WWF stop-motion melting ice film targets world leaders at Cop26
The WWF’s Arctic Program has released a stop-motion film to coincide with Cop26.
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s Cop26 campaign follows a polar bear made of ice as it melts – a visual metaphor to remind world leaders that “once arctic ice melts, we can’t get it back”.
Photography depicting weather disasters features in the backdrop, along with the words: “The Arctic is warming at a rate three-times faster than the rest of the planet, changing the Arctic ecosystems forever and causing destruction around the planet”.
The film was conceived and produced by London-based animation outfit Nomint.
“Animations are powerful tools to tell stories with emotion in a simple, effective way,” said Andrea Norgen, senior communication manager at WWF’s Arctic Program.
“The climate crisis and the devastating effects it has on the Arctic and the rest of the world are not new, but this way of communicating the urgency to world leaders to limit global warming within 1.5°C is,” she added.
The 45-second short was produced using a combination of 3D printing, mold-making and ice-sculpting to create 500 polar bears. The film – which took a year to produce and used more than 1,000 liters of ice – was directed by Nomint co-founder Yannis Konstantindis in collaboration with motion designers Marcos Savignano and Jua Braga. Ted Regklis produced the music for the ad.
Konstantindis said the project was the most “taxing” project Nomint had worked on, both emotionally and technically.
“We completely underestimated the fact that once the ice starts melting you have no control over it, making it almost impossible to create a stop-motion film of this scale, which famously requires time between each shot,” he said. “It was especially hard emotionally, as with every melted sculpture and ruined shot we were being reminded of the devastating issue at hand and how easy it is to underestimate it.”