“We have everything to lose.”
DEAR MOTHER NATURE
Wyn Wiley and his alter ego — environmental advocate drag queen Pattie Gonia — are here to tell you that “Mother Natch” is hella pissed. In Dear Mother Nature Wiley uses the community of allies he has built around his persona to bring attention to a dire environmental disaster washing up on the shores of Hawaii: single-use plastics. Wiley witnesses plastic in the GI tracts of loggerhead sea turtles, engages in the Sisyphean task of cleaning up brittle fragments of beach plastic, and ultimately creates inspirational works of art out of the wreckage.
Director: Tim Kressin & Wyn Wiley
Producer: Davis Goslin
DP: Mitchel Overton
Editor: Tim Kressin
Client: REI
Partners: Pattie Gonia
Starring: Wyn Wiley/Pattie Gonia, Liz
Environmental Advocacy That’s Not A Drag
We worked with Pattie Gonia to develop a
It was jahmicah and Heather and their whole family opening up, being vulnerable, and sharing who they are with sincerity that created a film that would go on to receive a vimeo staff pick, be screened at over 15 festivals, and create a viral fundraising campaign that would be a lifeline for the shop.
Production
We spent ten days on the north shore of Maui filming with our small crew. Each new day lead us to pivot and change how we would approach the next day, allowing the documentary to flow organically. The knowledge that we gained from local experts would be added to the style of the music video and dress for filming the music video on the final few days.
We took great lengths to decrease our production teams plastic use, everything from bringing our own water bottles to cooking our own food so we wouldn’t need to order take out. The filmmaking process in and of itself became a small scale experiment in what it takes to truly rid your life of plastic.
Case Study
Depth and Breadth
One of our main challenges was breaking through the internet algorithms and extending the length of viewership for Pattie’s typical audience. We wanted this film to go deep into the plastic crisis, but also be shareable so others could join in.
In the end, we created two assets in one: a documentary that culminated in a highly shareable music video along with multiple cutdowns and teasers for social. The results spoke for themselves.
We had over 1M YouTube views on the music video alone along with 80k YouTube views and on the full length documentary. On Instagram, the views
