Ready? Set? OK Go is back with its latest gold-star achievement in music video making. The band is still promoting Hungry Ghosts, its fourth studio album released in 2014, with a very special music video for the album’s opening track “Upside Down & Inside Out.” The seemingly innocuous line “Gravity’s just a habit” played a major role in influencing the band’s decision to shoot its next music video in zero gravity, the first of its kind.

The video was shot inside an airplane provided by Russia’s S7 Airlines that flies parabolic maneuvers to provide brief periods of weightlessness. This is where zero g comes into play. And in typical OK Go fashion, the band remained hellbent on shooting the video in one continuous shot. In this particular case, however, that simply wasn’t possible but frontman Damian Kulash and company used movie magic (read: a little bit of fancy editing) to string together the moments of non-weightlessness. It’s explained in an informative post at the band’s site:

The longest period of weightlessness that it is possible to achieve in these circumstances is about 27 seconds, and after each period of weightlessness, it takes about five minutes for the plane to recover and prepare for then next round. Because we wanted the video to be a single, uninterrupted routine, we shot continuously over the course of 8 consecutive weightless periods, which took about 45 minutes, total. We paused our actions, and the music, during the non-weightless periods, and then cut out these sections and smoothed over each transition with a morph.

From the floating laptops to the exploding pinatas, exploding briefcases full of bouncy balls, and exploding balloons filled with paint, there’s a breathtaking level of color and vibrancy to be had here. The expertly time choreography by the band and the wonderfully acrobatic airline stewardesses adds to the jaw-dropping nature of the mesmerizing clip.

Taking advantage of zero gravity is the latest accomplishment in a string of groundbreaking efforts concocted by alt-rock group. Click here to browse OK Go’s other music video marvels featuring perfect coordination of motorized scooters and drones and a Rube Goldbergian contraption for the ages.

Update (2/12): Boy have I got a fun behind-the-scenes video for you. Stereogum‘s released a special inside look at the making of the grand finale sequence of OK Go’s music video. Nicknamed “The Thunderdome,” said balloon splatting sequence took eight attempts to get right, and this clip goes through the band’s motions of eventually getting it right. Witnessing the many failed attempts is just as entertaining as watching the music video itself! God bless the poor soul who had to clean and reset the plane cabin after each take. Press pray after the break. Continue reading Zero gravity stars in OK Go’s latest music video marvel →