Friends of The Earth - Act on Climate Campaign - Launch Video

A video for Friends of the Earth’s Melbourne chapter.

It involved working with other Friends of the Earth members to provide their voices, while I created the motion graphics (sounds, music and live-action footage came from royalty-free sources).

This social media video aimed to drive “Act on Climate”, a postponed 2020 campaign aimed at convincing Victoria’s State Government to commit to further reducing carbon emissions, to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees (avoiding the worst consequences of climate change).

Originally, I was asked to create a video to mobilise their supporters, and those who already agree that climate change is an issue. However, we discussed about using the video to expand the AoC support base as well.

For many, there is a perception that focusing on climate change will damage the economy or their livelihoods, especially in rural areas.
To this end, this aims to show not only the urgency of acting on this issue through both an economic and environmental lens, but how working together to fix it can also preserve the livelihoods of rural communities and create jobs.

To this end, rather than forcing the issue immediately, it takes a three-stage approach:

1. Hook audiences: Ambient sound and bleak imagery aims to visualise a ruined world. No words or narration are heard during the visuals, to let the imagery sink in.

2. Introduce the problem: By emphasising the effects on communities, and providing a target to galvanise audiences around, this helps get audiences on board for the solution.
   This approach is taken over presenting facts, as in social media contexts, seeing facts audiences don’t agree with can often reinforce their existing views instead of convincing them.

3. Provide a solution: Only now, once the problem has been set up, is AoC’s message said, and potential solutions are presented. This is meant to be brighter and more hopeful in contrast to the previous scenes, creating a contrast between the bleak visuals of climate change, and the bright colours of a world where audiences stand together in this aim. The greater reliance on live-action footage aims to emphasise this contrast.

While the COVID pandemic prevented the campaign from going ahead, they were pleased with how the video portrayed their message.

Did you know:
-The narration is spoken by several different members of Friends of the Earth; it aims to create the sense of a community coming together to present this message, rather than a single individual dictating how audiences should feel.

CREDITS:
Music:
“Leaving Home” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Voices:
Narration: Various Friends of The Earth members.

What do you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts… :)