"This Is It" was a Millenium New Year's Eve extravaganza, held in the Auckland Domain. I designed and created about 10 minutes of animations that were interspersed between live acts, to tell the story of the last 2000 years of the human race.
 
 
 
 
Above and Below: Each of the "Human Races" videos starts with a 10 to 20 second animation of dates and times. The soundtrack starts with just a heartbeat and the sound of breathing, and I created animated soundwaves that pulse in time with the heart beats.		  
 
 
 
 
I created a continuous fly-through, moving through a never-ending animated 3D grid. This gives the impression of travelling through time. When the main beat of the music starts, the dates and times that are shooting past give way to images from history.		  
 
 
 
 
Above: The first "Human Race" video is a generic one, that was re-used as a backdrop several times throughout the two-hour show. The imagery was of clocks, maps and compasses.		  
   
 
 


Below: Subsequent videos ("Human Race 2" to "Human Race 8") used imagery that was specific to different periods in history. These were accompanied by a live voice-over from compere Michael Hurst.

  
 
 
 
 
The 3D effect I used of having each image on a different plane in 3D space, and moving through them was very effective, not only because it created the feeling of moving through time, but also because it added movement to what were otherwise a bunch of still images. 		 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 


Sadly, heavy rain on the big night meant that the expected attendence of 250,000 people was diminished considerably. However the show featured as part of a round-the-world millenium broadcast, and an estimated 2.5 BILLION people watched it on TV!

Director: Michael Mizrahi
Audiovisual Director: Michael Hodgson
Music: Don McGlashan (of Muttonbirds fame - if you like his work, check out the music video I edited for the Muttonbirds too.)

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