Your guide to sustainability in film and TV production - page 14-15

From utilizing vast amounts of
material for film set construction
to jet setting stars on fuel-guzzling
promotional tours, the entertainment
industry is one of overwhelmingly
high consumption habits, Hannah Gal
reports.
“We are an itinerant industry likened to the
army or a circus,” comments Greenshoot
co-founder Melanie Dicks, “we arrive with
lots of trucks, offload to villages or into
communities and there is a negative side to
it in terms of the environmental footprints we
leave behind.”
Emellie O’Brien, eco manager on one of the
greenest Hollywood films ever, Sony’s The
Amazing Spider-Man 2, strongly agrees:
“You are meant to construct these sets, you
have massive amounts of people that you
have to feed and hydrate for many hours a
day, not to mention the energy to actually
light the set, in its nature it requires a lot of
waste.”
An astounding two and a half to three
thousand tons of carbon to be more precise,
but the entertainment industry is on the
environmental mend with studios worldwide
placing eco-friendliness high on the
production agenda. “It is something that is
slipping into the culture of filmmaking,” says
Mark Friedberg, production designer on The
Amazing Spider-Man 2, “it’s important to the
studio to have a green initiative.”
So alongside the customary heads of
departments meetings, The Amazing
Spider-Man 2’s production also held an
eco-friendliness briefing, ensuring that every
person on set abides by the green code;
from basic waste segregation and recycling
to using biodegradable artificial snow and
water-based smoke, sets were built using
rented, salvaged and re-used wood and
more than 490 tons of materials such as
steel and glass were recovered or donated.
There was a responsible disposal of oil
and fuel during stunt scenes, elimination
of plastic water bottles on set and even
recycling of textiles used in costumes.
The entertainment industry is no stranger
to green issues, with stars such as Matt
Damon, Ted Danson and Ian Somerhalder
founding environmental charities. Alanis
Morissette, Keanu Reeves and Woody
Harrelson are among the many celebrities
who have narrated documentaries, and
people such as Laurie David producer of the
Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth, and
Robert Redford who uses Sundance TV and
the influential festival to champion the green
cause, are all helping to emphasise the
issue’s importance and cement the major
studios’ commitment to it.
“All the main studios have strong eco-
initiatives and take this very seriously,”
says Greenshoot LA’s Amanda Scarano
Carter, who co-chairs the Producers Guild
Green Initiative (PGA Green). Greenshoot
collaborates with the big hitters on these
initiatives: Fox, Sony, NBC Universal,
Paramount, Warner Brothers, Disney and
Dreamworks are all on board.
PGA Green’s own website is a
comprehensive resource for anyone
interested in greening their production,
covering the entire filmmaking process from
locations, transport and set construction
to props, catering, lighting, sound, special
effects, wardrobe, hair, make-up and
post-production. It includes a free Carbon
Calculator and a long list of the films which
have put it to positive use, including Alice
in Wonderland, Alvin & the Chipmunks 3,
Gravity, The Hobbit, Men in Black 3, The
Muppets, Oblivion, Pirates of the Caribbean
and The Social Network. Wholly funded by
the committed studios, the PGA’s Green
Production Guide is “an effort they (the
studios) are very passionate about and so
they have managed to make it happen,”
explains Scarano Carter. “I personally have
been on monthly calls with all the studio
sustainability executives for years now and I
am constantly impressed by their innovation
and dedication in this area.”
Another prominent body to spread the
environmental word is Beverly Hills-based
EMA (Environmental Media Association). A
liaison between the entertainment industry
and the environmental community, it
runs the annual EMA Green Seal Awards
honouring eco-friendly productions and has
stars such as Daryl Hannah, Ted Turner,
Through carefully gathered figures and real life
examples, the report clearly demonstrates that going
green not just benefits the environment but also
makes sound economic sense
By Hannah Gal
What can we learn from
Hollywood productions?
and set decoration materials were sold to
other shows or donated to non-profits at
wrap. With one ton dumpsters costing an
average of $950 each, that’s a whopping
saving of $47,215”.
On another major production, Paramount
Pictures’ Noah, 100% of the steel used was
recycled and recouped by Allocco Metal
Recycling. The total amount was estimated
at 450,000 lbs. and the production made
back approximately $45,000.
“This is my 50th year in the business” says
The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s special effects
supervisor John Frazier in awe of O’Brien’s
on set dedication, “it would have been great
if they were doing it fifty years ago.”
Blythe Danner and Olivia Wilde among its
board members.
But it is not just major film studios adopting
environmentally friendly practices; theatres,
museums, art galleries, TV studios and
festivals are all taking advantage of the
extensive, growing worldwide green support
network.
The Netherlands-based Green Filmmaking
Project (a Strawberry Earth initiative)
has since 2012 been collaborating with
production companies and institutes in the
film sector and its members just attended
the Cannes Film Festival where they met up
with a growing number of countries that are
developing ways to work more sustainably
in film. France has the all-in French Ecoprod
initiative, while Germany boasts the Green
Film Initiative, as well as an organisation
called Green Film Shooting. In the UK it’s
mainly BAFTA and the BFI leading the way in
the fight for a more sustainable industry.

“The wasteful nature of film, television and
commercial productions has long been
thought of as necessary,” says Earth Angel,
co-founded by The Amazing Spider-Man
2’s Emellie O’Brien. Earth Angel not only
challenges this unjustified misconception
but fully facilitates and overseas an eco-
friendly production with on-site recycling
receptacles, electronic waste collection,
scrap material
collection
for donation,
elimination of single
use plastic water
bottles, carbon
tracking through
PGA Green’s
Carbon Calculator
and even leftover
food recovery.
“Statistics across
the industry are
hard to come by,”
says Scarano Carter, but PGA Green did
commission an eye opening cost benefit
analysis (that you can view by
)
which not only sheds light on the positive
impact that eco-friendliness can have on
a production, but also disputes the claim
made by some skeptics that “going green is
costly”. Through carefully gathered figures
and real life examples, the report clearly
demonstrates that going green not only
benefits the environment but makes sound
economic sense.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has, according
to the report, “saved 5% of its total waste
hauling expenses, or $4,732 through its
recycling and composting efforts.
Additionally, 49.7 tons worth of construction
Spider-Man’s green alterego Spidey
takes people around the set
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Sustainability in film and TV
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