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SALT LAKE CITY — A a music video was recently released that filmed a piano sitting in the middle of Utah Lake using no special effects, and a family-owned, Utah business helped to make it all happen.
For 38 years, Cross Marine Projects has worked around the world mapping lake beds and finding crashed planes and sunken ships. However, in June 2012, the owners of Cross Marine Projects in American Fork were approached about the idea of a video featuring a musician playing a grand piano that is sitting on the surface of the water.
"How do you build a platform that will support all of the weight in a lake bottom, when most of Utah Lake is failry soft?" said James Cross, president of Cross Marine Projects.
The challenge was to construct a 10-foot-square platform in the middle of Utah Lake, plop an expensive piano on it and hope the whole thing didn't sink.
"Because of our surveys we knew the one area that had more clay in the silt that would support the kind of structure we had to put in place," Cross said.
It took more than a week to get everything ready, and an entire day to lower the piano and get musician William Joseph into position. With camera crews at the ready on boats, jet skis and a remote controlled helicopter, Joseph's latest release, "Radioactive," came to life.
"I cannot believe that we are sitting on a lake. It's pretty insane!" Joseph said the day of the shoot.
In terms of difficulty, Cross said the project wasn't too bad. But in terms of fun and satisfaction, he said it's right at the top.
"It might not have been the most technically difficult, but as far as the end result, I'd play that over and over again and just makes my heart pound, just the like the first time," Cross said.
The cameras started rolling about 4 a.m. the day of the shoot, and they wrapped up about 22 hours later.
