Empire State

  • Dates:
  • Location:
  • Role:
  • Collaborators:
    • Oceanic Preservation Society
    • Discovery Channel
    • Vulcan Productions
    • Spinifex Group
    • Photo Ark
    • Li Ka-Shing Foundation
    • Empire State Building Trust
    • Obscura Digital
    • Travis Threlkel – Chief Creative Officer
    • Matty Dowlen – Chief of Production
    • Marc Melzer – Director of Media and Art
    • Barry Threw – Director of Interactive
    • Andrew Plourde – Senior Technical Director
    • Emmett Feldman – Senior Art Director
    • Tim Digulla – Art Director
    • Ron Robinson – Art Director
    • Jennifer Williams – Producer
    • Ari Ali – Media Producer
    • Mia Hanak – Public Relations
    • Bryant Place – Interactive Engineer
    • Harvey Moon – Interactive Engineer
    • Naohiro Haitani – Senior Graphic Designer
    • Cullen Miller – Systems Technician
    • Gaston Albanell – Systems Technician
    • Diego Novoa – Systems Technician
    • Joe Goldring – Systems Technician
    • Andrew Jones – 3D Artist
    • Jim Ellis – 3D Artist
    • Tony Grisey – Senior Animator
    • Eddy Katt – 3D Animator
    • Brittnie Diamant – Animator
    • Seth Mach – Visual Designer
    • Alexi Alexaieff – Technical Artist
    • Anna Le Breton – Production Coordinator
    • J Sayaka – Production Coordinator
    • Joshua Brott – Photo / Video
    • Eric Schneider – Purchasing
Empire State 1
Empire State 2
Empire State 3
Empire State 4
Empire State 5
Empire State 6
Empire State 7
Empire State 8
Empire State 9
Empire State 10
Empire State 11
Empire State 12
Empire State 13
Empire State 14
Empire State 15
Empire State 16
Empire State 17
Empire State 18

In 2011, Louie Psyhoyos, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker of “The Cove”, tapped Obscura Digital to help inspire a movement within his new film Racing Extinction. Featuring the work of many visionaries, Racing Extinction draws attention to one of the biggest stories in the world that most people don’t know about. The eco-documentary, touted by critics as “captivating,” “forceful,” “skillful,” and “beautiful” tells the story of impending 6th mass extinction. However, as a scientist says in the movie, “this time, humanity is the asteroid.”

On Saturday, August 1st, 2015, OPS and Obscura took to the sky with a first-of-its-kind live video projection that illuminated the Empire State Building with beautiful, inspiring imagery of endangered species as never seen before. The towering images, more than 350 feet tall and 186 feet wide, and covering 33 floors of the iconic building drew attention to the creatures’ plight against mass extinction. Sia and J. Ralph produced and released a song, “One Candle”, specifically for the event. The show was captured, edited, and prominently featured as the uplifting ending of the film. This first-of-its-kind event generated headlines with over 1 billion impressions in worldwide media coverage. Racing Extinction debuted on Discovery Channel December 2nd to a global audience in over 220 countries. The documentary was watched by over 17 million people worldwide on its premiere night and over 35 million viewers overall.