Canopy: Rube Goldberg Machine
Canopy Planet is a non-profit that works with the forest industry’s biggest customers and suppliers to develop business solutions that protect endangered forests. This project is in support of their #Pack4Good campaign, building awareness around single-use packaging and the false dichotomy between paper or plastic. We wanted to show how all these seemingly disconnected processes and single-use products – from plastic waterbottles and straws to paper bags and cardboard boxes – are connected, creating a cascading domino effect that was negatively impacting our planet.
This Rube Goldberg machine provides a shareable 60-second story that visualizes this chain reaction.
Methodology: Rube Goldberg machines perform simple tasks through a series of kinetic chain-reactions. For this project, we wanted both the materials and chain reactions of our machine to tell the story of how paper and plastic are made, disposed, and connected.
We began by investigating the paper and plastic making processes, relying heavily on the expertise of our client. The ideation process involved many sketch explorations, back-and-forth, and edits with our team, as we considered the flow of the narrative, how the sequence would be filmed, and the physics of how the physical machine would work.
The final 8-foot-tall machine was built in-studio, using recycled, reused, and discarded items. The build, filming and editing processes spanned two months.
Fun note: We didn't necessarily need a full run for the final edit, but it was a matter of stubbornness and personal pride that we get the machine to run seamlessly, at least once! It probably took over 50 tries (and painstaking resets), but finally, at 3:30am, we got a clean run of the machine filmed. Worth it.
Follow along on the making of this Rube Goldberg machine by visiting our YouTube channel!
Client: Canopy Planet
Project: Rube Goldberg machine
The Office of Sarah, 2021
Art Department: Sarah Jackson
Motion Department: Aaron Pedersen
Build/Engineering: Adrien Veczan
Camera Op: Eric Beliveau
Voice Over: Julian Faid