Responsible Consumption and Production | Lakshmi
Dir. Lakshmi Vidyasagar
DOP | Lighting Design
2021 — Digital Cinema · 4:3 Aspect Ratio · 1536p
2021
Produced at the National Institute of Design as a creative investigation into UN Sustainable Development Goal 12, this PSA reimagines consumer responsibility not through guilt, but affection. Framed as a love letter to outgrown and worn garments, the film treats every frayed hem, loose stitch, and scuffed sneaker as a treasured memory—promising to repurpose rather than discard.
Most environmental ads try to make you feel guilty or scare you with statistics. Lakshmi Vidyasagar’s PSA is written as a goodbye letter from someone to their old things. Outgrown dresses, a lonely sock and scuffed canvas shoes get thanked for keeping the owner warm before they’re given a second life.
The voiceover treats this as gratitude, not sacrifice: “My promise to you and my promise to Mother Nature: I will not discard but I will repurpose.”
I shot it as DOP and focused on the textures that carry the memories in worn clothing.
- Close-ups. Macro shots of loose cotton weave, torn denim and fountain-pen ink soaking into paper.
- Soft light. Diffused high-key lighting kept it from looking like a commercial and gave the studio a warm, personal feel.
- Overhead shots. Flat-lay compositions show the clothes being folded, tied with twine and sealed with crimson wax, so repurposing feels like wrapping a gift.
Lakshmi Vidyasagar
Amal Zen
Jayasri Sridhar
Jayasri Sridhar
Hitesh Chaurasia