Hunt for the Oldest DNA
Winner of the 2025 Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary. A mix of live interviews, stunning landscape photography, and a wide range of animation styles, Hunt for the Oldest DNA tells the story of maverick gene hunter Eske Willerslev, whose single-minded pursuit of an improbable scientific vision would tease and torment him before ending with a stunning triumph: a lost world recovered from a spoonful of dirt.
Trailer
Excerpt
Powerhouse scientist Beth Shapiro debunks the Jurassic Park myth of dinosaur DNA from insects trapped in amber. We ended up with a nice timing dance between the live action edit, Beth’s delivery, and the animated elements.
Making Of
A look under the kimono.
Design
We augmented this live action feature with five visual styles, with pared back rotoscoping in a serigraph look for biographical reenactments, bold simplified forms for scientific explanations (and a simplified version of this for infographics), big bold type for titles and lower thirds, and stylized 3D for historical reconstructions .
