Sustainability
Documentary
Maersk Oil – A Gathering of Giants
Client
Maersk Oil
Sector
Sustainability
Service
Brand and reputation
Format
Documentary
Year
2015
Screened
Nat Geo, Discovery, Qatar Airways in-flight
Recognition
Cannes Corporate, New York Festivals, WorldFest-Houston
The brief.
Every summer, one of the largest gatherings of whale sharks on Earth happens off Qatar, in the waters of an oil field.
The Maersk Oil Research and Technology Centre was supporting the research to understand it, in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment’s Whale Shark Research Project. The science deserved more than a report. Maersk Oil asked us to make a documentary that could carry it to the world.
The opportunity.
Make a wildlife film that happens to have an oil company behind it, not the other way round.
The credibility of the story depended on the film standing as television in its own right. So we built it around the research expedition itself: the scientists, the open water, and the animals, filmed to broadcast standard, with the sponsor’s role told honestly as part of the story rather than stamped over it.
The work.
An Emmy-winning underwater director of photography, and the patience the subject demands.
Shot on Red Epic in open water, the documentary follows the research trip as it unfolds, pairing the underwater footage with interviews and carefully produced graphics that carry the science. Photography, animation and social content extended the film’s reach beyond broadcast.
The impact.
A corporate film that broke out of the corporate world.
A Gathering of Giants screened on Nat Geo and Discovery Channel, passed half a million views on YouTube and took awards at Cannes Corporate, the New York Festivals and WorldFest-Houston. Ten years later it still shows on Qatar Airways in-flight entertainment: a decade-old film that remains a pillar of how industry and the environment can back each other, because the company let the story be told properly.
More like this.
See all work
