More Coke and Mentos

The Eepybird guys are back, this time with a Diet Coke and Mentos chain reaction film. They’ve gone the same way as the Spite Your Face Lego film folks, turning a fan flick into something with at least semi-official support. This one is a cross of their original, and the Honda Cog ad Fischli and Weiss (English entry) ‘Way Things Go‘ flick.

Sadly, Eepybird failed to spot the basic problem of these ‘chain reaction’ type films, which is that they’re bastard hard to shoot. You have to design the progression very much around the camera(s), and as soon as the sequence starts you find you really really really want tracks. And lots of cameras. Or, you do what Fischli and Weiss did. Which is… umm… ‘cheat’. This latest Eepybird shot is dashed clever, but loses much of its impact because the photography simply isn’t sufficiently intimate. That, and dodgy Flash compression makes it kinda hard to see what’s going on.

For my money, the people who’ve got this most right – that I’ve seen – have been whoever’s behind the NHK show Pitagori Suichi, as mentioned here several times over the last few months. I could watch their short-but-oh-so-clever marble stuff for hours. And, indeed, I have.

I’m back, by the way. Comments may be, too, though I haven’t checked yet.