Home-made video by @jonbowyer and I of a giant oil rig towering over Dundee, Scotland

On the 2nd September 2010, Dundee awoke to the sight of a 550ft (167m) oil rig towering over the city. (I’m currently visiting Dundee for the HCI 2010 conference and to visit my brother).

The Rowan Gorilla VII was in the harbour for unusual maintenance. Basically the platform normally floats on the water and then they jack the legs down to the sea bed to install the rig.

But when they want to work on the top of the legs, they have to jack the legs down while in dock – thus pushing the platform way above the city. 

It’s quite an imposing sight and since it’s very unusual, Jon and I thought it would be fun to make a video of it, so we drove around Dundee and the Tay taking snapshots then had a play with iPhoto and iMovie to put something together.

When it came to choosing the music, there was one very obvious choice!

(More info on the YouTube page).