Giovanni Fusetti
| "Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked. "Begin at the beginning" the king said , gravely, "and go on till you come to an end: then stop". Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) |
CLIMATE CHANGE COMEDY VIDEOS
3 April, 2015 → 4 May, 2015 - Auckland
GLOBAL WARMING OF THE HEART
WE ARE MAKING SHORT COMEDY VIDEOS ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A CO-PRODUCER
BY JOINING OUR
CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN ?
The Vision: let’s warm each other’s heart, not the planet
As is well known, climate change is a very serious issue. But does talking about it have to be dramatic? The world community of scientists agrees on its gravity. We are actually in danger of seriously damaging our life support systems. And still our reaction as individuals, citizens, community, and government is often strange: slow, shy, confused, ambivalent, inefficient or openly delusional.
At the same time, every human being, every mum and dad, every wife and husband, every friend and lover, every one of us, regardless of our belief systems, will do anything and more to protect our beloved from harm in everyday life. What is it that makes us all unable to react when it is all of us that are in danger, and when it is our planet mother earth that is to be protected from harm?
Our vision with the Global Warming of the Heart project is that Global Warming is not just an ecological issue but also a matter of feelings. We do have the technical solutions to act, but we struggle to stay in touch with the feelings that this issue is provoking in us. The gravity of the scenario brings fear, despair, guilt, polarization of the debate, helplessness, denial. The preaching and dramatic tone of the message amplify these feeling and makes us forget that taking care of each others brings joy and pleasure, that feeling is also fun, caring for a plant, a baby, a loved one or a pet is a joyful instinct of everyone. It feels good. And here is where comedy can help. Because comedy too, it feels good. And when we laugh together, our heart gets warmer, and we feel closer to each other.
The idea
To produce five one to two minute comedy videos about climate change for use on YouTube and other social media. The plan is to make videos that are funny, moving, poetic and on-message, but which avoid being preachy. They will be one of the means by which pressure for action is applied. They will trigger humor and compassion. We people are stupid and loving, careless and powerful, we can do real bad but also real good. We apply absurde and abusive economic principles to our society and we care for our beloved by practicing sharing, caring and reciprocity on a daily basis. We care for our veggie garden and lawns and we deforest entire regions of the planet. These paradoxes are funny.
Our aim is to make something that can be used by environmental campaigning organisations during the lead-up to Paris climate negotiations in December. In particular, the intention is to get the video used by the Climate Reality Project (Al Gore’s organisation) which has a worldwide social media reach of seven million people.
Context
This year may well be the make-or-break year for a meaningful deal on climate change. All plausible scenarios that avoid the worst potential consequences of a warmed planet involve deep cuts in emissions starting immediately. This year could well be the last time that all world leaders will be present soon enough to implement the kind of change needed. Worldwide pressure is growing for a deal that will do the job. All major environmental organisations are putting their efforts behind this. Presidents Obama and Xi and Prime Minister Modi are all making the right kinds of noises at the same time for the first time ever. Pope Francis is due to issue an encyclical to all 400,000 Catholic priests to take action. It is the stated number one priority for UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Media interest will therefore be very high as the year goes on. Social media interest will, if anything, be higher.
To date, there has been only very little good comedy on climate change produced. We see this project as an opportunity to fill this vacuum and to give our contribution.
Take a look at these links (click on the title)
Last Week Tonight with JOHN OLIVER: Climate Change Debate (HBO)
AUSTRALIANS FOR COAL. What is your investment dollar doing?
COAL LOBBY WARNS: Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit
POLAR BEARS DISCUSSING CLIMATE CHANGE
And more on a feeling and poetical level:
Stars quote Shakespeare to raise awareness of climate change
SING FOR THE CLIMATE
http://youtu.be/XGgBtHoIO4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg_tcJ1SgxA&feature=youtu.be
Target audience
There are two broad intended audiences:
♣ People who already receive social media updates from environmental organisations (the ‘base’)
♣ Social media users who are not yet fully on board with climate action but who are not actively opposed to it. This group is central to getting real change to occur (the ‘middle ground’)
But, good comedy can reach beyond belief systems, political affiliation and even personal opinions. So, why not open the space to the fact that comedy might be a way to talk to those who, at the moment, are climate deniers. Emotions don’t have a political party. While we laugh we are all equal and that is a feeling, a physical experience not a debate.
Timing of release
The intention is to release one video every six weeks between June 19 and December 1. The reason for these dates is that June 19 is the day after the Live Earth concert being organised by Pharrell Williams which will be held on all seven continents with a worldwide audience of one billion people. Worldwide media attention on climate change will be massively boosted by the event. December 1 is the first day of the United Nations Climate Negotiations in Paris (December 1 to 12). The release of the videos will therefore be timed to maximise exposure and to be part of the growing movement of pressure in the lead-up to the talks.
Dates and location
The videos will be made in Auckland, NZ. Work will take place on the following dates:
Friday April 3rd: Climate Comedy workshop and creative brainstorming. During the day, a wide circle of performers and creative minds will meet to explore different aspects of the “global warming field” looking for potential for comedy. Giovanni will facilitate the process and the aim is to gather good ideas, and try them out. The idea is to generate as many ideas as possible as themes to devise from during the next stage.
Saturday April 4th to Monday April 6th: Giovanni will facilitate a three days improvising/writing workshop in which the group will put together the scripts of the videos to be shot. This will involve a smaller group of actor-comedians, namely only those who will constitute the cast for the videos.
Both events will happen at Te Henga Studios, Bethells Beach, West Auckland, NZ, who is kindly supporting the project by hosting the worshops.
ANZAC weekend, April 25th to 27th: shooting.
April 27th to May 4th: postproduction.
THE PEOPLE INVOLVED
Project Coordinator: Tejopala Rawls
Artistic Director: Giovanni Fusetti
The Cast: Aaron Ward, Akasadaka, Andy Dolling, Ash Holwell, Ben Whitmore, Gill Franklin, Jen Hyde, Lisa Brickell, Lucy Bennett, Ruth Dudding, Siri Embla, Tejopala Rawls, Zack Mccracken.
Film Crew:
Luke Wheeler: Assistant Director
Paige Larianova: Camera
Zoran: DOP, Camera, Sound & Postproduction
Ruth Dudding: Camera
Chanelle Keoghan: Sound Recordist
Stage Manager: Clayton Harper
Annie Pokel, Shireen: Logistics & Support
Agnieska Sekula, Shireen, Akasadaka: Catering
Postproduction:
Guy Capper: Editor
Andrew Dalziel: Sound Editor
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO TE HENGA STUDIOS, BOOSTED and ZORAN studio
The operating values of the project: Ethics, Credits, Roles & Finances
This whole process comes from an open source mindset. Within a strictly non-for profit perspective. It embraces the Ethics Principles of Permaculture.
Care for the Planet
Care for the People
Share the Surplus
Our common ground as project members is: we are part of the human family, we have a common problem, we are artists, we want to support the cause and be part of the solution with our specific skills.
Let’s make this happen, let’s keep it simple, let’s make it good and let’s do it with rigorous fun.
We have a few ideas of scenarios already, but others will emerge from the people involved.
Artistically, this is an open source project. There will be no copyright or intellectual /artistic ownership or credits to specific individuals for the final scenarios. The credit will be shared among all those who have contributed.
A website is in the making, where those who watch the videos will be able to get the information on who is who in the cast and in the project; the authoring will remain collective. As the air we breathe.
This an open-source mind set. It’s collective creativity for the higher good of everyone and especially the future generations: if this project inspires others to do something similar, YES. We would like any of the participants will want to take any of the ideas that will emerge from this creative process to use it in whatever way may address climate change. Our vision is that there will be an abundance of good sketches and ideas that could turn into more videos or shows. Much more then the five we plan to do. We need more movies, more shows, more ads, more poems, more jams, more songs, more of everything that is fun to be doing as members of the human race who are engaged to find solutions to a hige and common problem. After the first five videos will be produced, the extra creative materials will be available as open source on the website, to anyone who will agree with the ethics of the project.
This will be voluntary work, an act of reciprocity and gratitude to the planet.
A crowd-funding campaign has been launched on line, and that will hopefully cover the production material expenses. We would like to raise an amount of NZ$ 5,000 just to cover the basic costs.
Please contact us for any suggestions or feedback:
Giovanni Fusetti: ARTISTIC DIRECTOR giovanni.fusetti @ helikos.com
