This year has certainly been interesting. It seems as though each week has produced a multitude of news stories which sound as though they came out of a first-year creative writing class. In one of my areas of study – film and media – there has been much attention paid to how the industry will respond to and cope with COVID-19, and how it continues to approach the MeToo movement. Not only this, but the rapid development of technologies within the entertainment industry means the field is constantly evolving.
With the focus on the pressing and high-profile matters of the last few years, more long-term issues tend to be forgotten. Chief among these is the growing climate situation. The London film industry alone generates the same amount of CO2 as a city of 20,000 people (Sowa, n.d.). In addition to this, the industry also produces a massive amount of waste with about 95% of material used in production finding its way into the rubbish (Sáez, 2019).
The entertainment industry as a whole sustains itself in through innovation and the idea of the next new thing; a new movie, a new way of shooting, an up-and-coming star. And this filters down into the productions with new materials, new costumes, and even the prevalence of non-reusable water bottles on sets. Celebrities and the media tend to be very pre-occupied with promoting sustainable initiatives, but how can the film and television industry do a better job in its own corner when it comes to sustainable production practices?
There are a few codes of practice which productions can follow, such as this one from the Centre for Media and Social Impact and the Green Production Guide an organisation which partners with some of America’s biggest studios, including streaming production companies. Many studios now also have ‘green teams’ who oversee projects and work to make them more sustainable on individual, departmental levels (Sáez, 2019).
Catering:
Keeping a large cast and crew hydrated and fed is a massive exercise, and usually very wasteful. Food one set which is not consumed is usually thrown out and many productions rely on disposable plastic cups or bottled drinks for hydration. However Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) was one large-scale production which managed to combat this. The production gave cast and crew members reusable water bottles at the start of filming which they could refill at water containers (Lopez, 2018). When filming in the UK, leftovers from the daily catering were donated, saving about 145 kilos of food (Sáez, 2019). Leftover office supplies from the Hawaii production unit were also donated to local schools (Lopez, 2018). The discussion around global food shortages tend to focus on large scale issues and problem areas, but ensuring unused food is not just thrown out can significantly relieve the pressure, not to mention help reduce unnecessary waste. From a future development’s perspective, organising a sustainable water supply on set is as easy as organising a non-sustainable one, and whilst donating food requires a little more coordination, this can easily become part of the production team’s work on all projects in the future.
Costumes and Makeup:
Getting actors to look the part takes a lot of material, both in fabrics, makeups and prosthetics. Many productions now rent costumes, but if that is not possible, using recycled materials and organising for unused offcuts to be donated is always an option (Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2014). HBO have an environmental department which oversees its productions and developed a code of best practice. This code includes sustainable recommendations such as using makeup which has not been tested on animals and comes in recyclable packaging (Sáez, 2019). Although this is not the standard across the industry, it is a significant step in the right direction and an increasing number of makeup artists are integrating these types of ideas into their own practice. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), was one of the most sustainable productions at the time it was made and would send used prosthetic masks back to the company which produced them in a box each week to be melted down and re-cast (Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2014). The ability to recycle prosthetics means that filmmakers are still able to use them if they like the look they produce and are not forced to use purely CGI if they want to be sustainable.
Sets:
Scenery objects, dressings and sets are perhaps the most frequently discarded large-ticket item on a films budget. Whilst smaller productions usually re-use what they can to save the budget, larger productions often build new sets from scratch, and once the film wraps, the sets will either go into storage or be sent to the tip. Set items such as wooden walls can be re-painted – with environmentally friendly paint – multiple times (Sáez, 2019), and even custom-built steel structures can be recycled or returned to the supplier, as was the case with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), (Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2014).
The above examples are a few of the key areas where filmmaking can improve and become more sustainable. Although the movement for sustainable filmmaking is lead by younger generations who don’t necessarily have the same influence as more established professionals working in filmmaking (BFI, 2020), many of the initiatives to create more ‘green films’ do not require a significant change in how films are created, more a slight shift in organisation. And although historically done purely as a cost saving measure, the practice of re-using materials is well established throughout the entertainment industry. With an increasing focus on sustainability globally and many studios critiquing environmentally damaging practices in their films, it seems natural that sustainability will become of greater importance in the production process. Already we are seeing environmental departments in the larger studios, and on set personnel dedicated to ensuring productions are as sustainable as possible, so reassuringly, we can be certain that the future of filmmaking will be a more sustainable one.
References:
Bigger Picture Research 2020, Green Matters – Environmental sustainabilityand film production: an overview of current practice, British Film Institute, viewed 13 November 2020, https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability.
Lopez, L 2018, ‘GOING GREEN – Save The Dinosaurs: “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Brings To Life “Green Is Universal”’, viewed 13 November 2020, https://www.producersguild.org/blogpost/1721792/306966/GOING-GREEN–Save-The-Dinosaurs–Jurassic-World-Fallen-Kingdom-Brings-To-Life-Green-Is-Universal.
Producers Guild of America Foundation 2020, Green Production Guide, viewed 13 November 2020, https://www.greenproductionguide.com/who-we-are/.
Sáez, C 2019, ‘Eco-Friendly Practices in the Film Industry’, CCCB Lab, viewed 13 November 2020, http://lab.cccb.org/en/eco-friendly-practices-in-the-film-industry/.
Sony Pictures Entertainment 2014, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Sustainability Reel’, viewed 13 November 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiItfxVsQ1c.
Sowa, A n.d., ‘An Introduction To The Green Filmmaking Ecosystem And Sustainable Film Production’, Cause Artist, viewed 13 November 2020, https://www.causeartist.com/green-filmmaking-sustainable-film-production/.
The Space Between The Sky 