In Hot Water, created for WWF and launched at COP29, is a stop-motion film shot entirely on a thermal camera.
The film tackles the invisible crisis of ocean warming, raising awareness and inspiring urgent action against climate change.
How do you visualize something that cannot be seen?
By using a thermal camera, In Hot Water transformed heat into a vivid and tangible visual language.
Each frame required meticulous, frame-by-frame control of temperature, alongside the precise manipulation of 3D-printed replacement stop-motion models. Ovens, heat lamps, heat guns, and freezing sprays were used to achieve exact heat levels. Every stop-motion object in each frame was heated to separate temperatures, to within 0.1°C, creating vivid, layered visuals entirely in-camera.
This painstaking process mirrored the fragility and urgency of marine ecosystems, turning the labor-intensive craft into a direct metaphor for the message: “every fraction of a degree matters.”
Behind the scenes here.