AAAS How We Respond | FILM + PHOTO
The project:
How We Respond is a multimedia storytelling project to highlight how communities across the U.S. are actively and effectively responding to climate change, and the role of science and scientists in their response.
our role:
Client:
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. AAAS has more than 120,000 individual members in over 91 countries. How We Respond is a multimedia project, developed by AAAS, that profiles 18 communities using scientific information to adapt to climate change impacts and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project highlights the ways U.S. communities are actively and effectively responding to climate change.
Goals:
We created visual content for the project (specifically, photos and videos) for use in the website, the report, packages to send to news outlets, social media, story spotlights, and more. Our goal was to develop imagery that emphasized optimism and collaboration and felt bright and uplifting, to directly counter the negative messaging often surrounding issues of climate change. The goal of this series was to show how communities are responding to climate change and how much power we have to make a difference.
the films
Of the 18 communities profiled in the project, 8 were selected to receive short documentary films and photo essays to accompany their written reports. We lived in an RV for almost 3 months, driving from community to community to build these short films, which are featured on YouTube and embedded throughout the How We Respond website. In addition, we created a short film about the project, for use in promotional material. Check out the films here!
the photos
While photography was not in the original scope of the project, it became clear once we started that AAAS would need powerful images as a foundation for the website and written material. We prepped 10-20 images for each of the 8 communities profiled, for use in media packages and online outlets. Here is a subset:
behind the scenes
I can tell you, leaving kids, pets, partners, and comforts to live on the road for 3 months was no small contribution to making this project happen. Peter Hoffman, Ryan Trenkamp, and I shared plenty of sweat and tears throughout this summer-long production. BUTTTTT I am thrilled to say, we emerged close friends and creative collaborators, bonded through the trails and trials of life on the road! On to the next adventure 🥳
