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Kinects Used to Film Music Video to the Delight of Geeks, Hipsters Everywhere

What if there were a way for a musician or band to pander to a geekier audience and produce an exceptional music video at the same time? There is, and indie band The Maccabees just nailed it. For a special live video, the group used a number of hacked Kinects to create a video that features a quirky, grainy effect.

As reported by Wired UK, Visual artist and coder James Alliban put together a rig made up of 10 Kinects placed around various parts of the room. He and his production team then put the data recorded by each camera through post-processing software Maya to create a 3D model of the band performing. With all the angles put together, an animator was able to apply visual effects to complete the video.

The video was shot in a warehouse in London on July 18, and lasts 15 minutes--in that time the band performed three songs. Unfortunately, there's no information regarding when the final results will be uploaded.

Directors Jamie Roberts and Will Hanke believe that the Kinect camera's low quality and occasional distortion actually adds to the final result, and is also a promising medium. Jamie tells Wired UK: "The technology is almost there, but not quite yet. [...] and there's a lot of different stuff you can do with this design. We're excited to see more about the possibilities of this..."

Head on over to the Wired UK story to learn more about how the video came together, and to see more photos of the setup.

This is not the first video we've seen filmed with the Kinect, or even great tech gadgets. One artist shot an entire video using a hacked Kinect, delivering quite haunting results. Meanwhile, Eddy made one of her videos using just iPad 2s--the final video certainly doesn't look as though it was filmed with just a tablet.

Which tech gadget would you like to see used more in music videos? Let us know in the comments below!

[Wired UK via Slashgear]