CLEAN ENERGY DADS
TREATMENT BY
DYLAN MARANDA
and
WILDGIFT
Firstly, a thank you for your consideration on this project.
You have a really exciting idea on your hands. It’s tapping into something that I think a lot of people have felt needs a shift in perspective, addressing a different audience— but I haven’t seen anyone ready to make that leap to tackle it until you guys.
Brave creative— It’s what gets me up in the morning, and that’s what this is. I am going to try and lay out some ways to take this idea that one step further, but you should know that I consider all my treatments a starting point for discussion, not the end all be all. If anything feels off in here, we can talk about it on our follow up call.
All that said— let’s dive in…
My Dad is a Red Seal trades worker in Canada.
One of my earliest memories is him waking me up after night shifts— carrying me outside to see the summer fireworks over the inlet in Vancouver. To this day, I don’t know how he had the energy. But I knew every minute he spent at work was to give my brother and I a better life.
Part of my thesis as a filmmaker and artist is to show him that his effort wasn’t wasted. That I can continue his legacy of making the world a better place, while providing for my family.
This one is for Dave—
my trades Dad.
This film is about hardworking trades dads— and how they are willing to do anything to make a better future for their kids.
This is the soul of our idea— If we can capture the essence of this, we create a why for a union dad, union rep, or trades executive to change their perspective on renewables. We need to show that renewables present an opportunity to create value— economically and ecologically. We need to see that shift happen on screen. Any creative decision that doesn’t serve this soul is auxiliary.
I want to attack this film with a completely stripped back approach. To create a canvas that an individual viewer can paint their own experiences on, not something that forces a message or narrative.
I want to feel the change of our subjects perspective, showing how their consideration of renewables has created more hope for their children’s future.
Finally, in an ultimate ambition, I want to help you retie a forgotten vision of the “American Dream” to renewable industries. Tapping into familiar scenes, visuals, and iconography to show that dream not as lost— but found in a simple change in perspective in the name of what we know and love.
So how do we achieve that? Keeping things simple.
Let’s chat through it—
Scheduling wise, I think we tackle this in two shooting blocks. One “A Unit” for a 2 day shoot with a fuller crew: ready for interviews, intentional lighting tweaks, more fleshed out production support, and synced sound for dialog or diagetic sound in situation. Then a “B Unit”— an extremely stripped back crew of likely 3-5 people for an additional 1-2 days of b-roll— this will be to capture additional “day in the life” type footage of talent, static tableaux of landscapes, or small scenes that don’t require full production.
If we go with 3 as our number of Dad talent, that leaves us one day to do interviews / job site footage, and one other day to do b-roll for their “why”, which I see as a myriad of “day in the life” type shots that include their to-and-from from work and time at home spent with family.
This is a tight budget, so simplicity works in our favour— our production strategy needs to reflect that. This is going to require a minimal approach, but I think that makes our production process better. Not having a ton of moving parts on the day will make our subjects feel more comfortable on set while allowing us to stay nimble; only focusing on shooting what serves the thesis of our film. We need everyone on the same page about this, so let’s make sure we cover it in our follow up chat.
I will speak to casting, our key beats, visuals, and our approach to post-production in later sections— But know that both logistical and creative decisions in these categories keep simplicity at its core.
Time to get into the nitty gritty
😎✨🎬
Casting is going to be a integral— I would go so far as to say that involving a director in this process, and who is ultimately casted, can make or break a film like this. I am lucky to say that I have worked a ton with non-actors in projects such as these. There is nothing like getting authentic, real people to share vulnerable moments with an audience on screen. But creating an environment where they feel safe to do so is often the greatest challenge.
I want you to know I am deeply committed to finding our perfect Dads, but I want to get involved as soon as possible. Part of what helps me facilitate this environment of trust is to really dig deep with the cast right away, early in their “audition” process.
I need to get to know these dads, their stories, what makes them tick. These are things that, in most cases, often don’t make it into a final edit— but my involvement in their lives in the prep process allows me prepare effectively. To find opportunities that allow our Dads to naturally arrive at the things we want them to say without forcing the issue.
I won’t bore you with the technical specifics in my approach, but it’s rooted in my years spent as an actor— encouraging subjects to “play themselves” on screen as a way of motivating them to have what acting coach Judith Weston calls an “emotional event.” To put it simply, emotional event is when characters change in front of us. It’s a direct alteration to the circumstance of their relationship with another person, themselves, or the world.
In the case of our film, we are witnessing a change in our Dads’ relationship to renewables. But in order for us to invest in them having the courage to change their mind, or for a fellow union worker who’s watching to relate to our Dads, we need to show a defining moment of change that we can invest in.
That’s what we are aiming to see a spark of during casting, Dads who lean towards the points we want to make naturally. Then ignite that spark on the day of shooting to push us into unknown territory— that’s where the real magic happens.
First step for us will be getting a list going of exactly the points we want our Dads to make on camera, so I can get to work in prep.
I want to go over what we identified on our call as the four main points we want to capture with each talent, just to confirm we are on the same page!
- We want to see some personality— getting a sense of who our dads are as real people so we can believe in their change of mindset.
- We need to see their world. How it might be changing, and what they are trying to hold on to.
- We need to show that they would do anything for their kids, either by showing how hard they work for them or by our Dads telling us directly.
- We need an emotional event, a change in relationship with renewable energy. We need to see them understand that switching to renewables doesn’t mean changing your values or forgoing the strength of unions.
The synthesis of these 4 beats is what provides us new perspective and a way forward. This will be the blueprint for how we approach this film on the day and in the edit. If we keep these 4 beats in mind, I believe we will end up with a strong 30 second film with good pacing and a clear impactful message.