Videos

July 14, 2008

Radiohead - "House of Cards"

TDS Editors

Creativity:

Radiohead’s latest video, for the track “House of Cards” from the In Rainbows album, uses real time 3D recording instead of cameras, utilizing highly technical structured light and Lidar laser-enhanced scanners to model lead singer Thom Yorke and provide an otherworldly narrative accompaniment to the song.

Blip Boutique creative director and Zoo director James Frost took us through the exceedingly complex, innovative process, which used on-set engineers and technology support instead of a film crew and required massive amounts of rendering and the sculpting of mountains of data in post—not to mention 64 lasers (on the Lidar system alone).

Guardian:

“I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn’t meant to be used, the struggle to get your head around what you can do with it,” Thom Yorke said in a statement. “I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points – and how strangely emotional it ended up being.”

The video is part of Radiohead’s promise not to make any “conventional” music videos for their In Rainbows material. Earlier this year they launched a contest where fans can pitch or create animated music videos for their songs. Now they are also making available the data used to create the House of Cards video, making it possible for fans to generate short clips.


Post a comment


7 Comments

#1 jeff says:

wow. what a crappy video for such an amazing song.

From Thom Yorke :"“I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points – and how strangely emotional it ended up being.”

I definitely don't feel like there's any emotional content in this video whatsoever. leaves me feeling very, very cold. bummer.

#2 Dennis Hopper says:

I agree, great song, crappy video. Maybe they could have shown a squirrel on water skis? I like you tube. They have nice you tube videos. I bet Obama would not like this one. Do you think Obama would like Coldplay? I like me some colt 45.

#3 Thirteenburn says:

In response to the headline:

Uh, let's not and say we never did and never will. How this group of whack jobs got so famous, when in fact only ONE song is what this group is really known for, is beyond any comprehension. Nothing more than five guys juiced up on E and noodling on their instruments.

#4 alex says:

dear radiohead,

how did you get so awesome?

alex

#5 huh? says:

And what one song is that? Get your head out of your butt and listen for yourself. What song they're "known for" is about as relevant as what kind of sox Johnny wears. They got so famous because they are brilliant. Juiced up on E and noodling? Seriously...get a clue.

#6 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

it's funny how desperate the radiohead haters are to come up with something to rip the band.

they have one good song? right...

jealousy is a nasty habit, thirteenbum.

#7 Chris says:

I can see how some people think Radiohead comes off as a bit pretentious with videos like this. But those people just don't understand what this band is all about. They're the most famous musical artist I know of that is constantly pushing the boundaries and their fans still support them. To have both commercial success and still maintain a wild sense of experimentation is practically unheard of in this sad age where everything that actually makes money is homogonized and mass produced including music. You have to respect them for that.


Click Here