Green Film Shooting

What exactly does Green Film Shooting mean? Recycling what has been used? Throwing paper, plastic, glass into their respective bins? Going beyond reusable coffee cups? Eating vegetarian? What does “sustainability” even mean?

Green Film Shooting magazine is always on the scene at the major film festivals and film markets to give insight into much more than our usual checklist of “green” meanings. In Cannes its founder and editor Birgit Heidsiek created and hosted a day of lectures and workshops. The level of energy consumption in the media industry is enormous. According to a study by the European Broadcast Union (EBU) two percent of all worldwide carbon emissions result from information and communication technologies… and they’re still counting! During this time of the strike is a good time to gather the forces and create new protocols for production worldwide, though perhaps especially in USA where the strike hits hardest and which uses the most energy. As European governments make sustainability a factor in what projects get funding, and the Sustainable Production Alliance — film, TV and streaming companies including all the major studios and Amazon and Netflix — has shown, tentpole movies budgeted at more than $70 million have an average carbon footprint of 3,370 metric tons per shooting day. Fuel consumption makes up nearly half of the CO2 footprint and air travel another 25%.

Two studios, The Electric Owl in Atlanta and Tage Studios in Portugal are building backlots where environmental sustainability is built in from top to bottom. LED lighting, solar panels, water refill stations, food dehydrators recycling craft service waste for relandscaping reuse are planned. In Portugal many of the same technologies are being used to create Europe’s only truly green studios. Every sound stage and facility building is designed to be a near-zero energy structure with rooftop photovoltaic panels providing electricity and rainwater recovery and reuse systems cutting down on water waste. Landscaping will be done to insure preservation of local biodiversity. At least 85% recovery of all construction waste is planned for much of the material which will be locally sourced. Portugal with its 30% tax incentive is already well developed in sustainability. They are already producing nearly 60% of their energy via renewables. It was named the Green Capital of Europe in 2020. Fast X of the Fast and the Furious franchise, Netflix’s Heart of Stone are two films already filmed in Portugal.

In our movie making world, ecological and economical energy use and resource efficiency takes place on several fronts. 1. On sets, applying a circular economy 2. Hardware development of innovative generators and power storage solutions, use of pre-owned products, repair and refurbishing for cameras, digital cinema protectors, cost-effectively retrofitting lighting and upgrading to laser projection or LED. 3. Waste management includes the procurement of product taking into consideration its supply chain and disposal protocols. 4. Catering, agricultural cultivation, food sourcing matters! Let’s take the circular economy. Film architects create worlds and when production wraps, wood, metal and plastic go into landfills. Why? To reduce costs, The Vector Project, a British company developed “stabile” set components made of cardboard. They are lighter, can be rearranged faster and transportation emits less carbon…BBC, ITV, RTL Germany and other broadcasters already use the award wining Vector boards…why not film? Alternatively, recycled aluminum goes into prefabricated components made by the Cologne-based company Johnstown. “With Speedset we need three days for a set which would otherwise take us thirty days with traditional wood construction”, says the creator John Baker. And there is no waste as the components may be reused many times. Even existing wall sockets can be used rather than electrician required new installations. This is only used so far in Germany…what a wide reach could be created! Look at the pride of sets by Wes Anderson or the makers of Barbie: Aren’t those films made for innovative set designing?

ARRI Cameras itself is expanding into The Approved Certified Pre-Owned Program (CPO) for its equipment. Its ALEXA Classic, the first digital camera, released in 2010 has clocked thousands of production hours and is still in use. Repairing and certifying repairs make the camera as good as new and takes equipment far beyond its warranty period. Pre-owned careras undergo complete technical refurbishing enabling young filmmakers, smaller rental houses and film schools access to high-end product that would normally be out of their price range. ARRI reuses even its metal shavings in creating a circular economy for repair and equipment longevity. Diesel generators on set are phase-out models. Generators, new prototypes of energy storage devices and hybrid solutions create emission free working systems. A battery supplied by Berlin-based rental company Lichthaus works emission free up to a load off 21 kW and only when more power is needed does the generator kick in, much like driving a hybrid automobile.

Mobile power generators can operate silently and be emission free. EcoBaze offered by Mobilespace, an alternative power supply for the production base was used by Christian Petzold with this year’s Berlinale feature Afire during the hot summer of 2022 in Brandenburg. In three weeks of shooting, First Unit Manager Matthias Ruppelt said, “the performance was sufficient to supply catering, makeup, wardrobe and lounges…the tank needed to be refilled every few days — that was all.”

Another new generation of mobile battery storage units that can be charged on the grid or at a car charging station is the Cinegreen mobile power storage unit which also prevents an unbalanced load for larger film productions. The system can be easily operated by just switching it on and off. It is already in use in U.K., France, Spain, Monaco, Belgiium and Morocco. Alternative fuels from fat residues and waste materials can give old diesel generators new life. Synthetic diesel obtained from hydrotreated vegetable oil is used in back-up generators to recharge batteries. Ask C.A.R.E.-Diesel, the brand-name product used by Neste, a Finnish mineral oil company. Such hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is permitted as an alternative fuel in traffic vehicles in Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria. In Germany, it can only be used as an additive to conventional diesel fuel.

As laser projectors become the norm and manufacturers stop producing lamp projectors, many exhibitors struggle with costs. Retrofitting the old into the new as the cost of energy rises is offered by a French company La Cabinerie, thus cutting costs and saving precious resources. The cost of retrofitting with warranties, safety measures and keeping the heart of the projector, the DLP engine, worth 100,000 hours of use, is about 60% cheaper than buying a new projector and saves 60–70% in energy consumption. Even James Cameron pitched in on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water by serving only vegetarian meals. The relationship between food production and climate protection, as explained by Cameron’s wife Suzy Amis Cameron, a dedicated environmentalist, saves an enormous amount of natural resources. Granted it is only a small island, but hey, “No Man is an Island” the saying goes, and so Mallorca’s new comprehensive Green Film Shooting plan, supported by a 2.15 million Euro grant from EU’s Next Generation Fund, will cover education and training, catering, waste reduction, renewable energy, transportaton and local agriculture and a plan to build a 14,000 square meter studio just outside of Palma. Media production there has already more than tripled in the last five years. This year after hosting a four day conference focusing on the exchange of technical innovation and their practical implementation, their sustainable platform for international production will see more growth while setting a benchmark for sustainability in film and audio-visual production. Scientists, artists and local communities can all interact on making production green. A prime example is the Sardenia model created ten years ago by Nevina Satta the CEO of the Sardegna Film Commission. She states that “despite the financial crisis and the high unemployment rate, the demand for training in sustainable management and leadership is high.” The European Community can unite its film commissions, artists, producers, visionaries, craftspeople, legistlators and institutions to work together sharing new opportunities for “green shooting”. Disney’s The Little Mermaid was shot entirely in Sardinia in 2022 with an extended green protocol with innovative animation techniques. #Filmmaking #International Film #Movies #Green Energy #Green New Deal