#1: Reaching people's hearts – evoking a feeling
The remote atolls of French Polynesia have a way of slowing down time. Seeing this place the way that it had existed for millenia, with native soft wood trees and all species of colorful hermit crabs, evoked a sense of sacred stillness. The deep hues of green and the way that the shadows fell left an impression of awe and wonder. We wanted to be able to share that feeling with our audience in this piece.
The protagonist, Thierry Sommer, is rooted in generations of Tahitian people caring for and living off the islands. He and his team at Tetiaroa Society have done the impossible and are eradicating invasive pests and rodents from the island of Reiono. You can feel his lightness when he steps onto the island and begins crawling underneath roots, searching for coconut crabs. But there is also a deep sense of responsibility and purpose that he shares.
In a time when sea levels are rising and the Earth's future is in question, we need more voices like Thierry to speak out and share their joy and intergenerational wisdom.
#2: Drive attention to the changemakers – Tetiaroa Society
We wanted to help drive attention to Tetiaroa Society and its efforts. They're a group of dedicated scientists, rangers, and field researchers working to eradicate invasive pests on the islands, allowing the native flora and fauna to thrive. This model could be replicated for the restoration of other environments.
Plan of action
Imagine5 planned a documentary trip to French Polynesia to cover a multitude of stories related to sustainability and connection to Earth – this video was not a part of it. In fact, it was planned in less than 24 hours and shot in under an hour. It was only once our videographer arrived on Tetiaroa and met the guides there that he learned about the possibility of visiting an outer island which had been completely eradicated of invasive species.
Unfortunately, Ben, our videographer only had a small window of time in the morning of his last day to execute the boat trip out to Motu Reiono. Tetiaroa Society was able to free up their best and longest-serving guide, Thierry Sommer.
Thierry was quiet on the boat ride over, but as they neared the island, his expression lightened. Once he set foot on that island, he started to open up and it was easy to get caught up in his affection for the species that live there, everything from the Yellow-footed boobies in the trees to the crabs crawling on the ground.
Execution
Because the window of time was so short, the production had to be simple. The handheld style contributes to the feeling of adventure and exploration as the audience gets invited on the journey. Thierry had a way of weaving his observations of the environment into the wisdom and advice that he had for treading lightly on the earth. As an example, he compares introduced coconut trees to the native Tahitian cabbage tree – while the coconut tree extracts all of the nutrients from the soil, the leaves of the cabbage tree compost into a rich soil, a model for the kind of circularity that nature thrives under.
Key features
The resulting feeling from the footage is immersive. The muffled sounds of the crunching leaves amongst the cathedrals of ancient trees and the way the buttery sunlit fell through the branches all made this a visual playground to capture film. This scene is teeming with life and therefore when people watch it they can connect to the beautiful life force, that mana, which is emanating from the place.
All in all, this video perfectly encapsulated what Imagine5 is all about – inspiring our audience with stories of change, conservation and hope.
Challenges faced & overcome
It was a significant challenge to pack this monumental experience from Motu Reiono into our shorter, vertical formats which our channels are optimized for. Our initial release received a lot of really positive engagement but did not gain traction with the reach that we had hoped. We fine tuned a few things in the edit to really lead with that evocative image of the blue crab, which continues to catch people’s eyes and stop them in their tracks while they are scrolling.
#1: Reaching people's hearts – evoking a feeling
We reached people’s hearts, which is the #1 goal for our storytelling. Our audience was wrapped up in the feeling of standing underneath the massive cabbage tree and imagining what it must’ve been like to hold the coconut crabs in their hands. Based on the amount of engagement, people felt a connection to the place and the words Thierry shared.
“Gratitude is what I feel watching this. We all have to learn to be humble stewards of our beautiful planet. It truely is paradise.” - @saskiahahn
“I shed a tear watching this video it’s magnificent ❤️🔥” - @satanic_gemini_
“Wow. A long reel with no overflowing content. Just peace. Thank you.” - @noarts.13
#2: Drive attention to the changemakers – Tetiaroa Society
The numbers reflect people's connection to the video and show how we were able to successfully draw attention to the Tetiaroa Society, by placing them at the centre of this piece and making it a collaborative post.
Reel stats
Organic only, incl. trial reel (excl. paid)
All in all, this video perfectly encapsulated what we're all about – inspiring people with stories of change, conservation, hope and moving them into action.
