Greta Thunberg On Climate Action

Greta Thunberg On Climate Action is a short film about the effects of climate change and the urgency for climate action. It is based on an abridged version of Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 in which she appeals to world leaders and multinational corporations to embrace the reality of climate change and act quickly to reverse its effects.

The goal of this project is not only to encourage political leaders, multinational corporations but also people, especially those old enough to vote, to adopt a lifestyle that supports climate action and invest in ideas that protect the planet.

Development Process

Script and Audio/Visual Script

To develop the project I started with the script. This was fairly simple because the video of Greta’s speech was already uploaded online to multiple news media websites. I downloaded the transcript and reduced it to a version that still carried the core message.

With the script out of the way, I moved on to AV Script and this took quite a bit of time. While I knew that I wanted a visual direction that was moody and somber, it was important to have scenes with elements that convey the message and theme of the script. I had to consider elements in relation to the topic such as melting icebergs/icescapes, oil drilling, climate change protests and extreme weather. To complete this I got a bit of inspiration watching the works of Ben Marriott, BlinkMyBrain, Manta GR, Hugo Pablo Moreno, Sarah Beth Morgan, Animagic Studios and Psyop.

Moodboard

I was originally inspired by the art style of BlinkMyBrain and Yaniv Fridman. I eventually decided to go with the grainy, noisy, texture based art style of Hugo Pablo Moreno, Sarah Beth Morgan, Ben Marriott, Mantas Gr and Pysop. I love all these styles because they are flexible and can be used for video projects with a hopeful or sombre theme or message. I primarily made the decision for the latter based on my familiarity with the animation technique and the project timeline. These styles help me source for more inspirational images from Pinterest.

Preliminary Styleframes

These preliminary styleframe were drawn based on the scene description and details contained in the AV Script. They were particularly important because they helped me understand the structure of each scene. Using photoshop, I was able to determine the look of each element, their placement on the scene, the relation between all elements in the scene and also distinguish elements that will be animated from the ones that won't be animated.

Some of these styleframes did not make it into the final version of the project because I came into better ideas that I felt conveyed the message of the script best.

Storyboards and Animatic

I put pen to paper to draw very rough, ugly and incomprehensible storyboards. I then put “digital stylus to touchpad” to fine tune them into something comprehensible which I further animated to a recording of my Tom Hanks-esque voice.

Motion Tests and Production

To be sure that I could pull off some of the animations required for some scenes, I conducted some motion tests and animation technique tests. To get a sense of my abilities and the animation requirements.

During production, I realised some scene element requires form and depth. While this can be achieved with a bit of 2D trickery, I wanted it to be as realistic as possible so relied on Cinema 4D to create such elements. I then export them as image sequences to be further treated on After Effects.

Stills

Credits/Collaborations

Voice over - Jocelyn Tam

Design/Animation - Gregory Obi

Music and Sound Design - Paolo Palazzo

Development Supervisor - Kyle Richtsfeld