Music: director Bradley Munkowitz used the infrared emitter from a Microsoft Kinect to cast the constellation-like patterns of light in this music video for American musician Tycho's latest single See.
Munkowitz and his team were experimenting with infrared lighting and discovered that the emitter in a Kinect, usually used for playing video games, created an unusual effect.
"The Microsoft Kinect projected a starfield-like dot pattern not unlike what 'point cloud' data looks like," Munkowitz explained on his Vimeo page.
"Captured with our full spectrum camera it became photographic, where fields of bokeh and shimmering discs reveal multiple layers of shape and form."
In order for Munkowitz's camera to pick up the infrared light, the whole band had to perform in the dark.
"The set in which we shot the performance was totally dark, aside from a red laser as our backdrop," he explained. "We could not see anything except while looking through the camera's viewfinder."
"Operating a camera in this situation was like a real manifestation of virtual reality. The band also couldn't see each other and couldn't tell who or what the camera was looking at, which ultimately made the performance feel very raw and unhindered."
The video is actually a new cut of the official release (below), which only features a few sections of the infrared footage. The team was so pleased with the effect that they released a second video.
"We decided the performance cut was worthy of public consumption, ultimately editing a montage of the entire band performance using only Kinect-informed, infrared footage," Munkowitz said.
"The result is a visual journey into the band's aural landscape, immersing the eyes in a sea of bokeh where the instruments and performers melt into a performance charged with circular aberrations of light and colour."
