Before you start off with the research for your documentary and watching the tutorials, we want you to take in consideration these two starting points:
-
A PERSONAL CHOICE
After getting all the background information and the different responses and initiatives on climate change, we want you to write down what you think would be the most urgent matter to change.
-
CHANGE MAKERS
For the documentary, try to connect your personal choice to a local change maker: someone who is trying to make a difference today or who has done so in the past. These are just some examples, if you look around you will find a lot of initiatives yourself:
-
Cleaning up the beaches
In many countries there are initiatives where people unite to clean up plastics and other garbage from beaches, or forests. Who are they? And does their hard work make a change? Interview a cleaner, or the person who took up the initiative. Take into account the results as well as the problems. Film them in action while they clean together.
-
More wind more sun
A local farmer who works on wind or solar energy.
-
Cleaner industry
Do you live in the city? What climate change do you see? What problems do you have to cope with and what can be done? For instance, in Amsterdam we recently closed the Hemwegcentrale: a coal-fired power station, placed almost inside the city, that polluted the air heavily. Interview people who provide different perspectives: the neighbours, the workers from the coal-fired power station, someone from the municipality. Film at the factory.
-
Working together
In many cities and villages, people create local initiatives in small communities to improve their circumstances and the local climate.
-
No plastic/ no meat / veggie
Film a personal story of someone that tries to live without using plastics in any form, someone who stopped eating meat, or someone who became a vegan. Try to show both the upside and downside of their story.
-
Green politics
What did your local politicians do, or what should they do? Get an interview with a member of the municipality and with locals in the neighbourhood that are either happy or angry.
-
Green shops
No smart shops, but shops that embrace a new way of thinking and producing. For instance, a jeans label that rents out jeans instead of selling them. Less jeans will be made and less water and chemicals will be spilled in the production process.
-
Pollution everywhere
Is your hometown the most polluted in Europe? Film it and tell us what you think can be done. Try to interview a local responsible.
-
No one to be found
Is there no one to be found, and does it look like there is no initiative at all? Create your own research film. Pass by all the houses in your street and ask the people what they do to make a change. Film it all, take notes, put the best and/or the worst stories in your film. How is your street doing on a scale from 1 to 10: are they big polluters or change makers?