Focussing on the human face has been a path to music video immortality for over thirty years - ever since Godley & Creme's Cry, and arguably all the way to Miley's Wrecking Ball - by way, of course, of Sinead's Nothing Compares 2 U. 

But nothing quite matches the sheer mindboggling ambition of Darcy Prendergast's video for The Paper Kites' Young. Created out of Darcy's celebrated Melbourne-based studio Oh Yeah Wow, this is a performance of the song by a rapid-fire sequence of hundreds of faces, from thousands of photos. Portrait photography meets stop-motion animation, and the effect is almost overwhelming. 

Here are the stats: more than 350 faces were shot in Melbourne "from Brunswick to Brighton", and it took 10 days to assemble more than 3000 photos. Darcy enlisted photographer Oli Sansom to ensure every one of the 350 extras were shot in perfect alignment. 

The whole point is to reflect the song's themes, about the fine line between individuality and conformity. It will certainly make you think that there are a hell of a lot of people in Melbourne prepared to do the same thing. 

And all the participants from the shoot, as photographed by Oli Sansom, can be found on the Paper Kites Funny Faces Facebook page.

Darcy Prendergast: "I was literally having crosshair dreams / nightmares each night after the shoot, telling extras to move a little to the left, millimeter to the right, chin up a touch so that they are in line with everyone else. I’d rock up to the studio for work having already worked eight hours in my sleep.

“It was one of the most enjoyable animated shoots I’ve done. Animation is traditionally a lonesome experience - so it was nice to have such a large social component  to the process. I met more people in that week than I have for the entire year.”