ACRES

The world's sharks are quickly vanishing and it's primarily driven by the demand for shark fins as an ingredient of a status symbol soup devoured throughout Asia at weddings and banquets. Approximately 73 to 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide just for their fins. Some shark populations are already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as 99%. The outcome of further inaction will soon create a vast jellyfish soup, formally known as the ocean. To bring awareness to this issue we created an animated film using Chinese wedding banquet soup spoons. The one and only tool used for consuming shark fin soup. We adopted an animation technique called rotoscoping, hand painting each frame on a soup spoon. We then animated the story by spinning a Lazy Susan. The story told of how love often has a twisted and brutal end for sharks. Simple but effective.

The Impact: The ecological, economical, and ethical consequences of an ocean without sharks must be voiced with a more resonating collective alarm - beyond research papers and manifestos that the public doesn't even know exist. Creative alternative media, powerful documentaries, and more inventive activism can amplify a dramatic portrait of the underworld aspect of the shark fin trade along with warnings of the havoc that will result from the continuing massacre. Our film was part of instigating no-nonsense international regulations and enforcement for the preservation of sharks.