“When you know, you care. When you care, you can change your actions”…
X Trillion is a project that came to us at Dirty Looks via the producer Verity Wislocki. It’s the story of 14 women who embark on an adventure across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Canada, via the great Pacific garbage patch. These women from various walks of life have a common thread: they are experts in their field – scientists, activists, packaging designers, circular economists – all with the same pursuit to get answers and see for themselves.
Throughout this journey, they collect water samples to find macro and micro plastics, studying the impact on fauna and flora as well as showcasing how, even miles and miles away from any lands, human waste still exists. You sometimes cannot see it, but the plastic is omnipresent.
The shifting colours of the ocean
Claire Winter, Colourist: Eleanor faced a lot of challenges while filming. As the sole filmmaker on the boat, and with one small camera, she had to deal with the constantly changing weather and light conditions that comes with a trip across the North Pacific Ocean. Although she has said that the small unobtrusive camera allowed for subtle observance, and therefore more natural responses from the crew, it did create some challenges in the grade.
As the film was shot over a month and a half, there was plenty of matching to do within sections. We were amazed at how the colour of the ocean changed so much, from rich blue to cold grey, not to mention the ever changing sun, often stark and bright. We wanted to match these changes as seamlessly as possible within scenes, to prevent too obvious jumps, but we needed to respect these changes too – which showed the variety of conditions that the crew of the boat had to deal with!
We decided early on that we wanted the film to be colourful but naturalistic.
We discovered that blue and red made frequent appearances throughout, and this became our colour theme, enhancing it where we felt we could. The plastics pulled out of the ocean needed no enhancing, garish enough on their own to show that they didn’t belong in the grey sea.
Some of the most beautiful scenes were shot at night, with silhouettes and natural blues and sunrises which were colourful enough to not require enhancing. All in all, it was a challenging but enjoyable film to grade, and we hope that the grade supports but doesn’t distract from the narrative and messages in the film.
They show us what we can do at our level…
Agathe Boulous, DI Producer: As well as being a beautifully shot and edited documentary, this is also a fascinating subject and something we all care about. It’s near impossible nowadays not to be aware of the effect our day-to-day lives have on the planet. We have all heard of global warming, pollution, the need to recycle, upcycle, reuse…We try to do our best to reduce our single-use plastic, but this kind of film is an important reminder why.
During intimate chats or PowerPoint presentations, they ask the right questions, raise legitimate concerns, and at times give us some answers. Using their various skills, they show us what we can do at our level, whether at a professional or personal level
The planet is personally one of my many concerns, the ocean even more so as I was privileged enough to grow up on the French Atlantic coast. I cannot conceive of a future where the ocean is not freely available and safe to swim in. In this sense, I found X Trillion terrifying at times yet hopeful at others.
It’s pretty sad the state we’ve let it get to, but on the other hand, these women are doing such a wonderful job at shining a light on the problem, helping with research, and also educating us all. I found the moment when Michelle, the packaging designer, realises that her job can have such a massive impact in stopping plastic use at the source. There is also another moment when one of the women explains how her children are mimicking her taking samples from the water after seeing her doing so for her research. All those little moments are what will get us to tackle the problem, which unfortunately will take multiple generations to solve.
X-Trillion is currently on tour across the UK. Find a screening near you https://www.xtrillionfilm.com/screenings