Moment of Death - Post One

Next time you find yourself looking forward to dying (like I do almost every second), consider that medical science doesn't really have a clear definition of death ---the one thing that is certain; its a process that may take as long as hours.

I imagine those long minutes stretch into years, much as the most complicated dreams happen in a few seconds.

Perhaps those minutes seem longer than our natural lives. Perhaps you're going through them right now.

Some of these questions are addressed in the upcoming National Geographic special "Moment of Death" (premieres September, 3).

We did a few dozen animation and effects shots, similar to our work for WNET/Thirteen's "Curious" but cooler.

One of the sequences is an illustration of a woman's "near death experience". We wanted to avoid the white limbo look often used to show these things, so we experimented with several looks.




above: Going for a Stan Brakhage inspired look, we painted on two inch artist tape.
This original piece of art is about 25 feet long.




above: This is another using footage of the actual Near Death Experiencer and give her a wispy, flowing brush line body.

Tune in September to see how the sequence finally turned out! (It doesn't use either of these treatments.)