On Writing : How To Make The Climate Crisis A Compelling Theme? by Bianca Y. Michaels

Bianca Y. Michaels what a timely challenge.

Have you seen a film so far that got you with the tone and felt authentic? Not outlandish?

I know at the extreme end there is a genre of climate disaster movies that seem mostly prurient panic, and then yeah there's the didactic kind of "we have to fix it!" vibe that does indeed not show the complexity.

I would say I'm thinking of a very foundational target audience ages 30-40, and maybe like an allegory that shows them stealing from their kids? That would convey the absurdity of destroying human habitation en masse as a contrast with some village-like entity that ends up being a (retrograde yet futuristic) model for human society?

Daniel Stuelpnagel Lately I've tried to think of such films. Maybe herein lies my frustration, I cannot find a type of film/show that works for me. I feel like I have to look outside of the topic for inspiration. I will definitely take your advice and look out for a film that "feels" authentic.

Your idea of allegory sounds really interesting. 30-40s is my own age range, too, so might be easy to tap into the idea of "we're doing it for our kids".

The interesting part is, I am currently working on a script right now, where I take my own personal story and weave it in exactly what you just said: a story about a hidden eco-village. As the character progresses through the story, she learns of the "new ways" and adopts them and finally realizes the absurdity of modern life.

You think people would want to emulate it if I showed this type of world on screen? Or do you think they would just put it in a drawer of sci-fi worlds, like they would do with Wakanda or Hogwarts?

Bianca Y. Michaels this is a very good array of questions. Look at AVATAR .. there are eco themes there, and some kind of laudable intention, but buried in irony and struggling under the weight of a ponderous 3-hour buffet of conflicting themes.

And I think in your journey it might be that your films would be building blocks but maybe no one project can hope to gain the scope or influence that feels necessary?

It's great if you can!

Maybe it's more like we just continue incorporating the philosophy into each project but I believe we must follow our own directives in the story arena, and then trust that the overall movement is effective over many decades? Sounds pathetic !! :(

Maybe a breakthrough project is within reach for us also, but I think it's a painfully slow and step-by-step process? Who knows? with your determination maybe it's about building a story that also delivers empathy and story on other levels as well as somehow bringing to the forefront the issues that are so timely and relevant to all of us ...

What's the answer?

Daniel Stuelpnagel Ah yes, I love AVATAR for the eco sub-context, if not for the way it shows humanity in the most un-human way!

I am fully braced to never see the fruits of my struggles during my lifetime. If I can launch a movement or raise awareness to a community of entertainment-related folks (cough cough) then even that would make me happy. If I can plant a seed inside the mind of a few that will go ahead and change the world in some beautiful way, then my mission is complete.

I would love to be able to build steps, even if it's just awkward steps 1, 2 and 3, and then see how others take the hint and incorporate a few eco-themes in their own stories. It does not sound pathetic!!! T_T

I will do my best. I don't have the answers yet. I don't know if anyone has. But maybe I will be lucky enough to discover them soon. The sooner I do, the faster I can save the people and animals whose cries don't let me sleep...

I have the Biggest News in Climate Change on My Page. Make it about Me. Three Presidents Know. You Ready?? Ocean Rise is Trash Dumping, its water displacement. Even if all the pollution was turned off, it would stay the same rising problem, cause its trash causing the ocean rise. But the Bigger News is the Clouds are being Controlled. There is a NATIONAL MEDIA BLACKOUT ON IT. I know, cause Im the Actual Person that Took Over. I had a major discovery by accident in 2012, where i was making art in the garage, and found a pattern, then made a bunch of art on that pattern, while making things like chimes.. and then 6 months later, found out i found the key to the whole thing in what i was doing. I took it over without even trying. So make a storyline about me. True Story. The majority of the Pollution causes Cancer, so still worth the fight, but it really has nothing to do with a single cloud of rain. The rain is using the force you see that spins a compass when you put metal near it. That same pull to north that the metal has to the compass, it turns out thats on a pattern that repeats and is around us all. The planets are spaced in that pattern, and its carved in the walls in Egypt. The Great Pyramid has a bunch of aspects of its sizes that its about the weather being controlled by them. I'll be up for a Nobel Prize when the Media is held accountable for what happened over here. I've shown them all, they are blacking me out, cause early in the fight, I wrote Jay Z, and Beyonce, and Pitched them OBAMACARES website idea, they announced it 2 weeks later, then i got chased by FBI after asking will i be getting the credit on the idea, 3 months passed, got chased again when Kanye West went on BBC calling my pitched ideas His, and Saying Hes running the blackout wall on me, I wrote, will i get the credit for the water bottle idea, and got chased the 2nd time. I survived all that, to then get them caught by SNL a year later. Our FBI was Found to Be Working for Rappers that sing they are attacking people. I get jokes on tv cause of the chases, but I really am the Person that will be getting the Nobel Prize for discovering weather control and physical quantum physics. (I did a bunch of testing after finding out, and know how it works. I shot a light beam horizon to horizon on Nov 15th 2012, that the usa gov sent a mcdonald douglass notar defender helicopter up the contrail just after. 100% Real. I'm like a real wizard, but i was just making art to start it. It magnified my body to showing in the sky. Thats a Download, the SAT info bar is top right corner. March 2nd 2013. Thats my naked body being projected from the basement of my old house. I had to move when the news wouldnt report.) https://www.facebook.com/S-Triangle-News-663936640718197

Dont Look up.. is Jonah Early on got caught for Jay Z at SNL, that SNL Sketch where they called him out for putting a clog on a clog, (murder mystery sketch) was a jay z against me joke, they caught him on. He then flipped on Z.. and the joke about the film is about the weather. Dont look up. That matress firm commercial about junk sleep, where he says.. Kevin passing himself as keith, thats over. Was Kevin Hart was who SNL caught doing a countdown on me a year later that Kenan caught. (Get on Up Sketch). That commercials about me. The commercial where Stamos says.. a reverse carter stitch.. about this. That commercial that was GARY on Progressive.. I wrote the commercial as a snl sketch is sent to snl cast. Hollywood is backing Me over the Criminal Rappers, I have 6 FBI reports and ALL the Police around Here have Reports.. Its our former President was caught good when SNL busted Them. Is why the Blackout right now.

What to Write Not About It . All the Oil Companies , Steel, Smelters, and Coal Plants, are blacking out the cancer they cause, while the tech to be clean is available but you cant pay a oil worker for tit. Water to Hydrogen Torches Replace all the Heat Making Cancers. A story could be about a person that Brings this up, then its a full scale attack from the industry . Askign to be green since the tech is basic and they are jerks.. Is what I wrote this about.. https://www.stage32.com/profile/889433/Screenplay/Unlimited-Tractor-Pull... . Where Im replacing tractor pulls league with me. Cause they arent fixing what i emailed, and included parts of my posts, in the not allowed in this years year book, while not talking about the cancer problem. Heres the Biggest News in Climate Change Not Me. Its brutal.

https://www.facebook.com/LucasOilPullingLeague/posts/2262992973803837

I've been writing and developing Ucadia knowledge for 33 years...still not finished. But what I have discovered (eventually) is that people don't wanted to be preached to-- they want to be included in the dialogue - and not all gloom and doom, but an honest and compelling story that has a soul...

Frank O'Collins I agree Frank. Nobody likes to be preached, they want to be included. I am not the type either - that one that talks about just gloom and doom.

The reality is that the situation is critical and we need to panic a little bit. The challenge is how do I make the panic mode just right: it's a crisis but one that has clear solutions and a clear path to resolution. It's only gloom and doom if we don't do anything. So let's just do something :) That's the mindset, but the platform is not yet established.

Btw, what is Ucadia?

David Ramey Gordon Do you guys get paid to go on random platforms and just distract any type of sane and serious information regarding the climate crisis? :)

Any issue or cause can by definition be a compelling theme only if it is a human story - people connect with people and only people. Otherwise you can deal with the issue in a more or less documentary way but your audience will necessarily be confined only to those people already interested in learning about it.

Take one of the solutions you have that is a business endeavor (money making business that also addresses climate change) and then craft a story about the "little guy David" with a market changing solution with green benefits going up against the large "Goliath" who dominates that industry, doesn't want to adapt or change (keep the status quo which is cheaper for them, worse for the earth) and the fight between them.

Think "Erin Brockovich" or "Promised Land".

Believable Conflict with empathetic characters (who are complex and not superhuman) on BOTH sides (don't make it so black and white) otherwise it just becomes a preachy soapbox.

Thread the needle.

Take a look at the movie Twister (1996) with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. Make it a story within a story.

This is a really fascinating topic that I feel requires a little data collection. Right now, all the numbers show us who is watching and how many people are watching, but not so many numbers on who is moved to action and what kind of participation they sign up for. Make that study happen, I say! Once you have those numbers, I think you would have a better way of identifying how you can peel off from what works to get eyes on your work AND inspire your audience to participate.

Since you're looking for ideas on docu-series, which I think is a great way to go (look at Will Smith's newest series), consider looking around for influencers and what they are doing already, so maybe you can expand their journey into a series. For example, a friend of mine is a scientist filmmaker, which is fascinating because it reminds creatives that they have to get curious about other people's missions in order to find the stories worth telling. You can find Anna Sagatov on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/asagatov/

Finding a compelling subject to carry your show will be half the battle.

Oh! If you have a pitch for your docu-series, you could have Phil Claroni do a Pitch Deck Review for you (he specializes in docu-series): https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage/buy?id=60

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg Ah, I understand! What kind of people attract the most empathy you think? Should it be someone relatable, like the "average Joe"? Or someone who is the most impacted = like maybe people who lost their homes from floods etc. ?

Chad Stroman Do you mean like finding a startup with a possible solution and comparing its growth to a big corporation's (positive approach)? Or an actual individual taking legal (or any) action against a company, like in the Erin Brockovich movie (negative approach)?

I actually like the idea of showcasing a conflict, but showing both sides. It gives people perspective and maybe forces the corporation to make changes due to social pressure (because they want to "look good on camera"). Interesting!

@ty strange Ah! I haven't seen it. Will definitely check out tonight! But I suppose you mean to kind of take away the focus from the crisis and focus on a story that is impacted by the crisis. Right?

@Karen "Kay" Ross A study! What a lovely idea! (said the academic who loves to do research haha). But I am scratching my head as to how I can gather such data. I am thinking surveys, a few interviews. I wonder if Netflix would pay for me to conduct such research hmmm

Oh I love Will's series, I cried with him in real time during his journey!

I also really enjoy scientist video series such as the Veritasium's!

I'll check Anna's work, it looks great from her Instagram!

I'll definitely try pitching to Phil once I'm sure I know what I'm doing :)

Thank you sooo much everyone for your stellar suggestions!! I have a lot of leads to work on now! Woo hoo! Happy camper! :D

You might focus on one aspect of the problem and fictionalize it in a way that makes it personal to readers/viewers. I wrote a horror novel called Season of the Wolf, which was about a pack of wolves (a fictionalized crossbreed between gray wolves and thought-to-be-extinct dire wolves) that had been happily surviving at high altitudes, away from humans, until climate change warmed those altitudes and allowed the spread of bark beetles, which in turn decimated the forests and forced the wolves lower in altitude until they came into contact with humans--with devastating consequences. It's obviously a bit extreme, but I was able to weave in facts about climate change, warming winters, bark-beetle depredation, etc., so that people drawn to the book for the suspense and terror would painlessly learn something at the same time.

@Jeffrey J. Mariotte Yes, I think the idea of masking science under the cloak of fiction is a good idea!

Unfortunately the media has turned issues into mass hysteria. Films are also guilty with this. Ever since ‘Reefer Madness’ producers will throw out any agenda to make money. Wouldn’t recommend a film script. Perhaps a bio pic or documentary for TV.

I applaud your level headed-ness in your approach; I admire passionate people. They're mostly young and I'll never see 27 again. However, I do think anyone who has a message that is 50+ years old (earth Day 1970's), and that people do not wait to hear more of with salivating tongues, might not be a blockbuster film success. Having said that, you will notice how many distopian films (The Road, Mad Max, Walking Dead franchise, etc.) all come down to 'aftermath of human stupidity.' Your best bet is cloaking/accompanying your message in an interesting/compelling story line.

Make it a comedy.

Watch related documentaries. Here’s a resource freedocumentaries.org .