1. overview

350.org’s 2009 International Day of Climate Action was perfectly timed to raise a big red flag as Obama headed off to Copenhagen to ratify the Kyoto Protocol Update, arguably our nation’s “last best chance to stop climate change”. And on a personal level I felt a huge surge in my own commitment to climate activism.

As a designer I knew I was capable of something highly creative, but I wanted to raise the bar. Drum circles and green face paint might make for a fun afternoon and a photo in the paper, but did they really raise awareness? Did they change minds? Did they actually do anything to slow Climate Change?

I set out to create an energizing video clip enrolling all 150 kids in our elementary school. This was a teachable moment on the sobering facts of Climate Change, and I wanted our school community to wake up, to think, to evolve — and just maybe join 350 in the fight.

But first I would need to give some context to the number 350. So I wrote and distributed a paper to the parents and faculty thoroughly covering the key points of Global Warming and Climate Change, explaining the significance of the number 350, and underscoring the importance of joining the grassroots groundswell as Obama set off to the UN.

1. •read my climate primer on Issuu
   

From a production standpoint, it was also critical that the content and formatting of my project be extremely easy for 350.org to integrate into their worldwide campaign. It had to communicate in an instant, and at thumbnail size. It had to give 350 the option of pulling a short clip or even a single frame from the larger piece and still deliver a visual message.

You can review the evolution of message and visuals through 8 iterations on YouTube:

2. sketch 1: “balloons”

How do ideas spread? How can we communicate the importance of 350? Walk your talk — literally — speak your mind, and put the idea in others’ heads.

I created a thinking balloon and a talking balloon, and tested an animatic technique to represent the passing of the idea of 350 from one person to another. Does the idea translate in an animatic? How few frames are necessary? Can it be done without a VO, so 350 could fold the visuals into their larger campaign? Could this idea reasonably be scaled up to include all 150 students at our school?

1. •watch sketch 1: “balloons” on YouTube

3. sketch 2: “i believe”

I loved the effect in sketch 1, but the practicalities of enrolling photographers to choreograph photo shoots of 150 kids interacting one-to-another in series was impossible given our timeframe. I had to simplify.

What if each person simply held a paper bearing one word each from a short statement on climate — like “i believe in climate change”? It made the photo shoots very simple: each person could be photographed separately, in any environment, as long as the size and position of the paper remained fairly constant.

How much could the paper word shift around on screen and still be legible? How many frames per second were necessary to recognize faces but still read the sentence? Is the text still legible  if the background and lighting change dramatically?

1. •watch sketch 2: “i believe” on YouTube

5. sketch 4: “wake up” narration

The longer phrases were too complex to follow against the flickering faces: time to simplify again. Perhaps the longer story needed to be in VO, and the title cards should be reserved for only the key visual text: Wake Up! Speak Up! Act Up! 350!

1. •watch sketch 4: “wake up” on YouTube

6. final video letter to obama

For the final, I recognized this project was, at it’s core, a message directly to Obama. So instead of being a message FOR all of us in the community to wake and speak and act, it needed to advocate a message FROM the children of this generation to Obama. And all the faces of the Oaks kids would powerfully underscore that innoce  In the end a strong overall package that I was confident 350.org could integrate into their larger media campaign.

1. •watch the final video

VO: “Wake up!  Global Warming cannot be stopped without urgent American leadership.”

VO: “Speak up!  We must convince our leaders NOW to include 350 parts per million in the Kyoto Protocol update this December in Copenhagen.”

VO: “Act up!  Without citizen action now, politicians will remain oblivious to the extreme urgency of Global Warming.”

VO: “Wake up!  Speak up!  Act up!  350!”

6. 350 used the final!

I was excited and proud to learn that 350.org integrated stills from my video into their campaign. One image became the poster frame for their 2009 International Day of Climate Action video montage. And two were displayed on the Times Square jumbo tron. And Another was used as the cover image for an email blast. Woo hoo!

4. sketch 3: “message” narration

Having proven the concept, it remained to be seen whether the title cards could carry the weight of the entire message?

1. •watch sketch 3: “message” on YouTube