A Fredericton visual artist was honoured this month in Los Angeles for his work on a music video by U2 and Green Day.

Graham Fyffe was among four recipients of the Visual Effects Society award for outstanding visual effects in a music video. The awards were handed out on Feb. 11.

The award recognized the video for the The Saints Are Coming by U2 and Green Day.

The video purports to show large numbers of U.S. combat troops helping in the rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

The video mixes news footage from the aftermath of the August 2005 disaster in New Orleans with images of helicopters and tanks to create the impression of a massive military effort in the storm-damaged city being covered by the media. In one shot a CNN-style super reads "U.S. Iraq troops redeployed to New Orleans."

"It has to look absolutely real, so the audience can see what appears to be actual news footage," Fyffe said Tuesday. "We basically had actual news footage of flooded streets, and we put in tanks and airplanes."

The video gained a lot of attention from the public after it was posted on the internet. Fyffe said The Saints Are Coming was viewed over a million times in one day on YouTube.

U2 and Green Day are donating all proceeds from the song to musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina.