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Director says viral 1-minute global video gave him 'chance of lifetime'

Many men will promise you the world. Filmmaker Rick Mereki actually delivers, taking you around the globe in exactly a minute.Mereki traveled to 11 countries over 44 days to shoot “Move," a 60-second clip of a man on a stroll. At first, the man walks toward the camera, and then across the screen, all while walking past different country sights. The video is now an Internet hit that has been see

Many men will promise you the world. Filmmaker Rick Mereki actually delivers, taking you around the globe in exactly a minute.

Mereki traveled to 11 countries over 44 days to shoot “Move," a 60-second clip of a man on a stroll. At first, the man walks toward the camera, and then across the screen, all while walking past different country sights. The video is now an Internet hit that has been seen more than 20 million times.

“It kind of gave you that real sense of wanderlust, that real sense of wanting to get off your couch and actually go on that amazing trip and experience the world,” Mereki told TODAY’s Willie Geist.

Mereki came up with the concept after STA Travel approached him to make a series of films about seeing the world. Mereki took nearly a terabyte of footage and traveled with two companions, including the actor featured in the clip, on 18 flights, covering 38,000 miles while working on the video.

“We'd wake up at first light, get out in the streets, and just explore,” Mereki said.

"To be given the opportunity to make a film on a grand scale like this, it was literally a chance of a lifetime and it was pretty special."

Speaking with TODAY anchors on Tuesday, Mereki said maintaining symmetry was crucial for the video, which features 200 different shots.

“It was so important to the filmmaking. Basically, it’s what makes it watchable because it’s going so quickly,” he said. “By finding that symmetry, it’s not so distracting because if it were all over the place and not symmetrical, you’d find it too much to watch, you know? Because we’re cutting every six frames.”

Geist was so impressed by the film that he had Mereki shoot a similar version on a much smaller-scale, resulting in in 30-second tour of New York City. The video was shot over several days last week.

“It’s one of those things when you’re working with a genius, you don’t quite know where this is going, just walk to the camera, ‘We’re going here, We’re going there.’ You just trust him and he did it,” Geist said.

Mereki said he hopes to film a sequel to the original "Move" video.

“There’s a whole bunch of ideas I’ve got in the works so hopefully, someone might want to fund the next kind of movie,” he said.