Road to 9/11

They asked us to create a way to organize their web of connections, which included tons of archival materials and 60 interviews with members of the CIA, FBI, and the White House, all contributing their take on the events that paved the Road to 9/11.

With all of this material, we wanted a clear, concise way to move from image to information, but we didn’t want the graphics to interrupt the real, tangible storytelling as a whole. This led us to a live action approach that could be translated from the cold open and into the timeline graphics throughout.

To accomplish this, we set up an installment at Left/Right’s studio and shot panels of translucent plexiglass hung from wires. We used a Canon c300 camera on a slider to create slow, steady movement that we could use in post in various ways.

Once we digested the footage, we then comped the imagery and information using a projection technique to give the material an ethereal, memory-like quality.

Overall, the package turned out to be powerful and arresting, all while connecting the web in a simple way. Once we had delivered for the show, we were then asked by the folks at History to produce a :20 second promo. For this, we were able to translate what we had created for the series and make it fresh, using a red and white color palette and more frenetic movement with the lines, dots and glitches.

It was a great collaborative process with the talented History & Left/Right teams, and we were once again enthralled by the story-telling they deliver.