Competition: Communicating Climate Change Through Visuals

SUBMISSION DEADLINE WAS AUGUST 31 2011

The jury picked Andrius Kirvela and his team as winners. Congratulations!

To all participants: The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges wishes to thank you for all the wonderful and creative ideas submitted to our competition!

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SUBMISSION DEADLINE WAS AUGUST 31 2011

The initial announcement:

Create the best idea and storyboard illustrating the statement
EMISSIONS FROM HUMAN USE OF FOSSILE ENERGY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE

And win 500.000 NOK to develop your idea

COMPETITION BRIEF

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges invites you to participate in a competition that aims to create a short animation, film or slide show that communicates the issue of man-made climate change in an exceptionally good way, illustrating this statement: "EMISSIONS FROM HUMAN USE OF FOSSILE ENERGY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE"

Studies have shown that not enough people truly understand and/or accept this statement. Your piece should surprise, awaken and educate people about the issue. We wish for eye-openers that give viewers the reaction

• Aha!

• So this is what it is all about!

• Something has to be done about it!

• I have to share this with the people in my network!

COMPETITION STAGE ONE
Stage one is open to all. Participants are asked to send in an idea, storyboard and documentation of previous creative work. If your submission is satisfying and we see that your idea has viral potential - that is, has the ability to spread quickly through the Internet and social media - then you might be chosen as one of three finalists to develop your idea further.

COMPETITION STAGE TWO AND THREE
The three best proposals will receive a sum of 100.000 NOK to develop them into final pieces. The best of these three will receive 500.000 NOK for the further development and implementation of their piece. In these two phases, a climate researcher appointed by the Foundation will work with you to verify and quality check the science used in your piece.

CONTENT

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges wishes to provide tools for communicating the climate issue to the general public that are available universally. We envision an electronic presentation that can either simply be viewed online, or be downloaded for free to use by anyone who is interested in and who wants to help spread knowledge about the issue.

• make sure your proposal explains man-made climate change in general terms

• your proposal should illustrate the human contribution to global warming more than the effects on ecosystems and human activities

• please do not focus on specific cases (e.g. why a specific forest in your country has become a desert). If you use a specific case, use it in a general way as an illustration of the issue

• proposals should be more about the relationship between use of energy and global warming than telling people to stop using energy

YOUR SUBMISSION MUST

• be suitable for a broad target group, meaning understandable to anybody with no knowledge about global warming

• be innovative/creative - triggering/motivating/engaging - surprising/humouristic

• differ from earlier published material pertaining to the issue

• be informative, i.e. the audience must be left with a sense of having learned something new, or seen a better explanation of something they already new

• be correct according to science acknowledged by the UN (IPCC)

• be feasible, i.e. the proposal must be possible to realize within the given terms

• all content must be your own original work

• be in English

TARGET GROUP

The target group is, actually, everybody! We wish to engage the young and old, the common man and world leaders. Tall order, but we believe it can be done!

FINAL PIECE

Participants are not to submit final pieces In the first phase of the competition, but it is important to explain exactly what kind of end result we are looking for.

MEDIUM
The final piece can be in the medium of your choice, and can be conventional or experimental in form:

• motion graphics

• animation

• film

• slide show using infographics, illustrations, photography, etc.

• new, experimental ways of communicating

THE FINAL PIECE MUST

• last no longer than 3 minutes

• be light enough to be downloaded quickly

• be suitable for distribution through electronic media and communication channels

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges will hold the copyright to the winning pieces, with the rights to distribute and communicate all three free of charge.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Anybody can participate, but the final result must have the highest possible quality. Creative professionals (graphic designers, animators, film directors, commercial directors, web designers, etc.) will have the best potential to win. However, if you are an amateur whose work is naïve but has something that captures our eye, then your proposal may just win!

TEAMWORK
If you have a great idea but do not have the skills to realize it, you can team up with a creative person of your choice. Participants MUST have someone on their team who can realize the proposal.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

• Download competition announcement

PERSONALIA

• name, surname

• telephone number (incl. country extension)

• e-mail address

• job title

• current workplace (company name, location, website, type of company)

• link to your work online

SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE

• a short text explaining your IDEA and which MEDIUM you wish to use in the final result, max. 100 words

• a storyboard visualising your idea as a sketch, max. 5 frames

DOCUMENTATION OF CREATIVE WORK
max. 3 work samples that give a good idea of your work link to your work online (optional)

if you are not a creative but have a partner, send in your partner's work and personalia together with your PDF (see below). Participants who do not have this in order will be disqualified

FILE TO UPLOAD

Upload max. one PDF file including, in this order: idea description, storyboard, work samples. The PDF should have max. 10 pages and not extend 10 MB.

• Download competition announcement

DEADLINE

Stage 1 - submission delivery: 31 August, 2011

Stage 3 - completion of material: by the end of 2011

FACTS AND FIGURES

Find fact sheets about the statement at CICERO.uio.no

Have a look at IPCC's Summary for Policy Makers regarding their Fourth Assessment Report (2007)

JURY

The competition will be judged by an external, independent jury consisting of representatives from the fields of science, media and visual communication.

THE MINOR FOUNDATION FOR MAJOR CHALLENGES is a non-profit foundation that supports information and public opinion forming aimed at limiting human-induced climate change www.minor-foundation.no

• Download competition announcement

SUBMISSION DEADLINE WAS AUGUST 31 2011

Communicating Climate Change Through Visuals