Chapter Zero exists to equip and inspire non-executive directors to lead on climate from the boardroom and hosted a unique immersive event at FRAMELESS London that aimed to bring climate risk to life for board directors and inspire action to address it.
The experience launched alongside contributions from Lord Deben, former Chair of the Climate Change Committee, and Emma Howard Boyd CBE, former Chair of the Environment Agency and the London Climate Resilience Review.
Working in tandem with a creative director, copywriter and music composer, I helped create a compelling opening film to welcome and engage attendees. Together, we forged a narrative to make people feel the risk of climate change - and believe in the opportunity to act.
This project was built on the conviction that creativity, art, and immersive experience can do what reports cannot:
The bulk of my work was undertaken with digital tech specs but no physical site visit possible until much later in the process. With no voice-over and only on-screen text to provide the narrative, I worked firstly on the front screen as the main point of audience attention, then later configured the side screens as supporting visuals.
There was the temptation to throw lots of imagery and animation across all that screen real estate, but very quickly we identified this as being overwhelming and too showy, creating only confusion and disorientation.
3D previs
We relied on stock video imagery for the visuals, holding to a standard of cinematic quality. Identifying key themes for each of the three acts in the film, we sourced appropriate visuals to best illustrate those, balancing the abstract with the literal:
At times the imagery breaks across the three screens, and elsewhere plays in harmony, with particular attention paid to how colours work across the three screens. For one particularly sobering section we submerge the audience into darkness, before taking them back into the light:
The on-screen narrative is presented in two distinct fonts, one representing the objective voice of the film and the other a separate inner monologue of a character, our theoretical audience member, to ground the film in relatability:
Walking into the test screening I was taken aback at just how spacious the gallery room was.
As I suspected, it was interesting to note just how much of the audience’s attention was focused on the centre screen during the screening, the side screens functioned primarily in a peripheral capacity, and even then just the front third of the screen, rendering the mid-to-end parts of the screens redundant in content but important in providing ambient, sensory light.
FRAMELESS asked to retain the work as a permanent showcase for prospective clients, describing it as one of the strongest examples they had seen of content making full use of the space.
A second version of the film was produced for the Chapter Zero reception at the London Stock Exchange, attended by FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 chairs and board leaders. We decided to forego a simple 16:9 version and instead reformat the film in Cinemascope in order to retain the side screens in some capacity as a complement to the primary narrative:
"A complex topic distilled into simple, insightful messaging, delivered beautifully in a challenging immersive location. The visuals, music, sequencing and overall impact were delivered with skill and empathy."
Joanne Murray, Communications Director, Chapter Zero
"It has been an absolute pleasure working with STORO on this. A challenging brief, but the creative energy and passion for the topic that the team brought to everything led to a fantastic outcome."
Ben Pummell, Chapter Zero
"The narrative and visuals came together to create a really memorable experience. One of the strongest examples we have seen of content making full use of the space."
FRAMELESS Gallery
