Bringing Climate Change to the Movies With Adam Stanhope
This episode features a conversation with film producer, Adam Stanhope. It was recorded in July 2024.
Alongside the likes of Mike Medavoy, Rodrigo Blaas, Keith Chapman, and executive producer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam produced the animated feature film, Ozi – Voice of the Forest, which hits theatres across the globe on August 16th.
With a background in marketing and media, Adam has helped finance and produce an array of programmes across a range of genres, including Sky Atlantic’s Grierson-nominated sports documentary, The Fall, BBC Worldwide’s Earth, and Channel 4’s Ministry at the Dome.
Adam’s media career started in the 1980s, selling airtime for British TV network, ITV, before working his way up the ranks to Director at hugely successful UK Advertising agency Still Price Court Twivy d’Souza.
After leading one of IPG’s Global Media Agencies, Initiative Media, working with clients like Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, Coca Cola and Virgin Atlantic, Adam co-founded GCI Film to produce and finance movies.
Adam’s passions are film and the environment, and the Voices franchise, of which Ozi – Voice of the Forest is the first instalment, seeks to raise climate change awareness for a new generation.
Amongst other things, Adam and I discussed the power of animation to act as a vehicle for climate literacy, the challenges that large productions can run into as they prepare to launch, and what superstars, like DiCaprio, can bring to such projects.
Additional links:
Visit the official website for Ozi – Voice of the Forest
Watch the trailer for Ozi - Voice of the Forest
Find out more about Orangutan Coffee
Explore International Animal Rescue’s Orangutan Project
Check out the Oscar-winning short film, The Silent Child
Dickon: Hi, and welcome to Communicating Climate Change, a podcast dedicated to helping you do exactly that. I'm Dickon, and I'll be your host as we dig deep into the best practices and the worst offenses, always looking for ways to help you and me improve our abilities to engage, empower, and ultimately activate audiences on climate-related issues. This episode features a conversation with film producer Adam Stanhope. It was recorded in July 2024. Alongside the likes of Mike Medavoy, Rodrigo Blass, Keith Chapman, and executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam produced the animated feature film Ozi - Voice of the Forest, which hits theatres across the globe on August 16th. With a background in marketing and media, Adam has helped finance and produce an array of programmes across a range of genres, including Sky Atlantic's Grierson-nominated sports documentary, The Fall, BBC Worldwide's Earth, and Channel 4's Ministry at the Dome. Adam's media career started in the 1980s, selling airtime for British TV network ITV, before working his way up the ranks to Director at hugely successful UK advertising agency, Still Price Court Twivey de Sousa. After leading one of IPG's global media agencies, Initiative Media, working with clients like Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola and Virgin Atlantic, Adam co-founded GCI Film to produce and finance movies. Adam's passions are film and the environment, and the Voices franchise, of which Ozi, Voice of the Forest is the first instalment, seeks to raise climate change awareness across a new generation. Amongst other things, Adam and I discussed the power of animation to act as a vehicle for climate literacy, the challenges that large, productions can run into as they prepare to launch, and what superstars like Leonardo DiCaprio can bring to such projects. So, let's get on with it. This is Communicating Climate Change with Adam Stanhope. From your perspective, how can communication best contribute in humanity's response to the climate crisis?
Adam Stanhope: We are a feature film, Ozi - Voice of the Forest, so if I can take this from a film point of view, and it's a lovely question and an essential question, and I was looking at some of your earlier podcasts, and there's one from John Marshall, and I thought he described climate change very well. He called it a troubled brand, and I have a similar background, John. I've been selling soap and shampoo as well, and in fact, margarine and all sorts of things, and he said a couple of words which those of us who've been through those channels know. It's about relevance, and it's about stories, and stories are a brilliant way to market products. And animated films, if we think about it, are one of Hollywood's most powerful, and enigmatic creations. Anyone with kids knows this. My kids have worked their way through Frozen, Madagascar, WALL-E, there's countless others. So you ask yourself the question, you say, I want people to engage in this subject. How about we use this type of storytelling to tackle climate? And that really is what Ozi is. Because at the heart of it, we're trying to create political consensus and a positive approach to climate policies. But we're trying to do it in a way that allows people to enter into it in a slightly softer way, and use something that they're familiar with. Now, without wanting to give away my age too much, one of the first films my parents ever took me to was Bambi. Bambi was actually released in 1942. That isn't where I saw it, but it was released in 1942. And I think we all know the story of Bambi. She gets orphaned very early on in the film. It's one of the most talked about moments in film. But the thing about that film, and this is internet myth as much as anything else, is that it seemed to have reduced hunting in the US by about 50%. That wasn't what that film set out to do at all. But it's what it did. And we've hung on to that. In fact, even in the film itself, we have a thing which we call the Bambi effect, or as our French animators call it, the Bombi effect. So that really is the answer to that question from our particular perspective.
Dickon: Given Leonardo DiCaprio's strong voice in environmental advocacy, how do you think his association with Ozi will impact its reception and its effectiveness in raising awareness of the issues being portrayed?
Adam Stanhope: OK. Well, it's the $64 million question that is, and having Leo involved in a film, as you learn, I mean, he is more than a superstar. It helps everywhere across the board. But more than anything else, it elevates the project and it set us a much higher standard to reach, because you can't produce something that isn't world class. And that set everyone's standards. But it isn't just Leo. There's one other person who is inextricably linked in this film. And that's a gentleman called Mike Medavoy, who is a legendary Hollywood producer. I think he's won seven or eight Oscars. He has a trophy room in his house. But he's produced over 320 films, I think. And he just knows what is good and what isn't. And those two brought a real expectation and standard that we were to approach. And making an animated film is an unbelievably big endeavour. There are over 600 people involved in this film. And once you have a masthead like that, every single person is aspiring to the very best. So if it's Andrea Miloro, who runs Micros, who did the animation in Paris, and Bangalore, she looks at that and she goes, right, it's our A-team. This is an A-team project. It's been an A-team project throughout its entire process, whether that is in the music, whether it's in the post. It just brought an expectation that we had to do better. The second thing that it does is it sets a benchmark for us on casting. That's really what Leo and Mike, and they're on the masthead of the poster, both of them, because that's the standard and that's the expectation we want for this film. It's been a real privilege. But it is challenging. I mean, it's been very, very challenging for us to keep that level throughout. When people turn around to us and say, oh, it's just an independent animated film, you say, no, it isn't. We're not going to accept that. It's going to be a studio-class film with studio-class actors in it, and that's the level that we're after. And I think that's what we've achieved. But you can only achieve that by saying, that's our standard. And if we talk to someone and they say, “oh, I could do it like this, I could do it like that,” and you look at it and say, “that's not good enough”, then we just don't do it. We'll find somebody who will put the effort in to do that. And that's exactly what Mikros did. And Andrea Miloro was unbelievably helpful in making them engage in a level that punches way above where our budget might have perceived you to go. Because one of the things that absolutely fascinated them is they wanted to work on this product because it's compelling, because Leo and Mike are involved, because it is pushing for a better outcome for our planet. So they wanted to work on it. And one of the people in the art department said to me, “it's a real privilege to be working on a film that isn't just there to sell plastic toys.” So, there are lots of good people that want to use their talent in a way that still entertains people, but isn't just the marketing machine. Now, the marketing machine oils the wheels, keeps everything turning. But you have to question sometimes what it's actually doing to the environment. It was interesting how motivated people were to work on this. And we had some very emotional moments because people felt it was trying to do good. And I think most people at the end of the day actually want to be able to use their talents, even if they're not in the climate space, to make a positive impact on the world. And I think lots of people want to do that.
Dickon: So, without giving too much away, and of course, there's a link to the trailer in the show notes. Could you give us an idea of the overarching story of Ozi? What's the film about?
Adam Stanhope: It's probably most about optimism and engaging people to do something positive. But let's get into story arcs and things like that, because that's what we all like to talk about in our world. So, there really are only seven stories out there. It's the well-known Christopher Booker comment. And ours picks two of them. One is “overcoming the monster”, and it's obvious who the monster is here. It's climate change. And the second is “the quest”. Our story was written by Ricky Roxburgh, who's an American writer based in Hollywood. He writes for Disney. He's a stand-up comedian. He's got four kids. So he's written the story. And so it's a three-act story. The first act, we see young Ozi with her family. It's a perfect world, because one of the things we wanted people to do is to fall in love with the forest. So we have this beautiful score over this pristine rainforest, with Ozi, with the her perfect family. And it's all wonderful. And then in a bomb moment, we see the fire strike. And we see her separated from her parents. And we don't know whether her parents have survived. Ozi nearly dies. And then we see her picked up by some people from an orangutan orphanage. And that is the end of act one. I've seen footage from some of the charities we've worked with, and we'll talk about them a bit later. And everything that's in our film, has happened. I'm not saying that the film is based on a true story. But the buildup to act two is certainly based on a true story. So, act two is about her rebirth. She's rescued, taken to an orphanage, where she's very shaken up, as any young orangutan is when they're taken to an orphanage, very troubled. Because orangutans have 96% human DNA. They're so like us. The name stands for 'Person of the Forest'. And the parental world, in which they live, is very important to teach them how to climb, how to eat food, to do all of the things that we all learn from our parents. So she's brought up in this orphanage. And this is when the story starts to become a little bit more Hollywood and Ricky earns his spurs. She first learns to communicate by sign language. And there's a lovely little adjunct to this. So the two people that did the sign language for us, because it's proper British sign language, are Rachel Shenton and Maisie Sly. We're in a short film together, called The Silent Child. It won an Oscar. So we brought them back together to do Ozi's carers hands and Ozi's hands. So it's completely authentic sign language. So she starts off doing sign language. And then it becomes clear that she's a bit of a thing about iPads and tablets, whatever you want to call them. And she learns how to use that. And eventually, you join all of this together. And she has the magic glove. And actually, these gloves do exist now, there are people making them, that are also the sign language, but it speaks. So we create a mechanism that allows her to communicate with humans. And this is really why it's called The Voice of the Forest, because she is communicating on behalf of the animal world in that forest, because we need to hear their views. And she learns all of this. And she's starting to communicate, she's got a following, she's a proper influencer. And then by a weird quirk of fate, she learns that her parents may still be alive. And then we move into the final act, which is “the quest”. And this is where the environmental bit starts to play out. She sees what is happening to her forest. She sees why it's happening. And we picked palm oil, but it could have been mining, it could have been logging. It's a mechanism. She sees what's happening, and she wants to stop it. And she wants to share that with the world. And that's how she builds her audience. And that is where you start to join the dots together, because it's too easy for people not to think about the cost of what's in their food, what powers their car, where their electricity comes from. And we're just asking people to think a little bit about the one step beyond the product you consume, not in an aggressive way. I go back to John Marshall, because he was really good on this. You need to help people, you don't need to shout at them. You don't need to use long words. Although long words are important because the scientists are critical that we all understand it, but there have to be some translations along the way.
Dickon: How did you and the rest of the team balance the need to convey important environmental messages with the need to also create an engaging and entertaining story?
Adam Stanhope: There was a simple motto that got put up on the wall everywhere, whoever was working on the film, in whatever country, and it's just two words - “No Medicine”. Every time we looked at anything, if we could tell the story in a way that was proper storytelling then that was fine. If we stopped for medicine along the way or became preachy or anything like that, it went out and we went back and we reworked the script, reworked what it looked like. So it was a “No Medicine” policy for this film. That isn't to say the medicine isn't very important, but to keep it entertaining, to keep it at a level that would attract people to cinemas, it was a story first, message second. We all have relapses where we put some medicine in and then you look at it and you come back the next day and you think, “Yeah, that's really important. But does it work? Does it stop the flow? Have we got to be cleverer than that?” And when you challenge yourself, you can find ways of telling stories without overtly going with a message-based film. When we screened it in Hollywood and we had a load of kids in the audience, I was terrified before the screening because we're sitting there and there’re 300 people in a cinema, and you're thinking 'I hope they like it.' Kids are very good at unraveling messages. They can always work out what you're up to, how clever you think you're being. And they know what's happening, that's the thing. They understand climate change. They understand it is a direct threat to them. More so than any of the rest of us, so they really get this.
Dickon: What inspired the focus on deforestation, its impacts on nature, and more specifically, orangutans?
Adam Stanhope: Let's start with the orangutan. Because, lovely expression, an orangutan is a charismatic megafauna. Which in non-scientific words means just a really interesting big animal. Everyone loves orangutans. Clint Eastwood discovered that with Clyde back in the day, they're great characters and they can tell a story. And they are critically endangered. So if you join those dots together, you think, “Okay, they're critically endangered. Why are they critically endangered?” Because their environment is being systematically destroyed, so that is deforestation. Trees are the lungs of our planet, for carbon sequestration and all of those complicated technical words, there's very little that beats a tree at taking carbon out of the atmosphere. So when you come to climate, which is really what this film is about, forests are critical for reducing carbon out of the atmosphere. There's lots of other things that need doing, but just on that basis, deforestation is a major issue within the whole climate change thing, so that's why deforestation is the first film. The second is going to be about the ocean, but we want to start with deforestation and if you look at where this film is set and you look at the rate of deforestation that happened there, it happened in the blink of an eye, before people really understood how dangerous this can be. Suddenly the orangutan was critically endangered. If those things happen in other parts of the world, we're in serious trouble.
Dickon: Considering such a heavy topic, I guess that takes us to the next question which is what strategies did you apply to make the film appealing to younger audiences while still being meaningful for adults and other viewers?
Adam Stanhope: Okay, well we start with some really great DNA, so there's a very very strong creative engine in this film, and the first of those is Keith Chapman, who maybe his name isn't that well known to people but Paw Patrol will be known to any parent. It's, I believe, the biggest kids brand. It's on television, I think it's six billion dollars, it may even be 10 billion dollars now. Keith created that, that's his brainchild. And he came up with Ozi, so that was our starting point, but it had a long way to go, and that's where Rodrigo Blaas stepped in. Now, he's an animation veteran, Pixar, DreamWorks, and he did Troll Hunters, he's recently done Star Wars: Visions. He's a phenomenally brilliant animator and storyteller and he understood how to take Keith's concept and he bought the influence of it, he brought that storyline, and that allowed us to structure a film that would entertain children but could reach in to the whole climate piece, the deforestation piece, and start to engage parents. But really what is at the core of this film actually, as a parent, is the relationship between parents and their children on subjects like this. Because there is a line in the film where Ozi says to her father “You're not the father I remember,” and that is a really punchy line. And I think at the moment, children want to have this debate because they're learning it in schools. It's something that's going to affect their world quite dramatically, and really, what this does is it explores climate change and how we deal with it between children and between parents. And inevitably, the older you get, you do get slightly more stuck in your ways, and you do have more to lose. Whereas children think really simply, they have real clarity about issues.
Dickon: Did the environmental theme of Ozi play a role in attracting the cast to the project? Were there any particular cast members who were especially passionate about the film's message?
Adam Stanhope: It plays a huge role because we always wanted the film to be honest. We wanted people who were working on the film to believe in the cause, and they did. And that is just the same for the cast. They're just people who work on the film. If you strip it all down. When we started casting this, it was a really critical part of what we were asking people for. And it was in the brief - Leo's clearly and Mike are involved in it. So the first cast member we had is Donald Sutherland, who sadly died recently. So this film is in memorandum of Donald. He was our first cast member. Mike Medavoy used to be his agent and brought him into the film. And he told a really beautiful little story, he lives in Canada, very proud Canadian, it's the Boreal Forest which is a magnificent thing. And he said, you know when I drive back to my house the trees are all along the side of the road, but if I look a little bit harder there's no trees behind them anymore and there used to be. It used to be a forest, and now it's just a single line of trees that they’ve kept just so we don't panic too much about it. So he was really motivated, and that set the piece. Amandla Stenberg is, you know, she's an activist, she's a very interesting, powerful individual. Laura Dern, very interested in the subject. It ran right through the cast. You've got to have people who believe.
Dickon: For anyone who has seen the trailer, they'll note that there is a pretty big title song attached to the movie too. How do you think harnessing music in this way can contribute to mobilising people on environmental and climate-related issues?
Adam Stanhope: I think this song, it's a great song it's written by Diane Warren, who is a legendary songwriter, recipient of an Academy Award, and 14 Oscar nominations. She's written some great songs, and is a passionate environmentalist. That's why she took this project on. We turned up our office, we started showing her the film, and she just went, “Right, I'm in.“ And two weeks later, we have a song. And if it's a Diane Warren song, it's going to be anthemic, it's going to be big, it's going to be passionate, it's going to get the heartstrings. And then Diane took it a stage further and brought in Tiwa Savage, who is an amazing artist in the Afro beats area. So we're very proud to have I think it's the first Afro beats title song in a big film. But Tiwa bought more passion, more energy, and what it will allow the film to do is operate in non-visual medium because you hear the song, you know where it's from. So we have a music video that is beautifully shot with Tiwa performing the song. But it's also got some of Ozi’s animation cut into it. The idea is to turn the song into an environmental song, that's what that song was written for by Diane when she first saw the film, she went away and was captivated by you know one heart can change the world. And we want people to engage in the climate but in a way that calls people to say we want better, we want solutions, we don't want negativity, we don't want all of those things, we just want a positive solution and I've sat and listened to some really really intelligent people with very good ideas as to how this problem is sorted out but there has to be political consensus to take you towards positive climate change policies. And if you don't attend to that political consensus all of those great ideas will not happen because people won't engage with them. So this film really is soft lobbying and the song will be an incredibly important part of that.
Dickon: Professor Ed Hawkins' warming stripes are on display in the artwork of the film what informed the decision to include them and what do you think they bring to the table for audiences?
Adam Stanhope: Well, I think they are the story of the film if you take it right back. This is a film about climate change it's about what's happening in our environment and we've taken one aspect of that, which is deforestation. So the stripes are really there to say to people, “look this is what's happening here”, it's part of the story in this film, so you need to understand the context of that. Those stripes are a piece of genius because they're incredibly graphic, you don't need to read a whole load of words, you just need to look at them. As soon as you have those stripes, I've got a Reading University badge with the stripes that I wear on my lapel and they create a dialogue, people come up to you and say “Oh, I see you've got the stripes” or, “What are those?” and that creates a dialogue, so we wanted to have them on the film and they'll be on all of our films. Because that's what we're trying to communicate about. We've spoken with Ed and we've spoken with Reading at length. I find them an absolute pleasure to talk to. What they're doing is so incredible, they've created effectively a global brand that communicates brilliantly and it's a fantastic thing. They very kindly featured our trailer, their last climate change day, which was a couple of weeks ago down in Reading. We're very proud to work with them because these are proper scientists doing proper work, so it's a real privilege to have them like the film to be able to show their work to as wider audience as we possibly can.
Dickon: Did you collaborate with any environmental organizations or climate experts beyond reading during the production of the film and if so how did their input shape the final product?
Adam Stanhope: Okay, so Reading our our climate partner but we have two other critical partners. They are both charities. They both operate in the area that Ozi is from. One in Kalimantan, one in Sumatra. And they are the people on the ground, they are the people that we hope will be able to leave a legacy of improvement in those areas because they are built into the backend of the film which means that they’ll earn out of its success. And we want to leave a legacy. That’s why we’ve done this. We want to educate people, entertain people, and leave a legacy. And they are there to do that. They're also experts in this field. And in the case of PanEco and SOCP, they have a thing called Orangutan Coffee, which is a social enterprise based in Sumatra. And then IAR have their amazing work in Kalimantan. It's really humbling, actually, when you see what these people are doing in the markets they are. And that has energised the filmmakers, because we've just said to them, “Look, this is what's going on. Here's the real footage. Here's what these people are doing. You can talk to them, and they will give you feedback on, is the film right, technically.” Every time I talk to them, if my batteries are feeling a bit flat, I can charge up on them. They have energised everybody throughout this process. So, their role in this film is unbelievably important.
Dickon: So then looking ahead, beyond Ozi, what's next?
Adam Stanhope: The next film is Ocean, which I'm really, really excited about, actually. The more you get into our ocean, the more you realise just how fundamental it is. So whenever we go into space looking for new life, what's the thing we look for? It's water because that is the sign of life. So, we do all of this fantastic space exploration with satellites going out light years away from our planet and yet we have our own water here. We need to pay attention to it. It is the origin of all life on this planet and it seems to us that we're doing our damnedest to damage it, destroy it, take it for granted, not look at it. We've all become too disconnected from it. And there are some continuing threats and new threats beginning to arrive on the horizon. One of which is deep sea mining, and that's something we want to directly address in the way that Ozi directly addresses deforestation. And that's the next film, and that's in development now. It will have a similar structure to Ozi, in terms of it will be a family animated film, it should be entertaining, it should be fun, it should be scientifically very accurate, but above all, it should be an entertaining piece that tells a story. And it will be “Voice of the Ocean.”
Dickon: Based on your experience of making this film. What advice would you give to other people seeking to create content with a strong environmental message?
Adam Stanhope: Well, I think the first thing I would do is just thank them for caring enough to go out and try and do this, and for sharing it with people. Because it needs to be done. For me, it comes in two bits. There are the documentary makers, they're doing really serious research, and I think the outcome of those is going to be different from people who are making environmental pieces they're going to deliver large audiences. And I think you have to split that. But I think above all, you've got to find ways that you can make the messaging relatively simple, not wordy. It's got to have a story, and you've got to let people engage in it. Now if you can do those four things, I think you'll make a piece that will work. It has to fulfill those four criteria.
Dickon: What kinds of challenges did you meet during the production, and then now running up to the launch of the film? And how did you navigate those?
Adam Stanhope: Because we set out to find a team of people who wanted to work on this, who felt there were benefits to be had, animators that wanted to use their skills on a film that was going to highlight an environmental issue rather than sell plastic toys, that ran very smoothly because we had a really dedicated hardcore team. When you take that out into the world of distribution and to theatre owners, for them, it just becomes a commodity. And it's a commodity that they find a little bit complicated because this is an unknown product for them and they're challenged by it. And they don't necessarily believe with the belief that you have, that it can work. So, you've got to listen to what they say, try and meet them in the middle ground, but keep your integrity. We've got to be able to say to people that we think this film can do well, because actually our research shows that there is in fact a big audience that are interested. You could see the amount of green votes at the British election we had recently. It was a very large amount of people that voted green, and I think people do want to see solutions being offered that we can all buy into. I don't think they want to be shouted at anymore. I think they want to be said, “Here's an opportunity to do something that moves us in the right direction”, I think a lot more people are interested in doing that than perhaps we imagine, and that's why I'm optimistic. Because we're standing right on the edge of the cliff and if we take a step to the left, we're going to go over the edge of the cliff, and it's a very long way down. So, one of the things we've had immense arguments with is sort of worksheets and printable things that people can colour in and do all of those sorts of things, because every animated film has those. But if you're asking people to print things at home, it's a whole morass of bad things you get into that you really don't want to do, because we believe we're trying to do the right thing, so please don't do the wrong thing on our behalf. We talk to lots of people, and they're very good at what they do, but they won't see beyond how you market a film, how you do this, how you do that. “Oh, you can't do this!” So, a really good example on the four-sheet poster, that's the usual shape poster that looks like a movie poster. It's got the credit block on it, and you know you just know from looking at it's a movie poster. So we've got the forest at the top, beautiful forest, Ozi, her friends, and then at the bottom, we've got some bulldozers and a bit of fire, and yeah, maybe the other side of the story. So the film experts looking and say, “You can't do that.” And you say, “Why not?” “It's threatening.” So, half the posters running across Europe have a bit of destruction on the bottom of them, and half of them don't, because the distributor just couldn't get their head around it even though they knew the film was going to be granted a PG certificate in the UK. They found that difficult to get on with. So there's a whole load of things that happen that you don't even think about. The censorship along the way is incredible. I mean, I've had some extraordinary conversations with people. We have the climate change stripe on the poster, and we've got a lot of stuff, and then the sales agent says, “Oh, you can just take that blue band off, can you?” I said, “No, that's the message of the film. Why would I take it off?” “Oh, because you know it's it's just a thing nobody understands it.” I said, “So, we put it out there, I accept that they don't understand it, but then they ask the question, what is that? That band with those colours on it?” And you start a dialogue. It takes less than three percent of the poster space, you've got your 97%, just leave it on. It's difficult preventing people from keeping the truth in the film and just turning it into, yeah, another animated film. You know, calling it things like “The Great Jungle Adventure,” well, for a start, orangutans don't exist in the jungle. They exist in forests and there's a big difference, so that's my first point. But it isn't an adventure, it is the voice of the forest speaking out on behalf of the forest, so even naming the film, because obviously it's going to be translated into lots of different things, explaining the difference between a jungle and a forest does it really matter? Should I get that motivated about it and I think, “Well, the reason I should get motivated about it is probably because in one of the markets where that is a debate and where we've had to push, there’re going to be people that know that jungle is the wrong word and a forest is the right word, and those people are going to cast aspersions on the rest of the film and they're going to come at it from a scientific point of view which is perfectly reasonable and they're going to say, “If the filmmakers don't know it's it's a forest, not a jungle. The rest of it just must be utter rubbish because they don't even know that.” And we do know that. We absolutely know that. So, I then have to explain that to the distributor. And then they'll turn around and say, “Yeah, but many people in my country, Central and Eastern Europe in particular, think that a forest is something that we have and a jungle is something that exists in somewhere hot, like where your film is set.” I said, “I understand that. But could we settle on rainforest?” One of my favourite things, things actually, the BFCC, they certify films and they've given us a parental guidance, PG certificate, not a U. Now, the truth is, it actually doesn't make that much difference in terms of who can and can't go to the cinema. All they're saying is that some people might feel slightly frightened by this film and want to have their parents there. I'm happy with that. But the most interesting thing is that they put two words that sum up the film. And for us, it was mild threat. Now, I, I would have thought this is existential threat myself. But, you know, it made me laugh when I saw that, when I saw their certificate, it just said mild threat. I thought, really? I would have thought climate's quite an existential threat, but we'll leave it there.
Dickon: What's the single most important aspect of communication that we should be paying attention to in our climate communication endeavours?
Adam Stanhope: Relevance. Make it mean something to people. If you put it too far away conceptually, you can't get to it.
Dickon: What's the biggest mistake that you see communicators make when attempting to engage the public on climate change issues?
Adam Stanhope: Too angry, too wordy, too scientific. And it isn't because they don't care, because they do care, but you have to be generous with your audience.
Dickon: It was fascinating talking to Adam for this episode. But what in particular stuck with you from our conversation? What will you take from it and apply to your own work? For me, it was the mention of test screenings. For many of us in marketing who have experience with focus groups and iterative digital advertising strategies, the idea of getting our content out there for proof of concept is pretty standard. But is that true for everyone? How much do you test your content in the field before launching a broader campaign? How could doing so help you refine your messaging, your targeting, and your budgeting? Then, it's the value of having local partners on hand to guide and validate your work. Just like the focus group, it's a proof of concept. It can help us avoid making mistakes, spending money promoting something that isn't fit for purpose or simply looking a bit silly. Thinking back to the previous episode with Wawa Gatheru, I'm reminded of the lengths that she went to collaborating with her audience to generate the most effective offerings for them. This is such an important part of the process. So that's what I'll be taking with me. But how about you? What did you hear? What will you be incorporating into your communications endeavours? Thanks to Adam Stanhope for sharing his time and experience with the show. It was great. You can find links to some relevant resources in the show notes. Thanks also to you for listening to Communicating Climate Change. If you enjoyed this episode, why not leave it a rating or a review? Your feedback not only helps to shine a light on the guests and themes that resonate with you the most, but also boosts visibility, meaning the series reaches more people, expanding the community and driving the conversation forward. You can find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts or by subscribing so you never miss out. You can find Communicating Climate Change on LinkedIn too. And if you think the series would be of interest to friends or colleagues, why not point them in the right direction? Remember, each and every episode attempts to add to our toolkits to help us develop the strategies and the resources that we'll need for this gigantic task. So be sure to stay tuned for more. For anything else, just head over to CommunicatingClimateChange.com. Until next time, take care.
