Question: How do you fit two 2-ton trucks into one 13 foot high studio?

Answer: Very carefully.

We recently did an HD shoot at Resolution Digital Studios for Navistar. After some hand wringing and lots of measuring, the trucks were in and ready for their close-up.

The city is abuzz about the possibility of a Chicago cross-town world series. But in our office the biggest sporting event occurring in Wrigley Field won’t happen until January 2009. On New Year’s Day, my beloved Blackhawks will battle the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Detroit Redwings in the NHL 2009 Winter Classic. I say “my beloved Blackhawks” because this sentiment is not shared by all in the office. In fact, I’m woefully outnumbered by Redwings fans 3 to 1. The only way I survived all the Stanley Cup gloating was by reminding them of the one game we attended together where the Hawks beat the Redwings 6 t o 2.

NHL 2009 Winter Classic in Wrigley Field

The January 1st game will be just the second winter classic ever, after the Sabres vs. Penguin match-up last year in Buffalo. Hopefully, it will go a little more smoothly this time. For the 2008 game, the ice was choppy, the bounces were unpredictable and the rink turned into a glorified pond. And the fans loved every imperfect minute of it.

How do you capture the performance of a song without lights and a camera? This is the challenge that the British band Radiohead took on when they created their latest music video for the song “House of Cards.” They used rotating laser scanners to capture the 3D images. It’s way too techy for me to explain here, so you’re better off watching the “making of” video.

The performance close-ups kind of remind me of pin art.

Apparently, it wasn’t enough for them to cut out the music industry middle men with their 2007 “pay what you want” download distribution of their last album In Rainbows. Now they want to put camera crews out of work!

They get points for innovation, but see if you think it was worth the effort.