NEW YORK, May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In February 2019, part of the MultiVu Creative team found themselves standing in the middle of the Theewaterskloof Dam in Cape Town, South Africa. With them were 12 crew members, 2 Arri Amira cameras, and a production van strategically parked to block the smoke-laden winds coming off the mountains. The landscape was both breathtaking and somewhat terrifying: mountains climbing towards the horizon, the water from the dam gently lapping the sand, the radiant sun … but those mountains were engulfed in flames, and the dam where they stood – the main source of water for the city – was only at about 30 percent capacity.
Kimberly-Clark Addresses Water Risk in Communities Around the World
The Western Cape Government takes us on a tour of the Franschhoek Water Hub, a research, technology demonstration and skills development center focused on advancing knowledge of how nature can clean polluted water and restore the health of Cape Towns rivers.
The crew interviews Jim Bath, Director of Global Environmental Services for Kimberly-Clark, in the middle of the Theewaterskloof dam.
Dimmie Hendriks, from Deltares, stands in the middle of the dam, which was once full of water before the drought.
The Theewaterskloof dam is now about 30% full. Only a year ago it was only 17% full.
The Franschhoek mountain range on fire due to the lack of rainfall.
This quickly brought them back to the reason they were all there. In 2018, after a terrible drought, Cape Town almost reached Day Zero, a day when all the city's water taps would be shut off. Even now, the residents had to let the mountain fires persist, as the lack of rain left them without enough water to fight or contain it.
MultiVu Creative was here to capture a story on behalf of its client, Kimberly-Clark, one of the world's largest manufacturers of essential consumer products. Clean water is a key input to Kimberly-Clark's tissue-making operations, and several of its mills are located in watersheds at high risk for water scarcity, including its facility in Cape Town. The company recognizes that these water-stressed communities have important social needs as well, and the video was an opportunity to help various external stakeholders to see the factors driving water risk and explore sustainable stewardship strategies.
The three-day production included filming the content of a water workshop, hosted at Kimberly-Clark's facility in Cape Town, where the company invited residents, NGOs, academics, and government officials to discuss meaningful ways to solve the water crisis and aid the people of Cape Town. To help illustrate the issue, the team was able to film the mill's manufacturing process and follow several members of the workshop to the government's new water hub and dam.
With just three weeks until World Water Day, the post-production schedule was tight. By combining 3D graphics, the pristine footage captured in South Africa, and some great storytellers, this mini-documentary met an aggressive deadline with an important mission. "Kimberly-Clark: A Water Story" ultimately won a Platinum Hermes Award, the organization's highest honor for video production.
Kimberly-Clark, in partnership with Netherlands-based research firm Deltares, continues to replicate the collaborative water workshops in other water-stressed areas.
Credits: Filmed on Arri Amira cameras and Arri Ultra Prime lenses Graphics created in Cinema 4D and Arnold Render
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