Saving the Planet TV series: Location filming across Asia

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

These words by anthropologist Margaret Mead capture the essence of TVE Asia Pacific's new regional TV series, Saving the Planet .

The series, currently being filmed on location in six countries across South and Southeast Asia, will offer glimpses of how grassroots communities, citizen groups and local media are quietly doing their bit to build better societies and a healthier planet.

When edited, the series will comprise 6 short TV films, each of 10 minutes duration.

Six projects or activities – each addressing an aspect of education for sustainable development (ESD) – were chosen from public nominations in 2007. The competition attracted dozens of entries from all over the world.

Beginning May 2008, Saving the Planet is being filmed by TVE Asia Pacific's production team working with locally engaged television crews.

Filming has already been completed in Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand during May – June. During September, filming will be carried out in Cambodia, India and Lao PDR.

"In filming Saving the Planet, we are once again following our preferred mode of working with and through locally based, internationally credentialed television professionals," says Manori Wijesekera, TVEAP's regional programme manager who is also the series producer. "This is what we call distributed TV production."

The series will go into editing and post production in October, with a likely launch date in December 2008. As with all TVEAP productions, the series will become available to broadcast, civil society and educational users without any license fees.

Stories covered in Saving the Planet series concern not only traditional ‘green’ environmental education and awareness raising activities, but a range of pursuits addressing many aspects of sustainable development.

Saving the Planet, a project dedicated to the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014), will produce, distribute and promote a TV series that will showcase innovative ESD activities that can inspire others.

But it is more than just another television series. It is an integrated communication project with capacity building, educational and online outreach elements.

In July 2007, representatives of the story custodian organisations attended a five-day workshop in Khao Lak, Thailand, that built their audio-visual and new media communication capacity. During that workshop, TVEAP’s production team agreed on plans and schedules for location filming their project activities.

Saving the Planet is implemented in collaboration with the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU),Tokyo, Japan, under the framework of ACCU-UNESCO Asia-Pacific Programme with support from the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust for the Promotion of Education for Sustainable Development.