GREENPEACE
TOTALPOLLUTION: A Dirty Game
Campaign film about fossil fuel giants' sportswashing - 2023
Directed by Jorik Dozy & Sil van der Woerd
TotalPollution: A Dirty Game unmasks how fossil fuel giants like TotalEnergies sponsor major sporting events to greenwash their dirty business while continuing to add to the climate crisis - and urges audiences to stand against the exploitation of sports and the ecological harm caused by corporate interests and advocate for a sustainable, livable future for all.
Directors Jorik Dozy & Sil van der Woerd
“There is an urgent need for accountability and transformation within the fossil fuel industry to avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown - sponsoring major sporting events to greenwash their dirty business has to be stopped. In this film, we wanted to make visible the tremendous scale of our global crude oil production, and expose the extreme rate at which we are continuing to fuel our climate crisis. Together, let us stand against the exploitation of sports for corporate interests and advocate for a sustainable, livable future for all.
The Issue
TotalPollution sheds light on the pressing issue of fossil fuel sponsorship in major sporting events.
Greenpeace approached Studio Birthplace to create a campaign film that would make a ‘splash’ and expose the rugby world (and beyond) to the fact that the fossil fuel industry uses major sporting events to greenwash their image - also known as sportswashing.
Through associating themselves with these popular sports they pull the focus away from the undeniable major ecological harm they cause on communities and ecosystems worldwide. This film exposes this dirty reality.
At the core of TotalPollution is an iconic visual metaphor: to fill the Stade De France stadium in Paris with the immense volume of oil extracted by the global fossil fuels industry, and deliver the fact that every three hours and thirty-seven minutes it fills up entirely. The extraction & usage of this oil is destroying a livable future, and the film aims to wake up audiences to the scale of our consumption.
Production
The CG of TotalPollution was produced under the expert guidance of VFX supervisor Tim Smit. The production commenced early May and took 3 months to complete. A faithful replica of Stade de France was created, where, just like in the film, the first game of the Rugby World Cup will be played between France and New Zealand on September 8th, 2023. The stadium was then populated with a crowd of 80,000 mannequins and 2 rugby teams.
The biggest challenge were the massive oil simulations that had to dynamically interact with the crowds and players. Some of the simulations contained North of 1.5 billion voxels (3D pixels), which required lots of computing power and patience. Through very precise planning and digital storyboarding the team was able to complete these massive simulations within the deadline and with a very minimal crew.
Data Fact Calculation
In 2022, the global oil production averaged around 93.848 million barrels per day.
One barrel contains 159 liters - 158.987 liters to be precise.
The Stade De France has a length of 320m, a width of 280m, and a height of about 46m. Using an accurate 3d model of the stadium, we subtracted the dead space of the rounded corners, the space underneath the stands and over 80,000 seats. We measured the ‘closed bathtub’ volume of the stadium to be 2,251.641 m3.
Comparing this volume with the global oil production, the stadium could be filled 6.63 times per day, or approximately every 3 hours and 37 minutes.
Instagram Filter
To amplify the release of the film, we developed an Instagram AR filter.
The filter invites users to unmask the truth behind the colorful TotalEnergies logo.
Users can scan the logo in the real world, upon which the filter replaces it with an animated, oil-leaking TotalPollution logo.
The filter was developed in collaboration with Superposition and TimSmiT.
The release of TotalPollution faced a rocky start.
Days before the launch the press embargo was broken and the film was leaked.
A day before the launch the Rugby World Cup threatened Greenpeace with legal action if it were to release the video. On launch day TotalEnergies issued an official statement to the press, further greenwashing its image.
TotalPollution has been covered by:
Greenpeace International: Instagram | X (Twitter) | Youtube
Greenpeace France: Instagram | X (Twitter) | Youtube
TotalPollution has been featured by media:
ABC News | AOL | AP News | BBC News | Buzz | Campaign | Creative Review | Designboom | Financial Express | Forbes | France Bleu | Huffington Post | Irish Daily Mirror | It's Nice That | La Montagne | La Republique | L'Echo Republicain | La Parisien | Le Populaire | Little Black Book | National World | Ouest France | RFI | RTL | Rugby Lad | Scoop | Shots | Sport Buzz Business | Stash | Sustainability Beat | Taiwan News | The Drum | The Drum follow up | The Independent | The Independent - Irish | Washington Times | Yahoo News |