behind the scenes on our latest Pitcairn MPA films
In the ocean conservation space, the challenges we face are complex, urgent, and deeply interconnected. But often organisations only show us the finished product - without telling us how they got there. For us, sharing the process is just as important as sharing the results. It’s a vital part of our debrief - a way of documenting the decisions we made, the strategies we tested and the lessons we learned.
I’m beyond grateful to all the folk who do this - I know how scary it can feel - like we’re not supposed to show all the scrappy stuff that happens behind the scenes or that we’re giving away all our secrets. But sharing our process means we’re transparent about the messy, non-linear, and creative reality of doing this kind of work.
This isn’t the time for competition - we’re all working our asses off towards a common goal - a thriving ocean. We need to create space for collective progress, helping each other move faster, smarter, and with more meaningful impact.
We thought we’d share a little BTS from our last project with the Pitcairn MPA community 👇
The brief - Create media content to raise awareness of the marine environment in the Pitcairn Islands and the marine wildlife (with a focus on humpback whales) on an international scale, particularly with visitors to the islands, and raise awareness of the Pitcairn Islands as a location for marine science, promoting the new Marine Science Base to international researchers.
We’re incredibly fortunate to work directly with the Pitcairn community, the scientists whose research is helping shape how we protect the ecosystems and creatures in the MPA and the Blue Belt team who work so hard to support the UK Overseas Territories with the protection and sustainable management of their marine environments.
The two films were catalysed by a science expedition to Pitcairn Island, part of the “Humpback Whales of the Pitcairn islands” project led by King’s College London and funded by the Darwin Plus grant.
In 2023 and 2024, Professor Terry Dawson from King’s College London, PhD student Katherine McCoy, and Dr Tilen Genov from Morigenos travelled to Pitcairn to study the humpback whales. Our job was to find a way to blend science and story and share their work with the world. We kicked off the project with a big group call to ensure all voices were heard and we were clear on the objectives of the film.
Then we leaned into the three brand pillars that were built as part of our earlier work with the Pitcairn community as the foundation for our storytelling approach:
Positioning of Pitcairn - Our aim, with the Pitcairn MPA is to pivot away from the current positioning Pitcairn as being remote, isolated and ‘in the middle of nowhere’. Instead we shift the perspective of where it sits on the globe as being connected to everywhere via ‘blue corridors’.
Community as Custodians - We’re excited to showcase the Pitcairners as ocean educators - sharing their local ecological knowledge and experience with the world.
Nature as Family - The way we take care of nature is intrinsically linked to how we frame our relationship to the living world. Currently, almost all Pitcairn stories are human-centric - the news, the history, all the attention. What if we broadened our perspective and introduced the true locals - creatures big & small, from land and sea ? An invitation to meet the wider Pitcairn family.
Story sovereignty is another fundamental element of our work - so we ensure that scripts are co-designed and then checked and double checked with the community. Bringing the right voices to the stories meant working with MPA Officer Melva Evans for one voiceover and Dr Tilen Genov for the other.
We believe these stories should be told first-hand - even when it’s the least practical option. That meant no fancy studios or equipment and very little control of the audio - so lots of coaching from Luke (and help with solving the mystery of background buzzes from Torika, Pitcairn MPA Comms Manager and Undercurrent alumni. Thanks T!)
Our vision was to create two films that felt connected, like chapters in a book. Films that could be watched individually or back to back.
The first film centred on the research, and we worked closely with Tilen to explore how to turn often complex science into a story that’s accessible to all. We wanted to convey the vast distances humpback whales travel, so we teamed up with Pete, our animator, to bring the idea of blue corridors to life. His animation also helped audiences place the Pitcairn Marine Protected Area on the map - situated in the South Pacific Ocean, within a region that plays a vital role in the movement and protection of marine life across the globe.
We also wanted to connect the story of the whales to the story of the community - and so we looked at the similarities of the wayfaring Polynesians and the humpback whales - and realised that they travelled the waters using many of the same skills. Much of our work with the Pitcairn community has been inspired by Epeli Hau’ofa - a Tongan-Fijian writer and thinker who reimagined the Pacific not as a scattered collection of small islands, but as a vast, interconnected “sea of islands.” His work emphasised the ocean as a unifying force that binds Pacific peoples, cultures, and histories together.
The second film focused on the marine science base in Pitcairn. Our challenge was to make a film the promoted the base without it feeling like an ad. We started with a list of all the features and asked Tilen to share what those features enabled them, as a team of researchers, to do.
The film became more of a travel journal - giving us a behind the scenes view of what life is like as a travelling scientist. Both Tilen and Torika provided us with additional footage as we mapped out the script. We were also able to dive a little deeper on the work that Tilen and his team did on island- giving us a better understanding of their research methods.
Projects like these only work when we’re all committed to a co-design process. It’s definitely not the easiest or most efficient approach. But adapting to the constraints of time zones, tech issues, budgets, and deadlines is something I think we all lean into because we care so deeply about the work. We’ve said from day one that the MPA is our client, and this project felt like a beautiful way to show respect to this incredible part of the world and the great humans dedicated to protecting it.