Do Not Eat The Game! came out right in the middle of the Covid-19 quarantine, so we couldn’t have a proper launch party for the book.

As a joke, I made this video of me having a party with six other copies of myself. When I posted it, some people were curious how I made it. Here’s the secret recipe.

1. Legos

In order for a video like this to work, I needed a way to move the camera automatically, at a perfectly steady rate. I don’t have an automated camera rig, but I do have a bunch of legos in the basement. After a few days of experimenting, I came up with this. It uses a bunch of gears, including a worm gear, to slow the motor down to a good speed for filming.

2. Setup

Next, my wife and I figured out where each shot would go, and what I would be doing in each one. It was important to make sure that none of the shots overlapped each other.

3. Shooting the video

I rehearsed each scene a bunch of times, then we started the camera recording. We had to do everything in one long take, with the camera spinning around the room seven times. As soon as the camera was off me, I’d run over to the next spot and get ready for when it came around again. Stopping the camera would move it, and even a little bit of change between shots would make it impossible to stitch them together seamlessly later.

4. Editing

Finally, once we had a take that felt good enough, I brought the footage into the computer to edit it together. By overlaying the shots on top of each other, then masking out the edges as the footage scrolled by, I was able to hide the seams and make everything look like it was done at the same time. Magic!