The production & direction questionnaire

Parity, inclusion, disability, and cultural, ethnic, and social diversity… Our history and societies are the product of a profound diversity that contributes to their strength and value.

The goal of this chapter is to reflect upon how your main and secondary characters are established and whether they reflect our social diversity. Without imposing quotas, this section allows you to explore the diversity of your characters and how it impacts your story. 

They also allow you to anticipate and adapt your casting calls.

Our consumption of natural resources exceeds what the Earth is able to replenish in a year. According to Earth Overshoot Day, it would take 1.75 Earths to regenerate what we consume.

Because humanity will have to adapt to these fixed planetary limits, the goal of this chapter is to reflect upon your characters’ habits and lifestyles (their relationship with consumption, nature, etc.) in order to identify other models that are more compatible with the resources actually available.

The testimony of Jack Cooper Stimpson, Writer and Director:

The climate crisis deserves robust and imaginative storytelling. This is an existential issue and often evades ordinary thought and feeling. How do we convey the emotions of response, togetherness and adaptation through our scripts and inspire audiences to act?

I’ve often approached climate-storytelling via the lens of activism and civil-disobedience. Having been attracted to the comedy and chaos of protest, I’ve found characters who haven’t really existed in the mainstream media before. I discovered characters with big ideas and big emotions, who are quite often trying to overcome enormous challenges. Challenges well beyond their typical capabilities. The dynamics and scenarios that these characters find themselves in help portray both the enormity of the issue at the hand, the futility of trying to fix a broken system. But they also remind us of the human connection at the heart of the crisis. Being an activist can often feel like you’re a headless-chicken, doing your best to make change but quite often failing with spectacular effect. The trial and error of activism is something to celebrate and find comic relief in.

In 2019, I wrote and directed ‘Extinction’. A comedic satire about Extinction Rebellion. The film starred Emma Thompson and needed to engage viewers, without ever feeling preachy or worthy. We relied on comedy to convey the urgency of the movement we were portraying. This tone and genre helped us properly exmaine the beautiful intricacies of being an activist. The mistakes, the mishaps, the general state of confusion. We were able to make jokes about our characters, because ultimately, they’re in the right. These are ordinary people doing exctraordinary things to try and save the planet. The climate crisis is a terrifying thing, but an old saying often comes to mind: if you don’t laugh, you cry.

An impact campaign is a set of actions carried out in connection to a film with the goal of creating bridges between the topics seen on the screen and real life. It aims to challenge the viewer, lead them to take action, and provoke debate. It can also contribute to the work’s visibility. It is created in collaboration with relevant civil society stakeholders and decision-makers and extends the film experience by giving viewers tools to take action. It is complementary to a traditional marketing campaign that accompanies the film’s release in theatres or on TV.

This section will help you to identify, understand, and optimise your impact strategy by accentuating the issues addressed in your film and their communication, while also identifying the networks and partners to include.