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Radiohead Get Laser Treatment
Dean Samways , July 14th, 2008 11:53

Radiohead zapped

Ever innovative Oxfordians Radiohead are about to release a music video for In Rainbows track ‘House of Cards’.

This isn’t the story though. Staying true to their word and continuing to do away with traditional filmmaking techniques for the videos for their new album the band have produced the groundbreaking short film using the latest laser technology.

Developed by Velodyne's Lidar as an improvement on radar, the laser uses structured light to give detail of objects within a close proximity.

The result: a warbling Thom Yorke highlighted in neon light instead of human skin pigmentation.

The techy stuff goes a bit like this. Using light pulses to portray environments in three dimensions, for the music video Velodyne took 64 lasers, shot 900 times per minute in a 360-degree radius. This way both landscapes and rooms were given a haunting hyper-futuristic aspect.

In a statement Yorke said: “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. 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.”

Although there’s not been a release date for the video, the Quietus can reveal that it will be hosted here Accompanying the video will be a ‘making of’ documentary and a selection of renders lifted from the film for your delectation.

Radiohead have posted a gallery of laser shots, visit the Radiohead website to see them.