Reconsidering Fictional Films for Communicating Climate Change Issues: An Analysis of the Filmmaking Strategies Behind Sustainable Energy Narratives

Abstract

There is an increasing attention to climate change across various media platforms, and a significant role is played by fictional films. A review of the studies on visual representations of climate change in the fields of risk communication and environmental communication reveals a lack of attention to the analysis of audio-visual narratives and fictional films in particular. Through enjoyment, transportation and identification, fictional films have the potential to engage the audience and trigger emotions that can lead to action and behavioural change. As the audience is immersed in the story, they are less motivated to counter-argue with what is presented to them, leaving a better chance for persuasion to be successful. This chapter will highlight the necessity of analysing climate change films through multimodal methods, and it will demonstrate the reasons and the benefits for using audio-visual fictional narratives to communicate issues related to climate change. A project between the Department of Media Studies at Bangor University and the Department of Engineering at Swansea University gives a practice-based example to sustain these theories. The project involves the production of a short fictional film about the need of developing sustainable material to enable the use of carbon dioxide with renewable energy.