the names of the two founders of this type of device) is a device that performs a very simple action in an extremely complex way. In most cases, this occurs through a long sequence of interactions based on the domino principle. Typically, these mechanisms are used for advertising and entertainment purposes, but the principle of their creation and operation has become the basis for many computer and board games.

    To do this, we brought in two teams - Column Five, an agency that helped create the 90s Child video, and Brett Doar's team(Brett Doar), perhaps one of the best designers of Goldberg machines of our time. For example, he worked on creating an advertisement for the toy manufacturer GoldieBox or a viral music video for the indie band OK Go!


    Goldberg car sketch before creating a video

    “We tried to fill in all the historical gaps that occurred in the video“ Child 90s. ” So, for example, the protagonist of History in the making was the iconic Nokia 3310 phone, which is made up of other classic Nokia models. With this, we wanted to give the video the feel of a sequel, ”comments Asher Rumack from Column Five. “The remaining items in the frame (“ floppy diskette, dot-matrix printer, first Xbox and “boombox”) are also a tribute to the memory of the late nineties. ”

    You can also notice our next interpretation of the classic Snake game. It represents a field of 18 x 18 LED lamps (that is, consisting of 324 LED lamps) controlled by 80 switches. This design consumes about 4 kilowatts of energy, and the heat generated during operation could be felt at a distance of 15 meters. It took Paul Thompson, lead engineer on Brett Doar's team, more than two days to fully assemble it. Moreover (this is not an exaggeration), the total length of the wires in the LED "Snake" is more than a kilometer.



    You may also have noticed that the drums and items on the ropes are equipped with propellers. So, this is not a decorative feature, but a necessary measure: propellers act as an air brake, allowing us to control the fall of objects. We wanted to be sure that everything will move at the speed we need and we will not have any problems with the shooting.

    “Each, even the smallest detail, can make a big difference in a big story,” says Brett Doar. - The creation of Goldberg machines allows you to train yourself in your head to represent the significance of each detail in a large mechanism. Sometimes I find a thing in a store, and then after a while I realize that I completely lost my mind and already come up with the idea of ​​a new mechanism. For example, I bought a folding knife can, which at the touch of a button throws out the blade. A few minutes later he already came up with a mechanism that launches a can of sparkling water into the air by punching a small hole with this knife when a stone falls on his button. ”

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