Dangerous Lies

Greenpeace

2021 / 1:48 min

Dangerous Lies is a campaign aiming to expose 'carbon offset schemes' by big polluters. Through short live-action segments where the concept of greenwashing is depicted, and through educational animations, the veil is lifted on the marketing scams these companies apply to keep polluting our planet and turning nature into a commodity.

JBS
'Green' Meat Industry

JBS, the world's largest meat producer, has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2040.

But their plan to do so, allows them to keep destroying the valuable Amazon Rainforest and does not address the fundamental source of their climate impact: methane release by cattle.

Total
'Green' Oil

French oil giant Total claims they’re committed to a clean energy future.

But they are trying to drill for oil in a pristine forest in the Republic of Congo - home to many many indigenous communities, as well as critically endangered species, such as lowland gorillas.

Aviation
'Green' Flying

'Green' Aviation? Another net-zero scam.⁣
The aviation industry wants to double air traffic by 2037 and halve their carbon emissions by 2050. What the...?!⁣

Airlines want to convince us that we can fly carbon neutral but it’s greenwashing, pure and simple.⁣

Carbon Offsets

Carbon offsets are when a polluter that has emitted greenhouse gases exchanges or 'offsets' their pollution with a 'credit' for carbon captured by someone else. It’s an accounting trick used by companies like Shell, Total, Exxon, and others to burn oil and fossil gas in exchange for carbon credits from tree planting or conservation projects to theoretically “offset” their carbon emissions. Basically, they’re paying to keep polluting and turning nature into a commodity in the process.

Offsetting isn’t just a scam, it’s unjust. Polluters in wealthy countries can effectively keep polluting by shifting responsibility for their pollution, and adding more of a burden to already vulnerable communities suffering from the effects of climate change.

Offsetting projects often distort local economies and grab local and Indigenous Peoples’ land that they use for their livelihoods. And have led to natural ecosystems being destroyed, threatened species habitat lost, and human rights abuses.

Offsets don’t work and we’re running out of time.

Immediately stopping burning fossil fuels is the solution.

Production

Each story of the three campaign films take place a on different continent. To guarantee the authenticity of the films, we had to make sure the environments looked accurate to each of the countries while also casting great actors with the right ethnicities.

In order to reduce our travel footprint while also guaranteeing production through various COVID-19 restrictions, we opted to shoot the campaign in Singapore and scout local locations to accurately represent each of the countries. Singapore provided us with a rich palette of looks while also allowing high production quality.

The set provided Tingkat lunches, re-usable utensils and crew transportation to reduce the production's footprint while opting for digital call-sheets and scripts, and required crew to use their own reusable water bottles.

Animations

To convey the intricacy of the case studies done by Greenpeace in a manner that would educate our audience on the issues while also entertain, we used 3d animation. Creating beautiful worlds full of life and interesting visuals, we were able to dive into great detail regarding each of the cases and their complexities.

The 3d animations were carefully crafted to hit the right tone and style. After a research period defining the needs, artists at Method & Madness created concept art and extensive story boards, followed up with 3d animatics to create a clear picture of each of the films before heading into full production.