Beyond Fossil Fuels - Behind The Mask

 
 

In collaboration with Beyond Fossil Fuels, Re-set, and FIND, this investigative motion piece unmasks the corporate "magic trick" of energy giant EPH. As Europe’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, EPH publicly pledged a "coal-free" transition while secretly off-booking its dirty assets into a sister company to maintain coal profits.

The production utilizes a high-stakes "theater of deception" metaphor—featuring puppetry, shell games, and optical illusions—to translate complex financial forensics into a clear, punchy narrative for global investors and policy makers. Beyond serving as a campaign centerpiece, the video was leveraged as an accountability tool during the 2025 UniCredit Shareholders' Meeting to challenge billion-euro financial ties to fossil fuels.

ASK

Beyond Fossil Fuels needed a high-impact visual tool to expose the corporate "magic trick" being played by energy giant EPH, Europe’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. While EPH publicly markets a "coal-free" transition, the reality involves a complex web of asset shuffling designed to hide 69 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions from investors and regulators. My challenge was to translate dense financial forensics and corporate restructuring into a compelling narrative that would empower activists to challenge billion-euro financial ties at the highest levels of European banking.

Approach

I developed a "Theater of Deception" visual framework to make the invisible visible.

  • Metaphorical Storytelling: Rather than relying on dry charts, I used early storyboarding to create a narrative involving a "master puppeteer" and a literal "shell game" to represent the moving of coal assets to the sister company, EPETr.

  • Visual Aesthetic: I leaned into a high-contrast, mixed-media style that mirrors the feel of an investigative dossier, using "optical illusion" sequences to show how corporate layers are used to mislead the eye.

  • Impact-Driven Design: The final motion piece was engineered to be more than just a video; it was a tool for accountability, eventually leveraged during the 2025 UniCredit Shareholders' Meeting to force a public confrontation regarding the bank's fossil fuel investments.

DESIGN

The visual identity of "Behind The Mask" was built on a foundation of Investigative Collage and Theatrical Metaphor. To maintain the tension of a financial exposé, I developed a distinct style that balances the grittiness of a redacted dossier with the fluidity of modern motion design.

  • Tactile Textures: I utilized paper-cutout aesthetics and grainy overlays to give the digital assets a physical, "evidence-based" feel, reinforcing the credibility of the research.

  • Symbolic Palette: A limited, high-contrast color palette was chosen to represent the binary nature of the conflict: the cold, corporate blue of EPH’s "mask" versus the urgent, high-stakes reality of their coal operations.

  • Narrative Continuity: By evolving my initial storyboards into a cohesive world of puppetry and mirrors, I ensured that every transition served a purpose—turning abstract financial jargon into a visual "magic trick" that the audience could intuitively solve.