Action on Climate Change:
Take One (1999)
In Youth in Media’s first project, Action on Climate: Take One, 20 youth spent 10 days at a remote island film school making Public Services Announcements on one of the planet’s most pressing environmental issues: climate change. Professional media specialists and climate change educators helped the students create 30 second films exploring the primary causes and effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
“We wanted to produce works of a high standard, both technically and artistically, in the hopes of getting our message broadcast on television.”
—Peter Campbell, Gumboot Productions Inc
The students’ film school adventure included sailing with oceanography professor Paul LeBlond, developing scripts, participating in workshops on social marketing, visual storytelling and acting. They were thrown into the action of producing their films – everything from cinematography and directing, to animation and set design, to editing and sound production – and after an intensive ten days the group emerged with 16 PSAs.
Nine of the PSAs were broadcast throughout Canada in the following months, and they continue to be requested by community groups and broadcasters from across the nation.