In about a month, Stephon Gabriel, 21, will be heading to New York City to work with MTV producers to fine-tune his award-winning music video, A Changing World.
The young producer wrote and directed the video last year for the World Bank's Voices4Climate competition. The competition is part of a campaign to raise awareness about climate change. Contestants entered photos, music videos and short films related to climate change issues in their countries.
Out of 1,000 entries from 116 countries, Gabriel earned first place. He was one of 19 winners from 14 countries who took home Voices4Climate awards which were presented at a ceremony at the World Bank in Washington, DC on March 1.
From start to finish, the making of A Changing World took the University of the Southern Caribbean student more than a month to conceptualise, write and shoot.
After working on instrumentals and writing accompanying lyrics, Gabriel enlisted musicians and vocalists such as David Bishop, Jhaye McKie, Daniel Dyel, Mekiael Gonzales, Jonathan Washington, Karma Ramsey and Mark Raven. Lisa Pryce, CEO of Global Image Productions, was also instrumental in the video's production. Admitting that the task of making a song about climate change sound cool was difficult, Gabriel shared some of his creative process during a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian.
"The whole concept of a science song is something corny, but I wanted something that would affect a wider crowd," he said.
For inspiration, Gabriel revisited the music of Michael Jackson and Phil Collins.
Making climate change cool wasn't Gabriel's only difficult task, he also had to learn about climate change.
"Prior to the competition I knew very little about climate change. You hear about it all the time but it's just like the place is getting warmer and there's unpredictable weather.
"But for the competition, I had to go through and learn how's its affecting everyone in the world and I realised that man's everyday living has a lot to do with climate change," he said.
Loosely defined, climate change is the significant change in weather patterns which can cause fewer or more extreme weather events. A shift in weather patterns can affect food production and rising sea levels can contaminate freshwater.
The United Nations Environment Programme sees climate change as the major environmental problem currently facing the earth. Since learning about the effects of climate change on the environment, Gabriel has made minor changes to his lifestyle to do his part. He's also started telling friends and family about the need to use energy efficiently and reduce their carbon footprints.
"I see myself as a climate-change ambassador now. I need to be an example now to others and do my small part in making people aware of what climate change is and how it affects us."
He also sees working actively against climate change as a patriotic act. Patriotism was also an aspect Gabriel tried to highlight in his video which features scenes from Toco, Piparo, Valencia, Port-of-Spain and Gabriel's hometown of Couva.
Gabriel said winning was amazing.
"The competition is on a global scale and there were over 1,000 videos. So it's really a big honour to win something on that scale especially going against people much more experienced than me," he said.
Gabriel, who also owns a production company–Gabriel Creative Studios–will be launching a record label soon, called The Monster Team Records.
To find out more about Gabriel or watch his music video A Changing World, you can visit his Facebook page under: Gabriel Creative Studios.
